The Hauraki Treaty Claims project has examined the nature and extent of the interaction of Maori with the Crown in the Hauraki tribal territory during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The claims, together with the research and supporting evidence are set out in 11 volumes. These are presented to the Waitangi Tribunal to support the Hauraki case.
The history of colonisation in Hauraki—the deliberate policies of the Crown leading to the social and economic deprivation endured by those who have gone before us and their years of responsible protest—has not been told before. These volumes, the foundation of the Hauraki case, will forever rewrite our nation's history books, contributing, only now, a Maori perspective to the history of this region.
We began this project four years ago with a multi-disciplinary team approach. Dr Anderson was part of this team, contributing the historical overview which comprehensively examines the relationship between Maori and the Crown. The overview is in two parts. The first report deals with this relationship in the nineteenth century. The second report discusses the last 20 years of the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth century. Both reports draw on the themes which emerge from the extensive block history analysis carried out by David Alexander which is contained in Volume 8.
Dr Anderson's The Crown, The Treaty, and The Hauraki Tribes, 1800-1885 examines the
material destruction of the Hauraki resource base—the tribal loss of land and the loss of control over minerals, timber, rivers and foreshore. She places this destruction in the context of the disparity between the promises and the actions of the Crown; the calculated nature of Government dealings in Hauraki; and the protests of Hauraki Maori faced with the deliberate undermining of tino rangatiratanga.
The Hauraki treaty claims are a consequence of the Crown's actions after it signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Dr Anderson's report will significantly support the Hauraki case in the debate that will inevitably surround the Hauraki claims. I take this opportunity to thank Dr Robyn Anderson for her contribution to this project.
