On 29 June 2011, the Crown recognised the mandate of the Ngāti Hei negotiators to negotiate a comprehensive settlement of the historical Te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi claims of Ngāti Hei with the Crown. The mandated negotiators and the Crown entered into an agreement in principle equivalent on 22 July 2011. On 31 May 2017, Ngāti Hei and the Crown initialled a Deed of Settlement (the Deed). The Deed was ratified and then signed on 17 August 2017. The settlement will be implemented following the passage of settlement legislation. On settlement, the trustees of the Ngāti Hei Post Settlement Governance Entity will manage the settlement assets. The Office of Treaty Settlements, with the support of the Department of Conservation, Land Information New Zealand and other government agencies, represented the Crown in day-to-day negotiations. The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, the Honourable Christopher Finlayson, represented the Crown in high-level negotiations with Ngāti Hei.

Ngāti Hei is a member of the Pare Hauraki Collective and will receive collective redress through the Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Deed. The collective approach recognises that the iwi of Hauraki have various overlapping customary interests which cannot be considered separately from each other. Details about the collective redress can be found in the Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Deed and the summary of that Deed.

In 1836 and 1837, a timber trader made agreements with Ngāti Hei rangatira over lands on either side of the Ounuora River. In 1839, another trader negotiated a land transaction for an area around Tairua. Both claims were investigated by the Land Claims Commission. There were anomalies in the evidence presented to the Commission. The boundaries of the transactions and the goods given in payment to Māori were sometimes unclear. After accepting the commissioners’ recommendations, the Crown awarded almost 7000 acres of land in which Ngāti Hei had interests to European claimants. As a result, Ngāti Hei lost much of their coastal whenua.

Between 1858 and 1865, the Crown purchased Ahuahu from other Hauraki iwi. There is no evidence that Ngāti Hei were consulted about this purchase or that they received payment for their customary interests in the island.

Between 1859 and 1865, the Crown bought over 20,000 acres of land in the Ngāti Hei rohe. The Crown did not provide reserves for Ngāti Hei; nor did it require any assessment as to whether Ngāti Hei retained adequate land for their needs.

Between 1870 and 1890, 15 large blocks of 1000 acres or more, totalling over 93,000 acres, were permanently alienated from Ngāti Hei. The Crown purchased 12 of these blocks, over 81,000 acres in total.

In 1885, the Ngāti Hei owners of Kuaotunu 3 entered into a lease arrangement with a timber felling company. The owners considered that the lease gave the company only the right to harvest timber. The owners claimed that the company had deliberately misled them over the contents of the lease, which included rights to land. The timber company took its case to the Validation Court in 1895. Ngāti Hei incurred considerable costs attending the court hearing in Auckland. The court rejected the timber company’s case. At the same time, the Crown was in the process of purchasing interests in Kuaotunu 3. The Crown refused to give Ngāti Hei a reserve at Te Whauwhau, partly on the basis that there had been no reserve granted in the lease, despite the lease having no legal standing.

There has been a history of extractive industry in the Ngāti Hei rohe, including kauri logging, kauri gum digging, flax milling, gold mining, and fishing. Ngāti Hei have derived little long-term benefit from these industries, and the damage done to the environment in their rohe is a source of grievance for them.

In 1923, Ngawhira Tanui of Ngāti Hei wrote to the Crown to ask for a survey of Ohinau Island for the purpose of taking her claims for ownership to the Native Land Court. The Crown reacted by delaying the Native Land Court hearings while it surveyed the island and took it under the Public Works Act 1908. Although the Crown needed only a small part of the land for a lighthouse, it acquired the whole 72-acre island.

By the end of the 20th century, Ngāti Hei were virtually landless. The resulting marginalisation of Ngāti Hei, including loss of te reo Māori, educational underachievement, sickness, and socioeconomic deprivation, caused the iwi much suffering. The Crown’s discouragement of te reo Māori, along with the fragmentation of Ngāti Hei tribal structures and the migration from ancestral lands, severely affected Ngāti Hei’s ability to pass mātauranga Māori on to their mokopuna.

The cultural redress package for Ngāti Hei intends to recognise the traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual associations of Ngāti Hei with places and sites owned by the Crown within their area of interest.

Sites vested in Ngāti Hei

Fifteen sites of cultural significance will be vested in fee simple in Ngāti Hei:

• Purangi (6.5 ha)
• Rangihau (56 ha)
• Kohuamuri (52.7 ha)
• Tapu Point (0.5 ha)
• Opou (319 ha) subject to a conservation covenant and easement
• Hereheretaura Pā (2.2 ha) as a historic reserve
• Te Pare Pā (7.7 ha) as a historic reserve
• Kaitoke/Pukekaroro (13.4 ha) as a scenic reserve
• Pukeumu (85.2 ha) as a scenic reserve
• Opua (21.4 ha) as a scenic reserve
• Matarangi Pā (21.7 ha) as a scenic reserve
• Te Rerepiki (110 ha) as a scenic reserve
• Te Puia (21.6 ha) as a recreation reserve to be jointly administered by the Ngāti Hei governance entity and the Thames-Coromandel District Council
• Whitianga Pā (14.5 ha) as a scenic and historic reserve
• Paparoa (37.1 ha) partly as a local purpose (education and cultural) reserve and partly as a scenic and historic reserve to be jointly administered by the Ngāti Hei governance entity and the Thames-Coromandel District Council
• Puke Pakira (1 ha).

Some of the properties will be included as part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

Sites jointly vested in Ngāti Hei and other iwi

• Pauanui Tihi (10 ha) will be jointly vested as undivided half shares in Ngāti Hei and Ngāti Maru as a scenic reserve, and
• Opera Point property (23 ha) will be jointly vested as undivided half shares in Ngāti Hei and Te Patukirikiri as a historic reserve.

