Parliament has passed the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill, the latest step in a process including a $50 million settlement and apology.
A gift to the Crown from Ngāti Hineuru after Treaty Resettlement in the Beehive in April last year. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
The Ngāti Hineuru iwi suffered a loss of land and mana after Crown attacks at Ōmarunui and near Pētane in 1866, during which its chief Te Rangihīroa was killed.
Many of those who resisted the Crown's confiscations were banished or summarily executed.
The small Hawke's Bay iwi will receive compensation of about $50m and an apology from the Crown.
The iwi signed a deed of settlement at a ceremony at the Beehive last April.
Labour MP Louisa Wall, herself from Ngāti Hineuru, told Parliament the iwi was the victim of the Crown's actions.
"We suffered armed invasion, military attack, destruction of our property, we were exiled to Wharekauri, the Chatham Islands, and some of our whānau were executed.
"The Crown were the thieves. The Crown were the murderers."
Minister for Treaty Negotiations Chris Finlayson told Parliament Ngāti Hineuru had suffered injustices that put a serious stain on the reputation of the Crown.
"For Hineuru, these actions resulted in decades of uncertainty about tenure, significant financial costs, social and cultural dislocation and left them virtually landless.
"Yet, despite, all this they have persevered."
Mr Finlayson paid tribute to members of Ngāti Hineuru who were present in the gallery, and to those who had been involved in negotiations with the Crown.
"I ask members to consider how the people of Hineuru sitting in the gallery today, whose ancestors have been subjected to such horrific treatment, who have suffered economic and social marginalisation in their own rohe, can find it within themselves to be able to sit at the same table and engage in this process of reconciliation with the very group who, despite being entrusted to protect their interest, was responsible for the loss that was suffered."
Parliament also passed the second reading of the Ngāruahine Claims Settlement Bill.
