The Waitangi Tribunal takes to the water on Saturday to see for itself the lands lost to Maori in Ipipiri in the Bay of Islands.
The tribunal is based at Waitangi this week to hear the claims of hapu on Northland's east coast.
Hapu spokesperson Pita Tipene said this week is the most significant since the Treaty was signed.
He said the stories of the ancestors are not easy to tell or hear, and hapu have been waiting a long time to share them.
Mr Tipene said many of the islands were lost as recently as the 1970s when subdivisons forced up land values and rate bills, and many hapu had their land seized for rate arrears by the Bay of Islands County Council.
