Heretaunga Deed of Settlement summary

Heretaunga Tamatea mandated He Toa Takitini to negotiate a Deed of Settlement with the Crown, by undertaking consultations and meetings amongst claimant groups on 25 August 2010.

The Crown conditionally recognised the mandate of He Toa Takitini on 15 October 2010 and, following further mandating hui for members of Heretaunga Tamatea living outside the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest, unconditionally recognised this mandate on 4 February 2011.

The mandated negotiators and the Crown by terms of negotiation dated 19 December 2011, agreed on the scope, objectives, and general procedures for the negotiations. On 11 June 2014, Heretaunga Tamatea and the Crown signed an agreement in principle that they were willing to enter into a Deed of Settlement on the basis set out in the agreement. Since the agreement in principle, He Toa Takitini and the Crown have in good faith conducted extensive negotiations and negotiated and initialled a Deed of Settlement.

The trustees of the Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust, the post-settlement governance entity, will manage the settlement assets.

The Office of Treaty Settlements, with the support of the Department of Conservation and other government agencies, represented the Crown in day-to-day  negotiations.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Hon Christopher Finlayson, represented the Crown in high-level negotiations with Heretaunga Tamatea.

Heretaunga Tamatea was a community of proud and self-sustaining independent hapū with an economy and polity consistent with tikanga Māori and traditional practices of the time.

In the late 1840s, Heretaunga Tamatea rangatira invited the Crown to acquire land in their rohe in the expectation of gaining economic opportunities from European settlement. During negotiations for its first land purchase in Heretaunga Tamatea in 1851, the Crown encouraged customary owners to accept a low price for their land in order to gain access to these anticipated benefits. Days before the Waipukurau deed was signed in 1851, Crown officials arranged for a large area to be added to the block without the knowledge of the area’s occupants.

During the 1850s, the Crown purchased large areas of land in Heretaunga Tamatea. In a number of instances the Crown acquired land secretly without seeking the consent of all customary owners. The Crown continued purchasing land despite being aware that its approach to negotiations was creating tensions among hapū and their rangatira, and in 1857 these tensions led to fighting in which a number of people, including leading rangatira, were killed. Following this, Heretaunga Tamatea rangatira made internal political arrangements to preserve their remaining lands, and by 1860 land sales in Heretaunga Tamatea had stopped.

The Native Lands Act 1865 provided for title to Māori land, previously held in customary collective tenure, to be awarded to no more than 10 individual grantees as absolute owners (the ‘ten-owner rule’). The hapū of Heretaunga Tamatea understood that individual grantees were to act as trustees for their wider communities. However, the Native Lands Act 1865 enabled the shares of individual grantees to be alienated without the consent of the other grantees or other right-holders not named on the title.

The Native Lands Act 1865 did not prevent some settlers using practices such as extending credit to grantees, and then using those debts to acquire the freehold of grantees’ shares. Some observers stated that many of the grantees who took goods on credit or signed mortgages were pressured to do so, or did not fully understand the potential ramifications of the documents they were signing. By such means, Heretaunga Tamatea hapū were soon dispossessed of further large areas of land. After 1865, the Crown and private parties also purchased a number of the areas that Māori had asked to be reserved from the sales of the 1850s. Other reserved areas became the subject of long-running disputes due to surveying errors or a failure to complete surveys.

The Crown was slow to address the dispossession of hapū under the ten-owner rule despite strong protests from the hapū of Heretaunga Tamatea. Those measures it did take provided little relief for the hapū of Heretaunga Tamatea because they were not retrospective, or did not apply where land had already been alienated.

In the 1870s, Heretaunga Tamatea rangatira established the Repudiation movement which sought to revoke earlier land transactions, and to address broader issues around the alienation of Māori-owned land by promoting collective decision making and political organisation. This movement was soon taken up by a number of other North Island tribes. In the 1880s and 1890s, the Kotahitanga movement adopted a similar approach, and in 1892 the first Māori Paremata (Parliament) was held at Waipatu near modern-day Hastings.

By 1900, approximately 1.2 million acres out of 1.4 million acres of Heretaunga Tamatea land had passed from Māori ownership, mostly through purchases carried out by the Crown. In the early 20th century, the Crown continued to purchase Māori-owned land in Heretaunga Tamatea, until by 1930 approximately 6% remained. During the 20th and 21st centuries, Heretaunga Tamatea hapū and whānau have suffered social, economic, and cultural marginalisation, and today more than half of their people live outside the traditional rohe.

Cultural redress recognises the traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual association of Heretaunga Tamatea with places and sites owned by the Crown within their primary area of interest. This allows Heretaunga Tamatea and the Crown to protect and enhance the conservation values associated with these sites.

Sites vested in Heretaunga Tamatea

The Deed of Settlement provides for the vesting of five Crown owned sites to Heretaunga Tamatea. The settlement legislation will vest these sites in the post settlement governance entity, Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust, on settlement date.

