cultural breakdown, and social deprivation in health, education, and welfare;
economic disadvantage including the loss of land taken in lieu of rates by local authorities;
the failure to provide adequate land reserves to meet immediate Hauraki needs.
Other Maori (individuals, whanau, hapu, iwi) from the region have lodged general and specific claims in their own right. There are also a small number of claims from non-Hauraki Maori concerning the Hauraki geographic region and its resources. Taking all these claims together, a search of the Waitangi Tribunal register in September 1997, reveals that there are approximately 45 claims concerning the Hauraki tribal estate.
The Tribal Estate
The tribal estate is an holistic concept encompassing the sky above and the earth below, Ranginui and Papatuanuku and everything which lies between the two. The Hauraki tribal rohe covers a land area of about 1,500,000–1,850,000 acres or 650,000–750,000 hectares in addition to the off-shore islands in the Hauraki Gulf: The meaning of land includes all that lies beneath the surface (for example, the minerals, geothermal resources, and hot springs) as well as the forests, farms, settlements and cultural property which are on the surface. The seaward area, known as Tikapa Moana, of approximately 91,509 square kilometres incorporates all the foreshore and coastline, most of the Hauraki Gulf to the north of Auckland, the Firth of Thames and parts of the north-eastern Bay of Plenty, out to the 200 mile economic zone of New Zealand. Hauraki from space, a photographic mosaic taken by satellite that depicts the region can be seen on p. 2.
Hauraki forms the eastern boundary of the Tainui waka domains. The peninsula is the figurative ama (outrigger) of the canoe with its prow located at Mt Te Aroha and the stern-piece at Mt Moehau. In terms of Te Ikaroa a Maui (North Island of New Zealand), Hauraki tradition likens the North Island to the whai (stingray). The upoko (head of the fish) is Wellington, the long narrow hiku (tail) extends to Northland. Taranaki and the east cape define the spread out wings and the Hauraki Peninsular is known as Te Tara-o-Te-Ika (the jagged barb), thrusting into the Hauraki Gulf and the Pacific.1
The Hauraki kaumatua, Mr Taimoana Turoa, has described the tribal boundaries in a general manner, as being spread like a net.
The peripheral boundary of the Hauraki can generally be described as commencing at the sunken reefs of Nga Kuri-a-Wharei offshore of Waihi on the eastern coast, progressing west inland to Mount Te Aroha, thence to Hoe-o-Tainui. It then follows north along the range line of to Hapu-a-Kohe and the Hunua Ranges to Moumoukai and Papakura. The northern boundary includes parts of the Tamaki isthmus, Takapuna, Whangaparaoa and Mahurangi before terminating at Matakana river estuary south of Cape Rodney. The seaward boundary includes parts of the island of Aotea (Great Barrier), and then southward to its beginning at
1 Taimoana Turoa, Nga Iwi o Hauraki, The Iwi of Hauraki, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, Paeroa, 1997
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