Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Taranaki iwi has its own issues - negotiator

Updated at 4:01 pm on 19 March 2010

A Taranaki iwi claim negotiator says the iwi won't be constrained by earlier settlements within Taranaki Whanui.

The Taranaki iwi, whose territory covers most of the coast from Opunake to New Plymouth, and northern neighbour Te Atiawa this week signed agreements to negotiate settlements, making them the last two iwi in the region to enter the process.

Negotiator Mahara Okeroa told Waatea News that while many of the iwi's issues relate to the land confiscations that affected the whole province after the land wars of the 1860s, it has a specific duty to win redress for the sacking of Parihaka in 1881.

He says they also intend to contest the Crown's ownership of oil and gas, despite the Prime Minister's declaring that that issue is off the table.

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