Iwi transition ‘a shambles’

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 7

Iwi transition ‘a shambles’

By

JANE DUNBAR

The Government’s plan to give more money and authority to individual Maori iwi (tribes) is in a shambles, says a Ngai. Tahu Trust Board lawyer, Mr David Palmer.

“Nobody seems to know what powers will be devolved or to whom,” Mr Palmer said after a public meeting on the Treaty of Waitangi in Christchurch.

The Maori Affairs Department would disappear in October, but nothing had been set up to take over its functions, he said.

The Government was getting rid of the Maori Affairs Department and thrusting its responsibilities on to iwi, but with no provision for training and informing staff on how to administer the new responsibilities. Iwi such as Ngai Tahu and Tainui were well organised and would be able to cope, but some of the smaller iwi would have a great deal of difficulty, said Mr Palmer.

The idea behind devolution is to direct funds to iwi so they can make their own decisions rather than having to work through the Maori Affairs Department.

An Iwi Transition Agency was set up to help with the transfer of power, but with less than a month to go before the

changeover, a chief executive has still not been appointed. The deputy chairman of the Ngai Tahu Trust Board, Mr Henare Te Rakiihia Tau, said the problems with the devolution process were a matter of grave concern. One of the Government’s priorities should be to give legal status to iwi, he said. Unless iwi had legal status the future of any agreements would be uncertain, as the decisions could be challenged on the basis they had been reached without the consent of all tribal members.

The only way agreements could be binding was if they had been made by a body with a legal identity. Some people seemed to think there was a problem in identifying a tribe, but this was not the case as far as Ngai Tahu was concerned, Mr Tau said. Members of the iwi could clearly be identified through their whakapapa (genealogy), connecting them to their ancestors who signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

Mr Tau and Mr Palmer were speakers at a public meeting on the Treaty of Waitangi, held at the Canterbury Public Library. About 60 people attended.