Next steps: litigation update

In February 2017, the Supreme Court of New Zealand delivered a ground-breaking decision in the case of Proprietors of Wakatū & Others v Attorney-General, determining that the Crown owes a fiduciary duty to our families, the Māori customary owners of the Nelson Tenths’ lands and occupation lands in Whakatū, Tasman and Mōhua, to reserve and protect 15,100 acres of Tenths’ land, as well as our papakāinga, cultivation and wāhi tapu lands.

Over the past three years, our team has been busy working with the Crown to resolve these proceedings. The proceedings are led by our kaumātua, Rore Stafford, on behalf of all of the owners of the Tenths’ Reserves. The owners include those families who make up the shareholders of Wakatū today and descend from the original owners of the Nelson Tenths’ identified by the Native Land Court in 1892, as well as all other descendants of the original Māori land owners as identified by the Court.

A great deal of research has now been completed to identify the land for return. At the same time, we have taken further legal proceedings against the Crown to stop it from selling any more land in the Nelson region before it has resolved these proceedings. The Crown has tried to sell or alienate several blocks of land in Nelson during these last three years, and as a result, we have filed caveats against land held by the Crown to stop any further land losses. We do not believe, in principle, that the Crown is the rightful owner of this land. It is land that should have been part of the Tenths’ Trust – and on that basis it is Trust property, which belongs to our whānau, the beneficiaries of the Trust, rather than the Crown. Following the Supreme Court decision in 2017, the Crown is not free to deal with the land it holds within the Nelson region as it sees fit.

We have also asked the attorney-general to make a declaration preventing the sale of any further Crown-held land in the Nelson area until our proceedings are resolved. The attorney-general has, so far, refused to make this declaration. As a result, we will be in the Wellington High Court in April 2020, arguing that the attorney-general should exercise his powers to prevent any further land loss in our region so that there is enough Crown land left to enable the Crown to meet its obligations as the trustee to the owners of the Nelson Tenths’.

In other words, we want to ensure that there is land left in our rohe, so the Crown can return that land which ought to have been included in the trust to the owners of the Tenths’.

This will resolve the Crown’s breach of trust against the owners of the Tenths’, which led to a significant shortfall with respect to the amount of land that was reserved for the owners – well short of the 15,100 acres guaranteed by the Crown grant in 1845.

HIGH COURT HEARING Please come along to the High Court hearing in April to learn more about the case. All Wakatū whānau are very welcome to attend. The details for the court hearing are:

Monday 20 April–Thursday 23 April, 10 a.m., Wellington High Court, 2 Molesworth Street, Wellington. Nau mai, haere mai. All are welcome to attend. The case is led by our kaumātua, Rore Stafford, with the working committee and legal team in support.

Please contact Kerensa Johnston, Wakatū CEO, hono@wakatu.org if you have any questions or would like further information.