What is your experience of subtle racism? Kei nga rau matatiki o te ki, kei nga taringa rahirahi, rarau mai ra, ki te whare runanga o Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei, nau mai, haere mai, tahuti mai ra. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei. We bring you a story about an iwi standoff ` The settlement trust has shut the doors and windows on us. engaged Ngati Manuhiri trial members who claim they're being ignored by their iwi trust, charged with managing their post-settlement assets. It's done nothing for our people, having a settlement trust. We have not benefited at all. We look into the Ngati Manuhiri stoush. I don't want my children having to have to fight this battle. Karahuihui mai. Riro whenua atu, me hoki whenua mai. Many iwi spend decades trying to get their Waitangi claim settled. Most tribes' treaty settlements are inked in blood, sweat, and tears, but as more and more iwi are finding, that's just the beginning. What comes after settlement can often be even more challenging. Ngati Manuhiri, based north of Auckland, are an iwi struggling with the cold, hard realities of their treaty settlement. On one side, disaffected iwi members who've kept the home fires burning. On the other, the tribe's settlement body, who they claim are leaving them out in the cold. Anei taku ketuketutanga. (TENSE MUSIC) This is a story of a whanau in conflict. Makes me feel sick, actually. Makes me mad. All who descend from one woman who refused to relinquish her whenua. She was very staunch about Little Barrier ` all her lands, actually, but the Barrier was really one of her things she loved the most. Now those still on the land are at odds with those who hold the power. The Settlement Trust has shut the doors and windows on us. Nestled north of Auckland is Ngati Manuhiri, a small iwi with a big history. Their tribal lands once stretched from Takapuna all the way to Mahurangi, but the jewel in their crown was Te Hauturu O Toi ` Little Barrier Island. Today the land between Mangawhai and Leigh is all that remains of their tribal territory. The 850 members of Ngati Manuhiri Ki Omaha all descend from one woman, Rahui Te Kiri, the only daughter of the paramount chief of Ngati Wai. Kia ora. My name is Annie. I am from Pakiri. I am the great granddaughter of Rahui Te Kiri. We're sisters. My name is Sherie. And we are Ngati Manuhiri. Sisters Annie and Sherie are the great, great granddaughters of Rahui Te Kiri, and this piece of pristine coastline has remained in their family's hands for hundreds of years. All the Maori land that we hold and everything we have is from her cos she fought and kept it all and ever gave any of it away. They say this land is their connection to their kuia ` land she fought hard to protect. In fact, in 1896, when Rahui Te Kiri was in her 80s, she swam back to Hauturu after being forcibly removed by the Crown, who'd confiscated it for a nature reserve. The money they paid her to take her off the island, she never, ever collected it. She was always unhappy about it. And she lived where our marae sits, and she lived there cos you can see the island from there. That was something she really loved. And now these sisters are taking up her fight, but this time it's against their own. They say 130 years on, they're being shut out by elected leaders of the iwi settlement trust. They claim those trustees have given away their tribal lands, and they're demanding greater transparency from their leaders. The sisters are putting their mana on the line and speaking out. I don't want my children having to have to fight this battle. In 2012, Ngati Manuhiri settled its treaty claim with a package worth $9 million in commercial and financial assets and the return of six significant sites. It should've been cause for celebration, but for the Baines whanau, it came out of the blue. Given the involvement of your family at the marae there at Pakiri, you must have had a lot to do with the treaty settlement? No. Not really, no. Nothing. No. Because it was sort of being run by someone else, this Moko Trust. They're basically the business arm of the marae, and they were dealing with it. It was something new to our marae. We didn't all understand how this treaty settlement was run. But the Settlement Trust says it had strong support ` 98% of members who voted did so in favour to ratify the settlement. The assets were transferred into Ngati Manuhiri's post-settlement entity called the Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust. The trust is managed by chairman John Paki and trustees Marilyn O'Brien and Ringi Brown. Its chief executive officer is Terrence Mook Hohneck. The Settlement Trust has shut the doors and windows on us. We are not told of any business initiatives that they are going to do. Kaumatua Roi McCabe descends from one of Rahui's seven children. Like the Baines, he lives near the marae. In the early days before the settlement, Roi served as a marae trustee and lodged a claim for Rahui's beloved hauturu but later agreed to let the settlement trust include his claim for hauturu into the iwi's treaty claim so long as they continued to consult with him. But he says that never happened. It turned to custard very quickly. What happened? Basically, the disillusionment started to come when the settlement trust failed to consult the people about the return of hauturu to the government. So the beneficiaries, the owners of hauturu never got the opportunity to say yes or no to the government. Hauturu was returned to Ngati Manuhiri as part of their settlement, but only for a week. Negotiators agreed it would be gifted back to the Crown, except for a small parcel set aside for cultural use. Other iwi have done similar deals, but gifting Hauturu back to the Crown has caused tension. That was a real sore point for us, especially the hau kainga in Pakiri, cos where our lands are, we look at that. It's in our full view. we know all about it, about our great grandmother. But the thing was they never, ever came to us and asked us. It just happened. And then the next time we saw them, it was a done deal. But there was more to come. In 2015, three years after the iwi's settlement, tribal members learned of an exclusive deal planned for their lands at Te Arai Point. 