5 Sep 2014

Settlements a 'double edged sword'

8:48 am on 5 September 2014

An educationalist says Treaty Settlements have been a double-edged sword, with both good and negative aspects to them.

Māori leaders and academics gathered in Auckland this week at Te Pae Roa Hui, which commemorated thirty years since the inaugural Hui Taumata conference - described as ushering in the era of Māori development.

Among many things, those at the hui discussed the challenges Maori face in a post-Treaty settlement era.

Keynote speaker Sir Tamati Reedy of Ngati Porou, an academic at the hui, said the settlements have had their advantages, but have also caused problems.

He said on the one hand they have resolved the wrongs of the past with the Crown, but they had had a negative dimension too - of increasingly splitting tangata whenua apart.

Sir Tamati said those are the sorts of things Maori needed to address in the future.

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