Hobson’s Pledge Trust
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South Island tribe Ngai Tahu is seeking a court ruling that says they own all the water in the South Island.
This naked resource grab was disguised as seeking to establish “shared authority” with the Crown over policy and practice relating to water.
Tribe chairperson Lisa Tumahai said the case against the Crown, lodged in the High Court in Christchurch last Monday, came after “generations of being excluded from kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of waterways”.
The Stuff report that covered this story said that “rangatiratanga has a wide number of meanings, covering everything from leadership to authority to autonomy”.
It is certainly true that “rangatiratanga” has come to mean whatever anyone wants it to mean. However, a quick check of the English and Maori texts of the Treaty of Waitangi, where “rangatiratanga” is a pivotal word, shows that it was used in Article 2 of the Maori text to translate “ownership” in the English text.
Of course, once a tribe owns water, the tribe will charge everyone who uses it.
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