Ngāi Te Rangi’s claims are based on both raupatu and post-raupatu actions and omissions of the Crown. The Waitangi Tribunal reported on the claims of Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pōtiki in the following reports: Tauranga Moana, 1886–2006: Report on the Post-Raupatu Claims; Te Raupatu o Tauranga Moana: Report on the Tauranga Confiscation Claims; and Te Maunga Railways Land Report.

The mandate of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Te Rangi Iwi Trust (Te Rūnanga) to negotiate the settlement of Ngāi Te Rangi’s historical Treaty claims was conditionally recognised in October 2008. The condition was that Ngā Pōtiki (one of Ngāi Te Rangi’s ten hapū) be given the opportunity to participate in the negotiations. Indications are that Ngā Pōtiki’s population is somewhere between 1,000-1,200 people.

In May 2011 the Crown recognised the mandate of the Ngā Pōtiki a Tamapahore Trust (The Trust) to represent the Ngā Pōtiki claimant community in negotiations of their Historical Treaty claims as part of the Ngāi Te Rangi negotiations with Te Rūnanga.

Throughout negotiations Te Rūnanga and the Trust agreed a single negotiations table would be used to negotiate a single Ngāi Te Rangi settlement that includes Ngā Pōtiki. Te Rūnanga negotiated generic matters and the specific and exclusive matters for the hapū it represents. The Trust negotiated Ngā Pōtiki specific and exclusive matters. All important decisions were made by consensus.

The Office of Treaty Settlements, with the support of the Department of Conservation, Land Information New Zealand, the Ministry of Education and other government agencies, represented the Crown in day-to-day negotiations.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Hon Christopher Finlayson, represented the Crown in high-level negotiations with Ngāi Te Rangi.

During the 1840s and 1850s, the Crown had a limited presence in Tauranga. Ngāi Te Rangi continued to operate under their traditional tikanga and authority.

In 1858 the Kîngitanga was founded to create a Māori political authority that could engage with the Crown. Many Ngāi Te Rangi hapū and individuals supported the Kîngitanga. During the early stages of the Waikato war, Ngāi Te Rangi supplied food, weapons, ammunition and men to their Waikato allies. In January 1864 the Crown sent troops to Tauranga to disrupt this, and in April Ngāi Te Rangi defeated the Crown at the battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā). In June Crown troops defeated Māori forces at Te Ranga.

Between 1865 and 1868 the Crown established a confiscation district in Tauranga covering 290,000 acres to punish Māori who had opposed the Crown. Governor Grey undertook to return three-quarters of the district and retain one-quarter of the lands of rebels. Ngāi Te Rangi rangatira understood that only those considered to be in rebellion would lose a quarter of their lands. The Crown instead retained a 50,000 acre block between the Waimapu and Wairoa Rivers. This included key Ngāi Te Rangi settlements on the Te Papa and Otumoetai peninsulas and other Ngāi Te Rangi settlements and resource-gathering sites in the ranges. The remaining lands in the confiscation district in which Ngāi Te Rangi held interests were returned by the Crown to individuals rather than hapū. This was a slow process which was not completed until the mid-1880s.

In 1865 prominent Ngāi Te Rangi rangatira Hori Tupaea became associated with Pai Marire activities and was detained without being charged with any offence. He was released on parole on condition that he declare his allegiance to the Crown and live at a place of the Governor’s choosing, affecting Ngāi Te Rangi leadership at a crucial time.

Between 1864 and 1866 the Crown purchased 90,000 acres of land at Te Puna-Katikati. The purchase was arranged with nine Ngāi Te Rangi chiefs despite the opposition of other Ngāi Te Rangi rangatira. The Crown also purchased the Te Papa Peninsula from the Church Missionary Society (CMS), despite the CMS insisting that it held the land for the benefit of Ngāi Te Rangi and other Mâori. Today Te Papa is the site of Tauranga’s central business district.

The individualisation of title made Ngāi Te Rangi lands more susceptible to alienation. Crown purchasing activity, in particular during times of economic hardship in the 1880s and 1890s, led to the loss of lands at one of Ngāi Te Rangi’s most significant sites, Mauao, as well as land at Otawa and on the offshore islands Moturiki, Motuotau and Karewa.

During the twentieth century, infrastructure projects underpinning the development of Tauranga were constructed on land compulsorily acquired from Ngāi Te Rangi. These projects included the airport and port, Tauranga-Mount Maunganui power transmission line, water and harbour works, and Tauranga Te Maunga motorway. Some of these projects have resulted in the environmental degradation of Tauranga Moana and a reduction in biodiversity and food resources. Ngāi Te Rangi consider that the use of the Public Works Act had the same result as confiscation.

