In October last year we met with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, the Hon. Paul Goldsmith who invited us to indicate what we considered to be the essential things to agree in order to initial a Deed of Settlement.  We indicated three things:

1. A settlement value of $18 million;
2. Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri comfort with the wording of the formal Crown Acknowledgements and Crown Apology; and
3. Certainty on how shared redress could be delivered, given the ongoing litigation of Moriori Imi Settlement Trust (MIST).

Since then, we have reached agreement with the Crown on the first two of these items.  We are satisfied with the wording of the Crown acknowledgements and apologies, in particular their references to Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri mana and te tino rangatiratanga which are solidly grounded in the text of the agreed Historical Account which has been carefully scrutinised by ourselves and signed off by the Crown, including by the independent ‘eminent historian’, Michael Belgrave.

This important historical recognition does not mean that we seek to have exclusive rights over Wharekauri and surrounding islands and waters, or that we deny the mana of Moriori. We supported the Moriori settlement. Our desire is to build a secure future for all whānau on Wharekauri, acknowledging the common whakapapa many of our people have. Upholding the mana of Ngāti Mutunga is part of building that secure future.

MIST have raised concerns about these acknowledgements, and the Minister has communicated by letter dated 15 May to MIST and our Trust that he has been fully briefed on those concerns but does not intend to revisit his decisions to offer the acknowledgements and apologies we have agreed to.  The Minister has informed MIST that he will not ‘negotiate’ with Moriori over what he has agreed with Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri.

Latest Moriori Proceedings

On 3 June, MIST filed with the Wellington High Court an Interlocutory Application on Notice for Interim Orders that the Crown ought not to take any further action to proceed with a settlement with Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri that included references to te tino rangatiratanga o Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri.  The grounds put forward by MIST are that such acknowledgements would compromise the ability of Moriori to obtain declarations from the Courts that Moriori (and Moriori alone) have te tino rangatiratanga and customary rights in Wharekauri.  Moriori did not seek to have such acknowledgements in their own settlement which is now fully and finally settled.

Subsequent to that settlement MIST has failed to obtain its sought-after declarations from the Crown or the High Court and have appealed the High Court judgement of May 2024 to the Court of Appeal (hearing currently scheduled for March 2026).   Moriori also applied for leave to ‘leap frog’ the Court of Appeal and have their appeal of the High Court decision against their position by the Supreme Court.  After opposition from the Crown and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, this extraordinary ‘leap frog’ application was withdrawn

Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri Iwi Trust and the Crown are both opposing the latest (3 June) Interlocutory application by MIST for interim orders.   We have successfully applied to have this latest MIST Court application heard urgently – and it will be heard in Wellington on 18 June 2025.

Shared Redress

These legal developments confirm what has been plain to us since Moriori launched their High Court Proceedings in March 2023 which is that the shared redress arrangements contained in the Moriori Deed of Settlement of 2020 will not work. The Moriori submission to the High Court is that Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri have no customary interests in Wharekauri and should receive no Wharekauri redress without Moriori consent.

No shared redress for us means no shared redress for Moriori either.  As the Moriori settlement is full and final, shared redress is the only option available to Moriori under that settlement. If they deny us shared redress, they are also refusing it for themselves. The shared redress property affected by this Moriori refusal is the 50:50 ownership of the bed of Te Whānga Lagoon and Tikitiki Hill as tenants in common as previously agreed by us.

Obviously if the original shared redress proposal cannot work, an alternative is required.  The Crown has been extremely slow to accept this reality and therefore we do not have certainty about that alternative and our third condition for the initialling of a Deed of Settlement is presently unsatisfied.

Our alternative proposal, given the present MIST position, has been that the shared redress properties be vested in entities wherein only Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and Moriori could be tenants in common.  Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri would take up their ownership rights upon the passage of our settlement legislation and Moriori would take up their rights by signing a shared redress deed at a future time if they chose.  This seems to us to be the best we can do to stand by our consistent willingness to share ownership of these assets.

The Crown has not agreed to this type of arrangement but has made no other clear offer at this point.

Tom McClurg,
Lead Negotiator, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri