Just a day after settling its Treaty of Waitangi claim, the Bay of Plenty iwi Waitaha says it has already started spending its money.
Waitaha resolved its grievances with the Crown at Hei Marae in Te Puke on Tuesday.
The tribe was made landless during the colonial government's Tauranga military campaign of 1864.
The chair of the Waitaha Raupatu Trust, Frank Puroku Grant, says it has begun eating into its financial and commercial redress of $11.8 million.
Top of the spending list is Crown land that the iwi can buy for a nominal fee and then lease back to the Government. The sites include several schools and a 23-hectare block of vacant whenua, bordering the industrial area of Papamoa.
Waitaha will receive the full package outlined in the deed of settlement when Parliament passes the document as a piece of legislation - which will take about a year.
