New Zealand: Ngāti Tūwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Act 2005

Summary

The Ngāti Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Act of 2005 relates to breaches by the Crown of its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. In particular, the confiscation of most of the land within the tribe’s traditional territory, the inadequacies of the Compensation Court process, and the subsequent alienation of the remaining lands that were subject to the native land laws and Crown purchasing.

The Act recognizes the impact of the Crown’s breaches on the people of Ngāti Tuwharetoa, particularly relating to the Tarawera River and its waters (see schedule 8 of the Act). Schedule 8 notes that the iwi living along the banks of the Tarawera River were spiritually and emotionally bound to and physically sustained by its waters, holding healing ceremonies by and in the river.

Background
The history of the interaction of Ngāti Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) and the Crown was detailed in the Waitangi Tribunal’s Ngāti Awa Raupatu Report, published in 1999. The loss of land had an impact on access to costal and swampland resources that traditionally provided food, medicine, and shelter. They were further aggrieved in the twentieth century by the draining of the Rangitaiki swamplands and other environmental modification and pollution, which had an adverse impact on the traditional lands and wāhi tapu (sacred sites) of Ngāti Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty). They also lost control of and access to some of their urupā and significant sites, such as geothermal resources at Kawerau, which was an important spiritual and cultural site.

The Act provides an agreed historical account and Crown acknowledgments, which form the basis for a Crown Apology; cultural redress; and financial and commercial redress.