1: Waitangi Tribunal Process

When a claim is lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal, all the main issues of grievance are broadly set out in a Statement of Claim.  In order for the Tribunal to hear the claim, substantial research must provide the evidence to support the claim.  The Tribunal will hear all claims in a regional inquiry and then write a report making its recommendations to the Crown.  If the claim is well-founded, the Tribunal will recommend the claimants enter into negotiations with the Crown to reach a settlement.  In this way the claim is supposed to be resolved and put to rest.

In the case of Ngati Whatua o Kaipara ki te Tonga, the WAI 312 claim was lodged by Takutai Wikiriwhi in 1992.  Between 1995 and 1999 a comprehensive research programme was carried out.  In 1999 the claims were presented to the Waitangi Tribunal over four weeks at Haranui Marae.  Evidence was given by kaumatua from the five marae, professional historians and a mapping expert and by about thirty whanau members.  In 2002 the Waitangi Tribunal wrote the Kaipara Interim Report and in 2006 completed the Kaipara Report, its final report on the whole of the Kaipara.  The Waitangi Tribunal’s findings gave the claimants the basis upon which to begin negotiations with the Crown through its Office of Treaty Settlements.