Ngāi Te Rangi lost control over further lands through Crown policies including land development schemes and the compulsory acquisition of uneconomic shares.

The Crown’s actions and omissions have meant that today Ngāi Te Rangi is virtually landless, retaining only approximately two percent of their rohe, and that their cultural landscapes and seascapes have been compromised and diminished.

In January 1864, the Crown deployed troops to Tauranga to stem the flow of Māori forces to the Waikato conflict. The Crown considered many Tauranga Māori to have been in ‘rebellion’ during 1863 and 1864, and between 1865 and 1868 established a confiscation district in Tauranga covering 290,000 acres to punish Māori who had opposed the Crown. The land in the confiscation district in which Ngā Pōtiki held interests was subsequently returned, but this land was returned under Crown grants to individual owners and was a slow process which was not completed until the mid-1880s.

Ngā Pōtiki were awarded lands at Mangatawa and Pāpāmoa. By 1893 the Crown had acquired well over half the Pāpāmoa block, including most of the coastline in the block, using aggressive purchasing tactics. This restricted Ngā Pōtiki access to their important coastal resources and sites of significance such as coastal urupā. From 1896 the remaining 6,000 acres of Pāpāmoa and Mangatawa were subject to a long and complex process of subdivision and alienation. Residential development along the Pāpāmoa coastal plain over the latter part of the twentieth century has been at the expense of Ngā Pōtiki heritage and archaeology.

Since 1886, 421 acres of Ngā Pōtiki lands have been acquired for public works purposes. These include Mangatawa, a maunga tapu of great importance to Ngā Pōtiki and noted as the burial place of Tamapahore, the founding tūpuna of Ngā Pōtiki. In 1946 the Crown compulsorily acquired five acres of Mangatawa for a quarry. Quarrying destroyed the once formidable Mangatawa hill-top pā, with its kainga and cultivation terraces, and burial caves, and uncovered numerous koiwi.

In 1967 the Crown took 32 acres of the Pāpāmoa block adjacent to Te Tahuna o Rangataua (Rangataua estuary), where some Ngā Pōtiki were living, for the purposes of rubbish disposal. In 1975, despite vociferous opposition by Ngā Pōtiki, the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act 1975 brought into operation a plan for reclamation work on the Rangataua tidal flats, and the construction of sewerage ponds and an outfall joining the ponds to the ocean. The ponds and adjacent rubbish dump make food gathering and other activities in Te Tahuna o Rangataua undesirable, effectively dislocating Ngā Pōtiki from the area.

Between 1976 and 1978 the Mount Maunganui Borough Council created easements through Ngā Pōtiki lands in the Mangatawa and Pâpâmoa blocks, including through the Waitahanui urupā, for the laying of a pipe to discharge wastewater from the sewerage ponds into the Pacific Ocean. The passage of sewerage through this extremely tapu place is repugnant to Ngā Pōtiki.

From 1962, with the agreement of the Māori owner, the Post Office used the summit of Kopukairoa (also referred to as Kopukairua) as the site of a VHF transmitter. In 1971 the Crown formally took Kopukairoa summit through public works legislation. Ngā Pōtiki regard Kopukairoa as a maunga of immense cultural importance, and its loss remains a source of significant grievance.

Ngā Pōtiki consider that the amount of land taken for public works does not convey the full extent of the loss to them. Public works takings have had enduring negative impacts on Ngā Pōtiki’s lands, resources, mana, cultural integrity and identity.

The land which Ngā Pōtiki retained proved insufficient for Ngā Pōtiki’s needs during the twentieth century. By the end of the century Ngā Pōtiki were left with just over 2,600 acres of land in Māori freehold title. The small amount of land that Ngā Pōtiki retains is largely cut off from the ocean, and this has impacted negatively on the identity of Ngā Pōtiki.

The deed provides for relationship agreements with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Ministry of Primary Industries. These protocols set out how these government agencies will interact and consult with Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pātiki when carrying out duties and functions.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and the Deputy Secretary Treaty and Director of the Office of Treaty Settlements will write letters introducing members of the Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pātiki governance entities to government agencies, local authorities, educational providers and state-owned enterprises.

The deed provides for relationship agreements with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Ministry of Primary Industries. These protocols set out how these government agencies will interact and consult with Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pātiki when carrying out duties and functions.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and the Deputy Secretary Treaty and Director of the Office of Treaty Settlements will write letters introducing members of the Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pātiki governance entities to government agencies, local authorities, educational providers and state-owned enterprises.