300ha of their land would be sold to a developer for a luxury housing project and golf course. As part of the deal, the trust would transfer 175ha to the Auckland Council in exchange for the right to develop the project ` a deal they say they learnt about through the media. The development is 60 houses on 300-odd hectares. It's not high-rise buildings. I've lived here all my life, and I haven't been told anything. When I heard about it, I was in shock. We didn't know about this joint venture. It was a done deal. It was signed off. I applied to see the minutes, and I was refused, and then they accepted I could look at the documents as long as I paid a certain amount of money into the settlement trust bank account. For what? For me to view the minutes. I now know why they didn't want me to see the minutes. They were about to sell off Te Arai, and they didn't want anyone to know about it. You might wonder how an iwi trust as small as Ngati Manuhiri could do a such a big deal without the permission of tribal members. The Settlement Trust's own deed states that in order to make a major transaction, it needs 75% of all adult members on the tribal register to agree. But the trust's 2015 annual report states the joint housing venture was deemed not to be a major transaction and therefore didn't need sign-off from tribal members. How does that make you feel? Makes me feel sick, actually. Makes me mad. And apparently the deal was done in 2013. The deal was done, and when we asked them at the AGM about it, they said that they don't have to come back and ask the people if it's less than 50% of what we own, so when they sold that part of the forest, it was under the 50% threshold, so they didn't need to ask us anyway, and that was the end of it. After the break, we take a closer look at Ngati Manuhiri's tribal register... This house, which is meant to have 23 occupants, is actually empty. ...and how decisions are being made. MIHI: MAN: Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro, kei tua o nga whakatairanga ko te wahanga tuarua o tera ripoata. Auraki mai ano. Ngati Manuhiri are an iwi grappling with tribal dynamics in the post-settlement environment. The tribe's 2012 treaty settlement was supported by 98% of those who voted, but there are some amongst the hau kainga who say since then they haven't been adequately consulted about major decisions being made by their iwi trust. Anei te wahanga tuarua. Ngati Manuhiri is a tribe in conflict. On one side, engaged whanau members who say they aren't being consulted about important decisions, like a deal to involving 470ha of their whenua. On the other, the tribe's settlement trust, who is meant to act in their best interests. It's done nothing for our people, having a settlement trust. We have not benefitted at all. They say we have. They always tell us we have. I don't know what they mean by that. We are whanau who have sick children, who need money health-wise. And especially education ` you know, we want to put our children through university. When the trust held its election last year, Mook Hohneck decided to throw his hat in the ring to become a trustee. That's despite already being the CEO of the trust and a member of its validation committee. The validation committee decides who is a descendant and who isn't. Those descendants then go on to vote on tribal matters. No one has really benefited thus far. There's no scholarships. There's just nothing. And he's living a dream life. I know that some of my family need help with their kids and everything, but you just get nothing. And I just think sometimes that money just sits at the top of the food chain and never really filters down. Mr Hohneck flagged his potential conflict with trustees Marilyn O'Brien, Ringi Brown and chair John Paki. He offered to step aside, but it was deemed necessary. Mook Hohneck won a seat to serve as a trustee, but following a complaint about a perceived conflict of interest, there was a review, and it found... The perceived conflict of interest is not a mere technicality, and the trustees had taken no steps to manage the situation such as those recommended by Te Puni Kokiri and the institute of directors. The officer called for the elections to be void and asked for them to be re-run last month. Mook Hohneck won again. And later this year, he'll be appointed as a trustee of the Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust. The election results show of the 521 voting papers sent out, 150 of those voted for Mook Hohneck. Annie Baines has long questioned the integrity of the tribe's register. In particular, she's curious as to how 119 people could be registered to just four Rotorua addresses. The Hui has been provided with a version of the Ngati Manuhiri register, and on that register, of the 850 tribal members, 119 of them reside ` or live ` at four homes in Rotorua, so we've come to Rotorua to test the register. Our first stop is this home, which, according to the register, has 42 iwi members registered to this address. No one here today. Let's pop around the corner to the next home, which isn't looking promising either. Well, that's interesting. This house, which is meant to have 23 occupants, is actually empty. No one lives here. So we head out of town to property number three. So, this is one of four places in Rotorua, but it's all locked up. 21 tribal members of Ngati Manuhiri apparently live here of the 119 that we've come to try and meet today. We have more luck