Dispossession scare

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 21

Dispossession scare

The first Ngai Tahu land claim hearing presented before the Waitangi Tribunal at Rangiora High School last month proved to be a disturbing experience for one young girl. Misleading gossip had left the teenager with the impression that her parents would be dispossessed of their land through the Ngai Tahu claim. Peter Ruka, a member of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board and senior tutor in Maori studies,

says board members had been “terribly concerned” when they learned of the problem. “We did not know who the girl was so we went out to the school to speak to all the pupils.” What the pupils were told had already been said by board members more than a hundred times before. “We are not seeking to dispossess others of jtheir lands; we will honour thelcontracts that have been made in the past,” says Peter Ruka.

"Our claim is against the Crown, not individuals, farmers, leaseholders, or land owners.” All people, Maori and pakeha, are the tangata whenua (original people) in the South Island. “We are desperately trying to show ways we can help the public and they can help us find our treasures. Under the sacred light of the mountains in the west and w east we are all the tangata* whenua — this land is for all.”

If the wrongs committed in the past by the Crown were rectified, the future would be easier for both Maori and pakeha. “We are not against the pakeha; we value our beautiful pakeha roots. But we cannot forget our other side or the injustice that left our people dispossessed,” says Peter Ruka. “The fact that we are looking for our identity will in the future be to the benefit of our children’s children —r all children — Maori and pakeha.”