The Ngāti Hauā rohe spans from Te Aroha, south along the Kaimai Range to Te Weraiti, from Te Weraiti west to Maungatautari then northwest to Te Rapa, from Te Rapa eastward to Mangateparu and then to Te Aroha. Part of the Ngāti Hauā rohe is located within the Waikato Raupatu Claims Area established in 1995.

In December 2012, the Crown recognised the mandate of the Ngāti Hauā Trust Board to represent Ngāti Hauā in negotiating a comprehensive historical Treaty settlement and signed Terms of Negotiation with Ngāti Hauā. Ngāti Hauā and the Crown signed an Agreement in Principle on 19 February 2013 which formed the basis for this settlement. On 24 May 2013, Ngāti Hauā and the Crown initialled a deed of settlement. The deed was then ratified by the people of Ngāti Hauā and signed on 18 July 2013. The settlement will be implemented following the passage of settlement legislation.

The Office of Treaty Settlements, with the support of the Department of Conservation, 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 Ngāti Hauā.

During the 1840s and 1850s Ngāti Hauā established a strong economy centred on the thriving Christian community of Peria. Their rangatira Wiremu Tamehana sought a constructive relationship with the Crown on issues of Māori governance. However, his attempts to engage with the Crown left him dissatisfied, and he supported the establishment of a Māori King to provide order and laws within Māori communities. He anointed the first Māori King, giving rise to the position of Tumuaki, a role of political and spiritual significance that endures to the present day.

Relations between the Crown and the Kīngitanga deteriorated over the early 1860s. In July 1863 Crown forces invaded the Waikato. As part of the Kīngitanga, Ngāti Hauā opposed the invasion of 1863 and 1864, and many were killed or wounded. The February 1864 attack by Crown forces on the unfortified agricultural settlement of Rangiaowhia aggrieved Wiremu Tamehana, who understood it should be a place of refuge for women, children and the elderly.

In 1865 the Crown confiscated a large area of Waikato land, including the western part of the Ngāti Hauā rohe. The raupatu caused destitution within the Ngāti Hauā rohe and was a critical step towards the iwi being left virtually landless.

In May 1865 at Tamahere, Wiremu Tamehana laid his taiaha at the feet of a British officer and signed ‘he maungarongo’ (‘the covenant of peace’). Until his death in 1866 he sought the return of the confiscated Waikato lands and an investigation into the causes of the war. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries his son Tupu Taingakawa continued to seek justice in his role as Tumuaki (Premier) of Te Kauhanganui.

From 1866 the Native Land Court operated within the Ngāti Hauā rohe, determining the owners of Māori land and converting customary title into title derived from the Crown. Legislation in force until 1873 limited the ownership of any land block to ten or fewer individuals. Large areas of land awarded to Ngāti Hauā by the Court were sold by the individual owners, who could alienate their interests without reference to other members of their hapū or iwi. By the 1880s private parties had acquired a large quantity of Ngāti Hauā land.

Crown purchasing activity further reduced Ngāti Hauā land holdings. In the early twentieth century the Crown purchased the interests of some individual owners in the Matamata North block, having disregarded the owners’ collective decision not to sell.

Ngāti Hauā lost further land in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through public works takings for roading, railways, schools, and hydro‑electric purposes. Ngāti Hauā have a longstanding grievance relating to the Crown’s public works taking of land at Waharoa for aerodrome purposes in 1951. Pākehā settlement and colonisation resulted in significant changes to the landscape and waterways within the Ngāti Hauā rohe.

Ngāti Hauā consider that Crown actions and omissions since 1840 have caused them enduring harm. Today the iwi is virtually landless.

The deed includes a cultural redress package intended to recognise the traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual associations of Ngāti Hauā with places and sites owned by the Crown within their area of interest. This allows Ngāti Hauā and the Crown to protect and enhance the conservation values associated with these sites.

Sites vested in Ngāti Hauā

A total of 8 sites will be vested in Ngāti Hauā totalling approximately 706.83 hectares. Sites to be vested in Ngāti Hauā include:

• Maungakawa, being part of Te Tapui Scenic Reserve, approximately 629.09 hectares, as a scenic reserve, with the trustees as the administering body, subject to the trustees providing a registerable easement in relation to that site
• Gordon Gow Scenic Reserve, approximately 7.4 hectares, as a scenic reserve, with the trustees as the administering body
• Pukemako Site A, being the Maungakawa Scenic Reserve, approximately 63.87 hectares, as a scenic reserve, with a joint board appointed by the trustees and the Waipa District Council (the joint board) as the administering body
• Pukemako Site B, being the Gudex Memorial Park Historic Reserve, approximately 2.83 hectares, as a historic reserve, with the joint board as the administering body
• 1199 Maungakawa Road, Te Miro, approximately 0.4 hectares
• 53 Firth Street, Matamata, approximately 0.13 hectares
• Former Mangateparu School, Morrinsville Tahuna Road, Mangateparu, approximately 2.02 hectares
• 72 Firth Street, Matamata, approximately 1.09 hectares.

Waharoa (Matamata) Aerodrome

• Vesting

If the Waharoa Aerodrome land (approximately 46.85 hectares) is no longer required for aerodrome and ancillary aviation purposes and reverts to the Crown, then the land will be vested in Ngāti Haua.

• Joint committee

The settlement provides for the establishment of a permanent committee of representatives of the trustees and the Matamata Piako District Council to have a recommendatory role in the administration of Waharoa Aerodrome and final decision‑making powers on access and parking arrangements for the Waharoa Aerodrome land and the Council’s Waharoa Aerodrome land that affect Raungaiti Marae.

