Many of the views I express have been addressed in the Waitangi Tribunal Report, released in August 1998, known as the Te Whanau O Waipareira Report (Wai 414).

It is clear that once the Crown determined in settling Treaty grievances, that compensation rather than a restitution approach be adopted, any discussion regarding the natural evolution of Maori culture would be constrained.

It would be constrained because the settlement creature legislated for and adopted would be a new statutory body representing iwi interest linked specifically to an eponymous ancestor.  Maori were fixated with the specific and developing juris prudence out of the Waitangi Tribunal.  Fixated to the extent that at no time did Maori look to the common law customary rights regime until the Ninety Mile Beach decision was struck down in 2006 by our Court of Appeal.

Given Treaty juris prudence, many Maori are wedded to the despicable retelling of a terrible history concerning confiscation, theft, loss, unconscionable dealing and loss of land through economic duress.  To obtain justice and relief, this story has to be told and those that organise the telling of the story and the delivery of it, have often moved on to also govern the newly created iwi organisations that have obtained compensation ...

Read the whole text [PDF 46 kb]

Read the Waitangi Claim document [PDF 565 kb]