Those behind a decades-long campaign to protect Māori intellectual and property rights say the government appears to be taking positive steps, although there is still a long way to go.
Campaigner Sheridan Waitai, right, with her late grandmother Saana Murray, an original claimant for Wai 262, a Ngāti Kuri leader and a poet. Photo: Supplied
Associate Minister of Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta has announced almost $28 million to help enact the recommendations of Wai 262 across legislation and the public service as part of Budget spending.
Wai 262 calls for protection and authority over indigenous species, traditional knowledge, Māori symbols, designs, and other cultural property.
It was the first contemporary claim filed with the Waitangi Tribunal in 1991. That set off off a 20-year inquiry during which several of the original claimants and a presiding officer died.
The tribunal released its report, Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, in 2011. It recommended the government establish a new commission to protect Māori cultural works from unauthorised commercial use.
It also recommended that laws covering te reo Māori, resource management, patents and environmental protection be amended.
It wasn't until 2019 that the government published its first response to the claim, creating Te Pae Tawhiti to examine both legislation and the wider public service.
Nanaia Mahuta Photo: Pool / NZME
Last week, Mahuta said the $27.6m would be set aside for Te Pae Tawhiti. She said it would support research and innovation in the Māori economy.
"Mātuaranga Māori and tāonga are unique to our national culture and identity. In order to continue to benefit from them, we need systems in place to ensure they retain their integrity and flourish for all in Aotearoa," Mahuta said in a statement.
"By leveraging off our unique culture and identity, early modelling estimates this work has the potential to deliver up to $340 million to our Māori economy in Aotearoa annually."
Te Taumata Whakapūmau is an organisation representing the whānau and iwi who brought the original Wai 262 claim. A spokesperson, Sheridan Waitai, said the funding was a welcome step after a decade of stops and starts.
"It has been a long time with lots of ebbs and flows. So as they made that announcement, it was just a real pause and reflection.
"It's the largest and most complex claim in our history: essentially it's our identity. It's our identity claim and it activated the first whole-of-government inquiry. It is about existing laws, policies, practices ... it's about examining policy areas across multiple government departments, it is around legislative change, policy reform, all those things."
With that, Waitai said that while this announcement was welcome, this was only a step, with the work far from done - particularly when it comes to more transformational aspects.
She also said it would not be a smooth path.
One of the authors of the original claim was the late Māori scholar Moana Jackson, who Waitai said warned against accepting a "Crown-controlled dilution of intellectual property", or having manaakitanga restricted to "the ethos of copyright".
"You've got to remember that he was so deliberate and intentional with what he even put in that claim and I suppose the biggest challenge for us is there's so much more mahi to do."
Sheridan Waitai is the grand-daughter of the late Ngāti Kuri leader and poet Saana Murray, one of the original claimants of Wai 262, who was also a prolific poet.
"I can hear my grandmother saying: What will become of me if my rivals claim the victory?/ Laws with claws like parasites, devouring my human rights / Anyway, who needs eternal conflict / 'cos I'll regain my own identity / even though I'm landless in my own country."
