Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 3, 2019 16:55:53 GMT 12
WANGANUI READY TO 'RESET' RELATIONSHIP WITH IWI: MAYOR HAMISH MCDOUALL
Wanganui District Council will make good on former mayor Michael Laws' promise to return sensitive lands near the airport to iwi, current Mayor Hamish McDouall says.
Laws made the promise in 2010, when the council bought Wanganui's port from River City Port.
At the signing of the agreement in principle on lower Whanganui River land claims at Pūtiki Marae on August 30, McDouall said honouring the promise would be a return to an old value - honesty.
McDouall said European settlers and the generations that followed had not looked after waterways the way iwi would have.
As well as financial and material redress, the agreement in principle asks non-Māori to enter a new era where those Māori values are honoured.
"Our ancestors bought into a relationship where we could work together for the betterment of us all," Simon said.
He envisaged iwi taking part in decisionmaking by some mechanism additional to being elected as councillors - perhaps through a post-settlement governance entity.
The settlement legislation would also set out that "Whanganui" is the only correct spelling for the river, district and town - but Simon said iwi won't be picky about it......
www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-district-council/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504487&objectid=12264106
Wanganui District Council will make good on former mayor Michael Laws' promise to return sensitive lands near the airport to iwi, current Mayor Hamish McDouall says.
Laws made the promise in 2010, when the council bought Wanganui's port from River City Port.
At the signing of the agreement in principle on lower Whanganui River land claims at Pūtiki Marae on August 30, McDouall said honouring the promise would be a return to an old value - honesty.
McDouall said European settlers and the generations that followed had not looked after waterways the way iwi would have.
As well as financial and material redress, the agreement in principle asks non-Māori to enter a new era where those Māori values are honoured.
"Our ancestors bought into a relationship where we could work together for the betterment of us all," Simon said.
He envisaged iwi taking part in decisionmaking by some mechanism additional to being elected as councillors - perhaps through a post-settlement governance entity.
The settlement legislation would also set out that "Whanganui" is the only correct spelling for the river, district and town - but Simon said iwi won't be picky about it......
www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-district-council/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504487&objectid=12264106