The Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975 against the backdrop of the protest movement of the 1970s and following decades of calls for the redress of Crown injustices against Māori. The tribunal’s original jurisdiction allowed it to focus only on contemporary issues, and its early inquiries were modest.

Growing protest

The tribunal was set up at a time of growing activism over the current and historical treatment of Māori in society. For more than a century Māori had tried to resolve grievances with the Crown through petitions, court cases and by other legal means, but without significant success.

A ‘Māori renaissance’ from the late 1960s was accompanied by calls for greater legal and social equality with non-Māori, the revival of Māori culture (includingte reo Māori) and a halt to sales of remaining Māori land. At first many protesters denounced the treaty as a ‘fraud’, but later they called on the Crown to honour its obligations under the treaty. This protest movement culminated in the 1975 Māori land march to Parliament.

Matiu Rata (Ngāti Kurī, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Whātua), the Labour government’s minister of Māori affairs, urged his cabinet colleagues to address Māori grievances by setting up a special tribunal. This would provide a legal process for investigating Māori claims of prejudice due to Crown breaches of the treaty and, it was hoped, help to resolve outstanding issues between Māori andPākehā.

Tribunal established

Rata wanted the new Waitangi Tribunal to be able to hear historical claims. His colleagues rejected this proposal and the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 set up the Waitangi Tribunal with the power to investigate claimed breaches of the treaty from 10 October 1975, the date the act was passed. The act also made the tribunal the only official body with the authority to determine the meaning and effect of the treaty, taking into account both its English and Māori versions. The opposition National Party did not oppose the act, and one of its MPs commented that ‘the tribunal’s responsibilities appear minimal’.¹

First tribunal claim

The original Waitangi Tribunal comprised Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court Kenneth Gillanders-Scott, Graham Latimer (appointed by the minister of Māori affairs), and Lawrence Southwick (appointed by the minister of justice). The first claim heard by the tribunal was lodged by Joe Hawke and others of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and concerned fishery rights in the Waitematā Harbour.  The hearing was held in the ballroom of the Auckland Intercontinental Hotel, reflecting the monocultural beginnings of the tribunal. The tribunal rejected Hawke’s arguments. Its decision discouraged Māori from using the tribunal as an avenue for expressing their grievances. Land occupations at Bastion Point in 1977–78 and at Raglan in 1978 continued during this first phase of the tribunal.

For its first few years the Waitangi Tribunal made little impact on New Zealand life. It could only investigate present-day claims, yet most alienations of Māori land and other injustices had occurred much earlier, mainly in the 19th century. Further, while it could make recommendations to the government on how it might provide redress for treaty breaches associated with well-founded claims it had no power to enforce them. Many Māori therefore regarded the creation of the tribunal as a token gesture to appease the protest movement, a way of avoiding Māori demands.

1. Quoted in Janine Hayward, ed.,The Waitangi Tribunal: Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2004, p. 3. Back
2. Andrew Sharp,Justice and the Maori. 2nd ed. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 74. Back
3. W. H. Oliver,Claims to the Waitangi Tribunal. Wellington:Department of Justice, 1991, p. 10. Back