Ngati Whatua o Orakei Treaty Claims
Ngati Whatua o Orakei has lodged only two claims with the Waitangi Tribunal.
Wai 9 and Wai 388.
(Wai is short for Waitangi Tribunal and the number means the claim number assigned by the Tribunal to the two claims.)
The Wai 9 claim was lodged in 1986 by Joe Hawke and others. This claim focussed on grievances around the 700 acres known as the Orakei Block.
The Tribunal reported back on this claim in 1987. A brief outline of the Orakei Report 1987 is available here.
Their report was the basis of the settlement between the Crown and Orakei which saw nearly 65 hectares returned to Ngati Whatua o Orakei.
The details of this claim are enshrined in the Orakei Act 1991 and explained in simple language here.
Included in the act is the sole authorised right of the Trust Board to pursue further Treaty claims as they see fit.
The Trust Board exercised this right when they lodged the Wai 388 in 1993, on behalf of its beneficiaries.
Over the following ten years they prepared their case and entered into direct negotiation with the Office of Treaty Settlements in May 2003.
The Wai 388 claim covers the loss of a total area in excess of 32,000 hectares in the Tamaki Isthmus, parts of the North Shore, and West Auckland, plus the seabed, foreshore, and reclamations in the Waitemata Harbour, and northern parts of the Manukau Harbour.
This was the area throughout which, at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the various sections of the hapu (sub-tribe) had been working their gardens and fishing grounds, backed by supporting settlements and bases.
A summary of the Wai 388 claim---including seven full scale maps of the 32,000 hectares under claim---is available when you download your copy of the Red Book Synopsis of Grievances here.
In order to meet Office of Treaty Settlements consultation requirements, the Board began a program of consultation with cross claimants.
Progress on cross claimant consultations has been reported by the Board secretary to beneficiaries in every newsletter since July 2004.
Issues and various viewpoints on overlapping interests have been widely reported in the media.
Direct Negotiations proceeded to an Agreement In Principle (AIP) being signed in June 2006.
The Wawa Ra Newsletter Issue 20 August 2006 describes this agreement in brief.
Progressing the Agreement in Principle to a Deed of Settlement has been delayed.
The AIP was the subject of a Waitangi Tribunal hearing hel din Auckland in early 2007.
An initial board response is described in full by the Board Secretary in The Wawa Ra Newsletter Issue 22 August 2007.
You can follow the chronology of these claims through the links to the right.