What are overlapping interests?

The following section ‘What are overlapping interests?’ replaces the ‘Overlapping interests’ content on pages 53, 54 and 55 of the Red Book 2018 edition PDF.

  1. Before describing the principles, policy and process of overlapping interests, it is useful to set out the Crown’s understanding of key terms.
  2. Overlapping (or shared) interests exist where two or more groups assert customary interests or cultural or historical associations over an area or natural resource that is the subject of historical Treaty settlement negotiations. Overlapping interests can exist between a claimant group and other groups that:
    • are in Treaty settlement negotiations
    • have yet to enter negotiations, or
    • have settled their historical claims.
  3. Generally, in Treaty settlements, overlapping interests processes occur between large natural groups because hapū-level interests are resolved internally within the large natural group. However, in some circumstances where there are no mandated representatives for the large natural group, the Crown and the claimant group will engage with existing representative iwi / hapū bodies (for example, Rūnanga), and Wai claimants about overlapping interests.
  4. The extent of iwi / hapū rohe are defined by iwi / hapū. The Waitangi Tribunal has observed in its Ngāti Awa RaupatuReport 1999:

... the essence of Māori existence was founded not upon political boundaries, which serve to divide, but upon whakapapa or genealogical ties, which serve to unite or bind. The principle was not that of exclusivity but that of associations. Indeed, the formulation of dividing lines was usually a last resort.

Waitangi Tribunal, Ngāti Awa Raupatu Report 1999 (PDF, 3.22 MB)

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