at the last address. (KNOCKS ON DOOR) My name's Mihingarangi Forbes. I work at The Hui in Auckland. MIHI: MAN: MIHI: MAN: MIHI: MAN: MIHI: MAN: (LAUGHS) MIHI: MAN: MIHI: MAN: Kia pai to ra. Hei konei. So, this place is interesting. He collects the mail on behalf of his relations that live overseas and around New Zealand. Auckland University of Technology senior law lecturer Khylee Quince says tribal registers need to be transparent. It's not private. This is a register, just like an electoral role, where people should be able to be found and be determined to be legitimate members ` or descendants, in this case ` and that if there is something unusual, that should be open for exploration. The settlement trust says it has strong support and that in 2011, 98% of tribal members who voted supported the settlement. Khylee Quince says the Ngati Manuhiri conflict isn't unique. It's certainly a conversation that hapu and iwi need to have. You have to play the game to get the putea and to get the different settlement assets. This is where the self-determination issue comes in. How are we going to behave towards each other once we've got the goodies? So you see a growth of the commercial development potential of the hapu and iwi, and you have people homeless; you have people who are suffering the most ` marginalised, and economically depressed and affected lives. Independent Election Services Ltd, who ran the trustee election this year, told The Hui it could provide voting details if the settlement trust gave the go-ahead. We asked, but the trust didn't respond to this request. (GENTLE MUSIC) Annie Baines asked the settlement trust about the Rotorua homes, but her concerns were not addressed. Kia ora, whanau. Today the Baines sisters are at their whanau homestead with their dad, Billy, and mum, Christine, who's a great granddaughter of Rahui Te Kiri. There's a lot of history here. The pohutukawa trees ` the person came in and put 500 to 600 years on them. That's how old they were. It went to my mind straight away when they said that ` Rahui played under there. She came up here as a young girl. She walked this land. Christine's mother, Iris, lived here, and their bach is built on a small piece of Rahui's paradise. That's one of the most important things ` is to enjoy it, hold on to it while you're alive, but make sure that, when you pass away, it goes back into the next generation. The sisters say they will always fight to hold onto the whenua their tupuna Rahui fought so hard to keep. We want to sit down here when we're old and feel that we did all we could, look out at that ocean,... watch grandkids run around. We hoped to speak to the Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust about the issues raised in this story, but they weren't available this week. However, they have agreed to an interview, which we'll broadcast next week. Meanwhile, they have provided us with a statement, which says, 'Mangawhai South Forest is a commercial asset 'which needs to deliver economic, social, and cultural outcomes for Ngati Manuhiri. 'Post-settlement, the Mangawhai South Forest could either continue as a commercial pine forest 'and deliver marginal value to the registered members 'or it could deliver much greater outcomes through a very well-planned, inclusive development, 'maximising the potential of the commercial acquisition. 'Ngati Manuhiri will benefit economically, socially, and culturally, 'along with the surrounding community. 'Protection of the coastal foreshore and seabed, 'vesting of land to establish public reserve accessed by everyone, 'secure passage to the sea and beach for the public, 'papakainga for Ngati Manuhiri whanau and land we never had back in the ownership of Ngati Manuhiri. 'Ngati Manuhiri retain their customary rights 'and responsibilities as the mana whenua. 'Nati Manuhiri Settlement Trust have shown over the five years of post-settlement 'a continual advancement in all areas. 'This is reflected in the annual reports to date, dividends for marae and kaumatua, 'relationships with local and central government agencies and the wider community. 'Not all members are completely happy, 'and the opportunity to stand as a trustee for the elections was open to all registered members. 'Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust represents a pan tribal grouping of members 'that are spread throughout the motu and overseas. 'so residency and preference of location is designed by whanaungatanga and tikanga.' After the break ` is New Zealand racist AF? We talk about it next. Ko te patai o te wiki ` is New Zealand is racist AF? Well Maori director Taika Waititi reckons it is. Surprisingly, this has come as a bit of a shock to some 'Koiwois', who think the A in Aotearoa stands for A-OK. To find out if Aotearoa is racist AF or A-OK, we thought we'd ask some brown people to come on. So joining me now is The Spinoff's Atea editor, Leonie Hayden,... Kia ora. ...and Marama Davidson's cooler younger brother, Boyd Paratene. Kia ora. Tena korua. Let's start with you, then. What's your take on the week that was? Oh, I don't see what all the fuss is about, personally (!) Everything's fine. Race relations are great. Don't know what you're talking about (!) Were you surprised, though? I'm always surprised when people are surprised. And not only that, but people's arguments for New Zealand not being a racist place are always so racist. It's just irony on top of irony on top of irony, and it's tiring. Some of the loudest outraged voices come from Pakeha males. What do you think that's about? I think they feel there's a loss of privilege, and they think that's racism, so they misunderstand that to be racism because they've only known privilege. They've only known it to be the default setting in every setting, not just in Aotearoa, but around the country, and so when they have a loss of privilege, where