Site to be vested in Ngāti Hauā and gifted back to the Crown and people of New Zealand

Te Tapui Scenic Reserve, approximately 1,753 hectares, will be vested in the trustees and gifted back by the trustees to the Crown and the people of New Zealand.

Cultural funding

Ngāti Hauā will receive $178,000 from the Crown to enable the purchase of additional properties.

Overlay classification

An overlay classification acknowledges the traditional, cultural, spiritual and historical association of Ngāti Hauā with certain sites of significance. The declaration of an area as an overlay classification provides for the Crown to acknowledge iwi values in relation to that area. The settlement provides an overlay classification over Te Miro Scenic Reserve.

Statutory acknowledgements and deeds of recognition

A statutory acknowledgement recognises the association between Ngāti Hauā and a particular site or area and enhances the iwi’s ability to participate in specified Resource Management processes. The Crown offers a statutory acknowledgement over the following areas:

• Waiorongomai, being part of Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park
• Ngatamahinerua, being part of Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park and part of Maurihoro Scenic Reserve
• Te Wairere, being Wairere Falls Scenic Reserve, part of Gordon Park Scenic Reserve and part of Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park
• Te Weraiti, being part of Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park
• Whewells Bush Scientific Reserve
• Te Oko Horoi (being a marginal strip alongside the Waikato River)
• Waikato River and tributaries within the Ngāti Hauā area of interest.

Deeds of recognition oblige the Crown to consult with Ngāti Hauā on specified matters and Ministers to have regard to Ngāti Hauā’s views in their decision making.

The Crown offers deeds of recognition to Ngāti Hauā in relation to the Waikato River and tributaries within the Ngāti Hauā area of interest. The deeds of recognition are signed by the Minster of Conservation, Director General of Conservation and Commissioner of Crown Lands.

Tumuakitanga

The settlement provides redress that is intended to restore, enhance and sustain the relationship between Ngāti Hauā, under the mana of the Tumuaki, and the Crown. Redress includes:

• Tumuaki/Crown meetings – Annual meetings between the Crown,Tumuaki and Ngāti Hauā to discuss matters of strategic importance to the iwi
• $3 million of the financial and commercial redress amount is to be used to help sustain the role of Tumuaki.

Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta and Ngāti Hauā Taonga

The Crown acknowledges and recognises the importance of Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta. Redress for Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta and Ngāti Hauā taonga includes:

• $1 million of the financial and commercial redress amount is to be used to help restore Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta
• Ngāti Hauā, the Department of Internal Affairs (Archives and National Library functions) and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Board have entered into a relationship agreement with respect to the restoration and protection of Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta and the care, management, use, development and revitalisation of Ngāti Hauā Taonga
• A protocol to be issued by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage that facilitates Crown engagement with Ngāti Hauā with respect to Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta and Ngāti Hauā taonga.

Conservation relationship agreement

The settlement also provides for the trustees and the Crown to sign a Conservation Relationship Agreement which outlines how the parties will co‑operate to fulfil agreed strategic objectives and a framework to foster a positive, collaborative and enduring relationship between the Ngāti Hauā and the Department of Conservation.

Letters of introduction

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations will write letters of introduction introducing Ngāti Hauā, the Tumuaki, and the trustees to agreed Crown agencies, local authorities, entities and museums.

Tupuna Awa (Waikato River)

In 2008 the Crown and Waikato‑Tainui signed a deed of settlement in relation to the Waikato River. The overarching purpose of the settlement is to restore and protect the health and well being of the river for future generations.

The Ngāti Hauā settlement will geographically extend the co‑management instruments afforded to Waikato‑Tainui through that settlement to cover the Ngāti Hauā area of interest. Ngāti Hauā will be able to be involved in the co‑management of the Waikato River within their area of interest through Waikato‑Tainui.

Maungatautari

Ngāti Hauā interests to Maungatautari are recognised and provided for in the Ngāti Koroki Kahukura deed of settlement, signed in December 2012. The Ngāti Hauā settlement will provide for the chairperson of the Ngāti Hauā trust to engage with Te hapori o Maungatautari (the Maungatautari community) in their carrying out of certain functions and powers in relation to the Maungatautari Mountain Scenic Reserve. The Ngāti Hauā settlement also records the Ngāti Hauā statement of significance of Maungatautari.

This redress recognises the losses suffered by Ngāti Hauā arising from breaches by the Crown of its Treaty obligations. The financial and commercial redress is aimed at providing Ngāti Hauā with resources to assist them to develop their economic and social well being.

Ngāti Hauā will receive financial and commercial redress of $13 million plus interest through their settlement and will use some of the financial redress to:

• Purchase three commercial properties from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice which Ngāti Hauā will lease back to the Crown entity, subject to certain conditions ($3.39 million)
• Make a contribution towards helping sustain the role of Tumuaki ($3 million)
• Contribute towards the restoration of Te Kauwhanganui o Māhuta ($1 million)

Ngāti Hauā will also:

• have an exclusive right of first refusal over ten Ministry of Education properties, three New Zealand Police properties, one Waikato District Health Board property and one Department of Conservation property for a period of 173 years from settlement date
• have, for six months from settlement date, the right to purchase specified properties from the Ministry of Justice and Land Information New Zealand
• have, the right (second to named iwi currently in negotiations) to purchase specified properties from the New Zealand Police and Ministry of Justice.