Historic Maori Land Compensation Agreement
New Zealand Agrees to Largest Indigenous Land Settlement to Date
Jun 28, 2008
Seven Maori tribes, Le Monde reports in the June 26th, 2008 article “Des Maoris indemnisés par la Nouvelle-Zélande,” signed an historic treaty with the New Zealand government that would compensate them for lands taken by the pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) in the 19th century. This agreement affects more than 100,000 Maoris, and transfers 176,000 hectares of forestland worth $319NZ million into Maori ownership.
Land Transfer from Maori to Pakeha
White men, or pakeha in the Maori language, first arrived to New Zealand in the early 19th century. They came at first in small numbers, but as the number of European permanent settlers increased, violent conflict emerged. In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi transferred sovereignty over New Zealand from the Maori chiefs to Queen Victoria, making New Zealand the newest part of the British Empire. Though the treaty purported to preserve land ownership in the Maori tribes in its second article, this article also granted exclusive preemption rights to the Queen.
Tension between settlers and the native people quickly led to further conflict, and the New Zealand governor soon began buying up land from the Maoris to appease those colonists who wanted more land available to them. By 1865, nearly all of the South Island and a fifth of the North Island had passed to the Crown. War then broke out, and the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 led to land confiscation without proper due process or compensation. More than four million acres of land were confiscated, and though about half of the land was returned or paid for, it was returned to individuals rather than tribes, and often not to the original owners. Throughout the rest of the century, confiscation continued, often through methods of dubious legality. (NZhistory.net).
A Century of Struggle for Land Rights
Though the government did in some cases agree to modest payments to Maoris in the early part of the 20th century, and tolerance among pakeha increased, many would argue that “tolerance” of indigenous people was far from an adequate response. In the 1970s, a Maori political movement demanding compensation gathered steam, and a number of young Maoris staged protests to gain attention for the cause.
In the 1980s and 1990s, academics and government officials finally began to take real notice of Maori grievances. In 1995 and 1998, the government provided the Ngai Tahu and the Waikato-Tainui tribes each with $170NZ million worth of land and monetary compensation. (NZhistory.net). At this time, the tone also began to shift academically and within the government from defensiveness or refusal to acknowledge Maori claims to regret, apology, and a desire (at least on the part of many pakeha) to heal past wounds.
Though this most recent compensation agreement is the largest agreement to date between the government and Maori tribes in monetary terms, its significance lies also in the official apology by the Crown and agreement on a corrected historical account of past events. Like the other two major treaties in 1995 and 1998, and a handful of smaller agreements, the cultural and symbolic significance goes hand in hand with the long-overdue agreement for monetary and territorial compensation. These two elements – monetary compensation and official apology – will be important parts of upcoming negotiations as well, as New Zealand political players realize that agreements to work with Maori tribes form a crucial part of electoral success.
 |
