Kōrero o te Tiamana
In shaping an acceptable redress package, the Ngāti Rangitihi Negotiators have had particular regard to the current condition of Ngāti Rangitihi people in the context of their 175-year relationship with the Crown.
In pre-European times Ngāti Rangitihi was widely dispersed in and around the central North Island lakes district, the coastal area westwards of Matatā towards Maketu, and all along the interconnecting waterways holding mana over lands and resources.
After organised European settlement got underway, Ngāti Rangitihi participated in the development of the fledgling colonial economy achieving commercial success founded on flour and flax milling, orchards, farms, fishing and trade, and tourism. This position of pre-eminence was shattered by the outbreak of war in the 1860s, the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886, and the resulting 1904 flood and the alienation of their traditional lands and resources. Directly, constructively, or by neglect, the Crown’s subsequent actions had a devastating impact on Ngāti Rangitihi people.