“I riro whenua atu me hoki whenua mai”: The return of land and the Waikato-Tainui raupatu settlement

Abstract

The Waikato-Tainui raupatu settlement signed in 1995 focused on the return of land to address grievances related to the war and confiscation that marked the Waikato region in the 1860s. Negotiations regarding the return of land focused on the tribal entity into which lands would be vested, which specific lands they would be returned and in what legal form they would be utilised. The negotiations regarding the return of land to Waikato-Tainui represented a situation under which the Crown’s power was reinvented rather than weakened. Compromises were made and some land was returned but it was under the Crown’s framework and overall control.