other voices are being heard, that's racism to them. So, as a Maori man, how do you react to the kind of beating of the chest and the jumping up on the platforms that's been going on this week? First I had a giggle, but then some of the really racist comments, I would have more of a giggle if they were funny and humorous and knew how to be really funny about being racist, but they don't, which shows two things ` there's a lack of education and they don't know satire. And we had a classic example of an old whiter man who tried to write satire and failed miserably, and he's been taking to task by another one of our Maori directors, so it's not very funny. It could be funny. I reckon if I could be racist, I'd be really funny about it. (LAUGHS) I just think there's a lack of humour in their racism, and it points to a lack of education. Taika Waititi ` New Zealander of the year. We've heard that all week. You know how the New Zealander of the Year promote New Zealand in such a way. But what do you think Taika was trying to do here? I can't speak for him, but I just think he was just being honest. The thing is he was in a conversation with a friend of his, another artist, whose work he admired; I don't think he was 'trying' to do a damn thing. I think he was just having a conversation and those are the kinds of things that people of colour talk about. That's all they were doing, though ` talking about their upbringing in New Zealand as Polynesian men, Polynesian boys. Like, there's no way you can have that conversation and for that line not to come out. There just isn't. He's a Maori kid. He grew up in the country. You know, his success has been despite that, not because of it. Of course we're gonna make that observation. We've heard stories from someone who was asked for ID to try on the ring ` Moe. What are some of the experiences that you've had, Boyd? I was just saying before in the back room that none really face-to-face, cos I quickly grew up to be big, black, and ugly, which is a real good deterrent for people not to be racist face-to-face. I had one incident where` I must have been in my early 20s. I won't say who I was working for, but I was working on the trucks, picking up rubbish, and this man ` I said something, and he said, 'Oh, that's pretty smart for a Maori.' So I asked him to pull over the truck, asked him to step out of the truck, and then I hopped in. I had no truck driver's licence, and I drove the truck back to base, which I thought was the better option than punching him in the face. That's true. Yeah, so there could have been two ways I could have responded to that. The other one would have fed into his racist thoughts about Maori, thinking that we're not very clever, and the other one, we ended up having a meeting the next day, and he had to apologise. I didn't really wanna work with him, cos there were five other Maori boys in the truck with me who weren't confident to say anything about his little racist jibes. Leonie, is it exhausting to have to come up with these kind of techniques to combat comments? What is your experience of subtle racism? Yeah, it is a little bit like hitting your head against a wall. It's almost like... the number of people who are gonna learn what racism is and recognise it, we've already reached our quota, and beyond that, no one is prepared to learn anything else, and it is really frustrating, especially working within Maori media and it's your job to keep talking about these sorts of things, and then you feel like you're just talking about the same thing week in, week out. Don Brash gets trotted out to take the 'other side' and sit there, and you've got to prove that racism exists. While you're proving that racism exists, you can't get down to the business of improving race relations and getting rid of racism, because people refuse to see that it's there. I guess on the flipside, if you look at parliament, we have so many Maori leaders in parliament. Yeah. Do you think it's making any difference? It's hard to say, because on the one hand, representation is obviously super important, but we're also individuals, so one Maori person is not the same as the next; one Maori politician is not the same as the next. So you're dealing with really strong individual personalities. Some might be repping really hard for capitalism and conservatism, and some might be repping really hard for a collective approach to democracy. And I guess time will tell? One of the newest Maori leaders in parliament is the co-leader of the Green Party. How do you think she'll go there, Boys? She only just managed to phone her brother back yesterday, so not off to a great start. (CHUCKLES) Bit of a sore point? (LAUGHS) Little bit. But we've all been well-trained ` and our father ` to recognise racism and to call it out politely, cos Dad learned from his mistakes that calling it out impolitely didn't work in your favour. So he learnt very early on through his experiences in Otara, through his experiences in theatre and media, on how to try and call racism out politely, which sucks, but if you can do that` Because you need to actually make people feel uncomfortable in order to have change, and so you need to try and call it out politely but still make people feel uncomfortable so they're willing to change and not feel that level of discomfort. And we are talking about the wonderful Rawiri Paratene there. We have run out of time. Tena korua. Thanks for coming on to discuss this very important kaupapa. Kua hikina te hui mo tenei ra. We'll post links to the show on our Facebook page and on Twitter at The Hui NZ, and you'll find all our stories on the Newshub website. Newshub Nation's next. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. Captions by Madison Batten. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho. The Hui is made with support from New Zealand On Air.