Reuben P. Chapple: Bogus Ngati Whatua Settlement
The recent Crown-Ngati Whatua Treaty settlement is yet another example of how an iwi elite has gamed the system – aided and abetted by an overwhelmingly liberal political, bureaucratic, academic, judicial, legal, and media elite, who want to be able to look in the mirror and give themselves a big hug for ‘saving’ the Maori.
In point of fact, the Crown’s dealings with Ngati Whatua o Orakei are a house of cards resting entirely on an uncritical acceptance of the tribe’s claim to “mana whenua” over the Auckland Isthmus.
The claim that Ngati Whatua o Orakei “never surrendered power and authority over their traditional lands and resources” is arrant nonsense. When Ngati Whatua signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the Crown became sovereign over them. As we will see, they voluntarily “sold” land they mostly never occupied, cultivated, or hunted and gathered over, thus extinguishing any residual “mana whenua” over that land.
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