Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements
Claims by Māori based on historic grievances against the Crown, and the claims' subsequent settlements, have been a significant feature of New Zealand politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal that it established to hear those claims. Successive governments have increasingly provided formal legal and political opportunity for Māori to seek redress for what Maori claim were breaches by the Crown of obligations set out in the Treaty of Waitangi. While it has resulted in putting to rest a number of significant longstanding grievances, the process has been subject to criticisms.
History of the Treaty
The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand, with a further 500 signatures added later that year, including some from the South Island. It is one of the founding documents of New Zealand.The Treaty of Waitangi was written in English and translated into the Māori language. As some words in the English treaty did not translate directly into the written Māori of the time, this text is not an exact translation of the English text, such as in relation to the meaning of having and ceding sovereignty. In the English version, Māori ceded any sovereignty rights in New Zealand they might have had, or might be supposed to have had, to Britain; Māori gave the Crown the exclusive right to purchase lands they wished to sell, and, in return, Māori were guaranteed full ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other possessions and were given the rights of British subjects. However, in the Māori language version of the Treaty, the word "sovereignty" was instead translated as kawanatanga. And in contradiction to the English language version, Māori retained authority and sovereignty, and did not give this to the Queen. In addition, the English version guaranteed "undisturbed possession" of all "properties", but the Māori version guaranteed tino rangatiratanga over taonga.
Around 530 to 540 Māori, at least 13 of them women, signed the Māori version of the Treaty of Waitangi, known as Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Only 39 signed the English version after the Māori language version was read to them. The different understandings of the content of the treaty led to disagreements between Pākeha and Māori, beginning almost immediately after the signing of the treaty, and contributed to the New Zealand Wars, which culminated in the confiscation of a large part of the Waikato and Taranaki.
Early settlements and claims
made the first formal statement of Ngāi Tahu grievances in 1849, one year after the Canterbury purchase between Ngāi Tahu and Henry Tacy Kemp, this land transaction was very large, 20 million acres for £2,000. Between the 1870s and the 1990s almost every Ngāi Tahu leader was actively pursuing the Ngāi Tahu claim in Parliament.In the 1920s, land commissions investigated the grievances of hapū whose land had been confiscated or otherwise fraudulently obtained in the previous century, and many were found to be valid. By the 1940s, settlements in the form of modest annual payments had been arranged with some hapū. However, hapū came to consider the amounts to be inadequate, especially as inflation eroded their value, and the Crown has conceded that it did not sufficiently seek the agreement of hapū to declare their claims settled.
Waitangi Tribunal
During the late 1960s and 1970s the Treaty of Waitangi became the focus of a strong Māori protest movement which rallied around calls for the government to 'honour the treaty' and to 'redress treaty grievances'. Māori expressed their frustration about continuing violations of the treaty and subsequent legislation by government officials, as well as inequitable legislation and unsympathetic decisions by the Māori Land Court alienating Māori land from its Māori owners.In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal to hear claims about Crown acts that were inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty. It allowed any Māori to lodge a claim against the Crown for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. Originally its mandate was limited to claims about contemporary issues, that is, those that occurred after the establishment of the Tribunal. Early claims included the "Te Reo Māori" claim. As a result of the Tribunal's report into the claim, in 1987 the government made the Māori language an official language of New Zealand, and established the Maori Language Commission to foster it. The pivotal issue considered by the Tribunal was whether a language could be considered a "treasure" or "taonga", and thus protected by the Treaty. Significant research has been undertaken in New Zealand as a result of claims being put to the Waitangi Tribunal. Much of this has been generated by iwi, a lasting example is the Ngāti Awa Research Centre established in 1989.
In 1985 the Fourth Labour Government extended the power of the Tribunal to allow it to consider Crown actions dating back to 1840, including the period covered by the New Zealand Wars. The number of claims quickly rose, and during the early 1990s, the government began to negotiate settlements of historical claims.
Typically a negotiated Treaty settlement has 'agreed historical account, Crown acknowledgements of Treaty breach, and a Crown apology' and legal extinguishment of all claims. Featured in the Waikato-Tainui Ngāi Tahu settlements in 2009 and all subsequent settlements was redress described in these three areas: a historical account of grievances and an apology, a financial package of cash and transfer of assets, and cultural redress, where a range of Māori interests are acknowledged which often related to sites of interest and Māori association with the environment.
While early Tribunal recommendations mainly concerned a contemporary issue that could be revised or rectified by the government at the time, historical settlements raised more complex issues. The Office of Treaty Settlements was established in the Ministry of Justice to develop government policy on historical claims. In 1995, the government unilaterally developed the "Crown Proposals for the Settlement of Treaty of Waitangi Claims" to attempt to address the issues and extinguish all Māori treaty claims.
A key element of the proposals was the creation of a "fiscal envelope" of $1 billion for the settlement of all historical claims, an effective limit on what the Crown would pay out in settlements. The Crown held a series of consultation hui around the country, at which Māori vehemently rejected the proposals including such a limitation in advance of the extent of claims being fully known. The concept of the fiscal envelope was subsequently dropped after the 1996 general election although it remained de facto. Despite the protest, three major settlements during were reached during the 1990s. The Minister of Justice and Treaty Negotiations at the time, Sir Douglas Graham, is credited with leading a largely conservative National government to make these breakthroughs.
In 2013 the Ministry of Justice set up a Post Settlement Commitment Unit to create a central register of Treaty commitments that were created through the settlement process when it became clear that settlements were not being actioned. Government Minister Chris Finlayson was part of this and states the purpose was to create an 'institutional safeguard' to protect settlements and support them being durable and final. Finlayson's intention was that the Post Settlement Commitment Unit on completion of settlements would replace the Office of Treaty Settlements. The register was created and Finlayson states of the register, "By the time I left office, over 7000 commitments had been entered into various deeds of settlement." In 2018 the Post Settlement Commitment Unit was incorporated into a new Crown agency Te Arawhiti. The web-portal Te Haeata was created in 2019 as a searchable record by arms of the Crown to find Treaty settlement commitments as recorded in deeds of settlement and government legislation.