Rūnanga withdraws from mediation with the Trust

Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo pulled out of the mediation process with the Waipapa Marae Trust 3 days before the mediation date was set for 9 June 2023.

Both parties were in negotiation with the highly experienced mediation lawyer, Baden Vertongen, over the terms of reference for a dispute resolution process the Rūnanga insisted upon and then withdrew from at the last minute.

In the build-up to mediation, both parties had agreed to share the $6,000 legal fee.  However, the Waipapa Trust decided to pick up the total bill, as soon as they were informed the Rūnanga could not pay its share.

“This wasn’t about money,” says Trust Chair Cath Holland. 

“This was about bringing the Rūnanga and the Trust into alignment with the future aspirations of our three thousand plus + marae beneficiaries.  

This was never about the cost of legal fees. 

This was a matter of sticking to the mediation agreement to discuss issues the Rūnanga had with the Trust. The Trust was more than happy to sit down and work alongside the Rūnanga in addition to paying the bill as long as it was a tikanga-based dispute resolution process chaired by an experienced Māori mediation lawyer with the skills and expertise to navigate a successful outcome,” says the Chair.

Holland reiterated both parties agreed that a legal mediator like Baden Vertongen was fit for purpose.

“Sure it was going to cost us legal fees.  Disputes cost money.  But a lot of his work has been for Iwi and larger Māori organisations that involved working on Treaty of Waitangi settlements, disputes between iwi and hapū, co-management frameworks and Crown and Māori partnerships.

He has been working for a long time as a lawyer in a wide range of negotiations and mediations and other alternative dispute resolution processes. And he was one of our own from Tainui waka, from Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga.  Unfortunately, the Rūnanga pulled out."

“For the Marae Trust, there is an upside to the termination of the mediation process.  It has been a constant preoccupation and distraction for the last ten months that could otherwise have been focussed on the further development of the Marae as we plough on with the infrastructure rebuild.”

“One of the downsides of the Treaty Claim process is that it has pitted whānau against whānau, hapū against hapū and iwi against iwi. Essentially, this is at the heart of the conflict between the Marae Trust and the Rūnanga – who is most entitled to negotiate the Treaty Settlement claim over the Kāwhia harbour.”

“As one of the 68 Raupatū Marae, Waipapa is represented at the Waikato Tainui Negotiation table for the WAI 30 and Remaining claims, as an integral member of the harbour collective, Ngā Marae o Kāwhia Moana.”

“The bigger tragedy, however, is that the alleged disharmony between the Marae and the Rūnanga remains unresolved.”

Our tūpuna often sought wisdom from the environment around them.  The taiao, environment, was their mirror image of the world they lived in.  It spoke to their truth.  Moreover, the prophetic words of wisdom from King Tāwhiao’s tongikura, equally apply today.

Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati,

Ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati.

If there’s only one toetoe stem, it’ll break

If they’re bundled together, they will never break