Rangitaane ready for Treaty settlement’s benefits to flow
Cautious excitement is permeating Rangitaane o Manawatu as it heads into a post-treaty settlement future.
The iwi was celebrating on Wednesday afternoon after the bill finalising its Treaty of Waitangi settlement became law.
The process ends more than 25 years of work by the iwi and its negotiators to get a settlement for the wrongs the Crown committed against it.
Those wrongs included the wholesale confiscation of Rangitaane o Manawatu’s land, and purchase of tribal land from non-rangitaane Maori who migrated to the area.
This left the iwi effectively landless by the 1990s.
Lead negotiator Danielle Harris, whose mother Ruth Harris lodged the iwi’s claim, said concluding the settlement felt ‘‘a little surreal’’.
The treaty breaches ‘‘decimated our whole tribal structure and leadership’’.
But, she said, addressing those breaches and moving forward as a country was the best way to grow.
The settlement includes $13.5 million in financial redress, the renaming and vesting of Crownowned sites to the iwi, and the establishment of a Manawatu River advisory board.
Harris said there would be a settlement trust focused on the cultural side of the settlement, while a company had been set up to govern the economic and commercial sides.
While it was early days, those on the boards for all parts of the settlement knew they had a big responsibility.
Young members were keen to be involved, while iwi members from outside Manawatu had moved back to be part of what was happening, Harris said.
The financial side of the settlement was not large, so there had been conversations with Ngati Apa and other iwi to hear their post-settlement experiences.
The historic settlement was signed in November 2015.