Whakatu gripe aired at UN

Monday 22 March 2010

A Nelson-Motueka Maori land trust has taken its bid to negotiate its land claim to the United Nations.

James Wheeler from Whakatu Incorporation says Te Kahui Ngahuru Trust was used as a case study by the Aotearoa Indigenous Rights Trust during the New Zealand Government's four yearly report to the United Nations human Rights Committee.

The trust lodged the first Waitangi Tribunal claim in the South Island, but the Crown insists it will only talk with iwi.

At issue is the 45,000 hectares of reserves Maori owners were supposed to get when they sold land to the New Zealand in 1841.

“The land was dissipated and mismanaged by the Native Trustee and the Maori Trustee over a long period of time and the miniscule amount we got back was 9293 acres that we have managed since 1977 but it’s all still perpetually leased. It’s still breaking our human rights,” Mr Wheeler says.

He's written to the minister for treaty negotiation seeking direct talks on the WAI 56 claims.