waitangi tribunal

1953  Maori Affairs Act

The Maori Affairs Act 1953 forced unproductive Māori land into use. Anyone who could show the Maori Land Court that a piece of good land was not being used could apply to have it vested in trustees. This act, which allowed some flexibility in land management (such as under trusts), remained the governing legislation for Māori land for 40 years.

In 1953 a reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, visited Waitangi for the first time.

The Treaty debated

Protecting a taonga: the Māori language claim

'The language is the core of our Māori culture and mana. Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori. (The language is the life force of the mana Māori.) If the language dies, as some predict, what do we have left to us? Then, I ask our own people who are we?' These were the words of distinguished Māori Battalion veteran and Ngāpuhi leader Sir James Hēnare when he spoke, in 1985, before the Waitangi Tribunal as it heard the Māori language claim.

The government created the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by successive New Zealand governments. The Tribunal has been in a state of constant evolution ever since, trying to meet the changing and conflicting demands of claimants, government and public.

The government announced that it had agreed to the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendation that Bastion Point on Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour be returned to the local iwi (tribe), Ngāti Whātua.

Joe Hawke leads an occupation of Takaparawhā (Bastion Point reserve), Auckland, to protest against the Crown’s decision to sell land that Ngāti Whātua maintained had been wrongly taken from them.

Charles Crofts (Negotiator for Ngai Tahu) and Doug Graham (Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi negotiations) hongi after signing the Ngai Tahu settlement, 24 September 1997.

Members of Ngai Tahu at Parliament to witness passage of Ngai Tahu settlement legislation, 30 September 1998.