Tēnā koutou katoa, tēnei te mihi maioha ki te whānau whānui o Wakatū,
In this pānui we let you know about our upcoming High Court hearing, to be held at the Wellington High Court from Monday 14 August 2023 – Friday 20 October 2023.
The purpose of this hearing is to detemine the extent of the Crown’s breaches of its duties as the trustee of the Nelson Tenths’ and decide on the remedies that will be provided to the owners of the Nelson Tenths’.
The remedies proceedings follow on from our successful 2017 Supreme Court decision, Proprietors of Wakatū & Others v Attorney-General. You can read the full decision here.
In that decision the Supreme Court determined 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.
The Supreme Court referred the case back to the High Court to determine how the Crown had breached its fiduciary duty and the remedies that will need to be made available by the Court to address those breaches. This is the main purpose of the upcoming remedies proceedings, which is before the High Court in August 2023.
Rore and Lynne Stafford, and Wakatū whānau, outside the High Court, Wellington, August 2020
The proceedings are led by our kaumātua, Rore Stafford, with the working committee and legal team in support. Rore is acting on behalf of the owners of the Nelson Tenths Reserves and Occupation Reserves.
We are seeking the return of all whenua held by the Crown within the Nelson region that is part of the Nelson Tenths’ Reserves Trust estate or ought to have been included in the trust estate.
Our team have worked hard over the past five years to prepare for these proceedings and a great deal of research has been completed to identify the trust land for return to the owners of the Tenths’ Reserves.
Throughout April and May, we will be holding a series of hui kanohi-ki-te-kanohi and online, to update the whānau and provide information about the proceedings. We’ll let you know about these hui soon.
Please come along to the hui, as well as the High Court hearing in August to learn more about the case. All whānau are very welcome to attend. The details for the court hearing are:
Monday 14 August – Friday 20 October, 10am - 5pm
Wellington High Court, 2 Molesworth Street, Wellington
Nau mai, haere mai.
If you have any pātai, please feel free to contact me directly; kerensa@wakatu.org or you can call into Wakatū House for a kōrero, or telephone 03 546 8648.
Kia manawanui,
Kerensa Johnston
Tumu Whakarae - CEO
Learn more about the background - The Hui
In 2019, Three's current affairs show, The Hui featured an in-depth story about our win in the Supreme Court in 2017 and the Nelson Tenths’ Reserves.
The story provides a good summary of and background to the history of the litigation.