22.      Our traditions show Marutuahu to be a people full of aroha and manakitangi as some of the tribes who have interests in Hauraki know well, for example the tuku whenua tribes in Hauraki of Te Tawera (Ruahine) and Aitanga a Mate (Harataunga). However, we have always reacted to threats to our borders.

23.      Thus, no one can doubt that Marutuahu were in the ascendancy in Katikati-Te Puna in the 1800s. Through to the most tangible show of Marutuahu mana whenua by the taua of Taraia at Ongare in 1842, we maintained our mana whenua to our southern tribal markers at Nga Kuri a Wharei and Matakana. Under the rahui / tapu placed on the entire area by Taraia, nothing changed in the years following Ongare until the Crown’s Raupatu with the Katikati-Te Puna Blocks in 1866.

24.      This raupatu caused huge injustice to us.

25.      First, it undermined and deprived Marutuahu of rights secured over centuries. We were effectively forced from our southern lands by the Crown.

26.      Second, and disastrously for us, it effectively gave land over which we had mana whenua to non-Marutuahu / Hauraki people of Tauranga Moana by allocating our land and taonga to them, via for example reserve allocations. Quite apart from the dispossession of our lands, it has to this day created confusion in the minds of some over the location of the respective southern and northern boundaries of the Marutuahu and Ngai Te Rangi / Mataatua peoples.

NGA KURI A WHAREI

27.      A recent example of this is to be found in the notification by the Hauraki Maori Trust Board in March 2001 to establish, on behalf of Hauraki tangata whenua, 26 rohe moana marine areas (and 13 kaitiaki positions) under the Fisheries (Kaimoana Customary Rights) Regulations 1998 (“Regulations”). These 26 areas collectively cover the tribal role of Marutuahu and Pare Hauraki, ‘mai Matakana ki Matakana’ and associated offshore islands and ocean areas.

28.      The southern boundary of the notification is at and around Nga Kuri a Wharei near Matakana, ie Te Uretara.