Sites to be vested and vested back to the Crown

Within two years from settlement date, Te Karaka will be vested in the Ngāti Hei governance entity who will vest it back 30 days later to the Crown for the people of New Zealand.

Within one year from settlement date, Repanga (Cuvier) Island Nature Reserve will be vested jointly in the governance entities of Ngāti Hei, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Tamaterā and Ngaati Whanaunga who will vest it back seven days later to the  Crown for the people of New Zealand.

Overlay classifications

An overlay classification acknowledges the traditional, cultural, spiritual and historical association of Ngāti Hei 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 o a Hei, in relation to Cathedral Cove Recreation Reserve and the Repanga (Cuvier) Island Nature Reserve. The statement of values over the Repanga (Cuvier) Island Nature Reserve will be jointly agreed by Ngāti Hei, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Tamaterā and the Ngaati Whanaunga.

Statutory acknowledgements

A statutory acknowledgement recognises the association between Ngāti Hei and a particular site or area and enhances the ability of the iwi to participate in specified resource management processes. The Crown offers a statutory acknowledgement over the following areas:

• Hikuai River Area
• Kapowai River Area
• Kuaotunu Recreation Reserve
• Otama Beach
• Punaruku Scenic Reserve
• rivers, streams and their tributaries within the Tairua Harbour catchment area
• Tapuaetahi (including Tapuaetahi Scenic Reserve)
• Te Karaka
• Whangapoua Forest Conservation Area
• rivers, streams and their tributaries within the Whangapoua Harbour catchment area
• rivers, streams and their tributaries within the Wharekawa Harbour catchment area, and
• rivers, streams and their tributaries within the Whitianga Harbour catchment area.

Changes to place names

The settlement legislation will provide for the following official geographic name changes:

• Castle Island to Castle Island/Ngātūturu
• Rabbit Island (in Opito Bay) to Motu-o-Whairaka/Rabbit Island
• Rabbit Island (off Slipper Island) to Waikaiā/Rabbit Island
• Grahams Stream to Waitoko Stream
• Wigmore Stream to Ko Tahuri-ki-te-Rangi Stream, and
• The Twins (Motumanga) to Motumāhanga/The Twins.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations will write to the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa requesting the Board list the Māori name of a number of geographic names as an unofficial original Māori name.

Statement of association with Moehau and Te Aroha

The Deed will acknowledge that Ngāti Hei has associations with, and asserts certain spiritual, cultural, historical and traditional values in relation to, the Moehau maunga and Te Aroha maunga.

Ruamaahua

The Crown will consider the operation of the Grey-Faced Petrel (Northern Muttonbird) Notice 1979 as it applies to Ruamaahua regarding its alignment with the current titi season. The Crown intends that any redress over Ruamaahua provided in a Treaty settlement will include Ngāti Hei.

Te Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island

The Crown intends that any redress over Crown-owned land on Te Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island provided to any iwi of Hauraki will include Ngāti Hei.

Ohinau Island

The settlement legislation will enact a Māori Land Court order and will vest Ohinau Island in the Ngāti Hei governance entity as if the property were a cultural redress property.

Protocols, relationship agreement

The Deed will provide for the Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage and the Minister for Primary Industries to issue protocols that set out how their respective agencies will interact with and consult the Ngāti Hei governance entity when carrying out statutory duties and functions.

The Ngāti Hei governance entity will enter into a conservation relationship agreement with the Department of Conservation that will outline how the Department of Conservation will engage with Ngāti Hei.

Promotion of relationships

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations will write to a number of local authorities, museums and Crown agencies to raise the profile of Ngāti Hei, advise them of matters of particular importance to Ngāti Hei and encourage them to better engage with them.

Cultural redress payment

The Ngāti Hei governance entity will receive $150,000 for cultural revitalisation and $206,500 to purchase a property from the Pare Hauraki Collective.

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

The total financial and commercial redress for Ngāti Hei is $8.5 million.

This is made up of:

• $500,000 received within 10 days of the date of the signing of the Deed on-account of the settlement
• $1,230,949 to be received on settlement date
• $4,675,000 being the transfer value of the Ngāti Hei share of Whenuakite Station (jointly with Ngāti Tamaterā), and
• $2,094,051 being the agreed portion of the transfer value of two Pare Hauraki Collective landbank properties.

Commercial redress properties

• Ngāti Hei will receive the right to purchase an 85% share in Whenuakite Station
• Ngāti Hei will receive the right to purchase for two years after the settlement date the Coroglen School site (land only) subject to its leaseback to the Crown
• Ngāti Hei and Ngāti Maru will receive the right to purchase for two years after the settlement date the Tairua School site (land only) subject to its leaseback to the Crown.

Ngāti Hei will receive collective redress as part of the Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Deed which includes collective cultural and commercial redress. The details of the redress can be found in the Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Deed settlement summary.

Minerals

Ownership of any Crown-owned minerals in land transferred to Ngāti Hei under the Deed will also transfer to Ngāti Hei. This does not include nationalised minerals (petroleum, gold, silver and uranium) or affect other lawful rights to subsurface minerals.

All land which is currently subject to Schedule 4 protection will continue to be subject to the same type of protection once owned by iwi.

Harbours and Hauraki Gulf

The settlement does not provide for redress in relation to Tikapa Moana/the Hauraki Gulf and Te Tai Tamahine/Te Tai Tamawahine. The Crown and Ngāti Hei have agreed to conduct separate negotiations in the future to discuss potential cultural redress in relation to these areas.