The following sites will be vested in fee simple in Heretaunga Tamatea:

• Blackhead property
• Omahu property
• Parimāhu Beach property

The following sites will be vested as a recreation reserves in Heretaunga Tamatea:

• Lake Hatuma (Whatumā) property
• Pūrimu Lake property

Vest and gift back

• Cape Kidnappers Gannet Protection Reserve
• Cape Kidnappers Nature Reserve

Overlay classifications

An overlay classification acknowledges the traditional, cultural, spiritual and historical association of Heretaunga Tamatea with certain sites

of significance. Overlay classifications apply to conservation land and require the New Zealand Conservation Authority (and any other relevant conservation board) to have particular regard to Heretaunga Tamatea values and protection principles. The settlement provides for the following overlay classifications:

• A’Deanes Bush Scenic Reserve
• Cape Kidnappers Gannet Protection Reserve
• Cape Kidnappers Nature Reserve
• Gwavas Conservation Area

Statutory acknowledgements

The Statutory Acknowledgements are acknowledgements by the Crown of statements by Heretaunga Tamatea of their special cultural, historical, or traditional association with certain areas of Crown-owned land.

These acknowledgements are recognised under the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.

The authorities who give resource consents under these Acts, the Environment Court and Heritage New Zealand, must also have regard to these statements for certain purposes.

The Deed of Settlement provides for 27 Statutory Acknowledgements covering:

• Clive River and its tributaries
• Elsthorpe Scenic Reserve
• Hiranui Scenic Reserve
• Inglis Bush Scenic Reserve
• Kāhika Conservation Area
• Karamū Stream (with official name Karamu Stream) and its tributaries
• Part of Kāweka State Forest Park (with official name Kaweka State Forest Park)
• Māharakeke Stream (with recorded name Maharakeke Stream) and its tributaries
• Mākāretu River (with recorded name Makaretu River) and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest
• Maraetōtara River and its tributaries (with recorded name Maraetotara River)
• Maraetōtara Scenic Reserve (with official name Maraetotara Scenic Reserve)
• Maraetōtara Gorge Scenic Reserve (with official name Maraetotara Gorge Scenic Reserve)
• Mātai Moana Scenic Reserve (with official name Matai Moana Scenic Reserve)
• McLeans Bush Scenic Reserve
• Mohi Bush Scenic Reserve
• Monckton Scenic Reserve
• Ngaruroro River and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest
• Parkers Bush Scenic Reserve
• Pōrangahau/Tāurekaitai River (with recorded name Porangahau River) and its tributaries
• Ruahine Forest (East) Conservation Area
• Part of Ruahine Forest Park
• Springhill Scenic Reserve
• Te Aute Conservation Area
• Tukipō River (with recorded name Tukipo River) and its tributaries
• Tukituki River and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest
• Tūtaekurī River (with official name Tutaekuri River) and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest
• Waipawa River and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest

Deeds of recognition

Deeds of recognition require the Crown to consult with Heretaunga Tamatea, and have regard for Heretaunga Tamatea’s special association with a site or place and specify Heretaunga Tamatea input into the management of those areas administered by the Department of Conservation or the Commissioner of Crown Lands.

The Deed of Settlement provides for 20 Deeds of Recognition covering:

• Clive River and its tributaries
• Elsthorpe Scenic Reserve
• Hiranui Scenic Reserve
• Inglis Bush Scenic Reserve
• Kāhika Conservation Area
• Karamū Stream (with official name Karamu Stream) and its tributaries
• Part of Kāweka State Forest Park (with official name Kaweka State Forest Park) Maraetōtara Scenic Reserve (with official name Maraetotara Scenic Reserve)
• Maraetōtara Gorge Scenic Reserve (with official name Maraetotara Gorge Scenic Reserve)
• Mātai Moana Scenic Reserve (with official name Matai Moana Scenic Reserve)
• McLeans Bush Scenic Reserve
• Mohi Bush Scenic Reserve
• Monckton Scenic Reserve
• Ngaruroro River and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest
• Parkers Bush Scenic Reserve
• Ruahine Forest (East) Conservation Area
• Part of Ruahine Forest Park
• Springhill Scenic Reserve
• Te Aute Conservation Area
• Tūtaekurī River (with official name Tutaekuri River) and its tributaries within the Heretaunga Tamatea area of interest

Relationship statement

The commitment to a post-settlement relationship with each of the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Social Development, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Place name changes

The Deed of Settlement includes a commitment to make 11 name changes.

This redress recognises the losses suffered by Heretaunga Tamatea arising from the breaches by the Crown of its Treaty of Waitangi obligations. It will provide Heretaunga Tamatea with resources to assist them in developing their economic and social well-being.

Deferred  selection properties

Heretaunga Tamatea has the option to purchase six Office of Treaty Settlements Landbank-owned properties but does not have to confirm an intention to purchase these before settlement. The decision to purchase can be deferred for up to 18 months after settlement date.

Right of first refusal (rfr)

Heretaunga Tamatea has a right of first refusal for 174 years over the Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison.