Radio, Waatea News | April 09, 2024 Kingi Smiler | Wairarapa Moana Incorporation Chairman. New Zealand’s human rights record will be scrutinised before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for its 5-yearly review on 29 April.

Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani Incorporation (WMI) represent the descendants of the original owners of Wairarapa Moana – 4,000 Māori owners, and their whānau (families). Our people have genealogical links to the wider iwi (tribes) of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Wairarapa. WMI is led by the Committee of Management, who are elected by the Māori owners. We are a Māori Land Incorporation, with a large dairy farming and forestry enterprise at Mangakino in the South Waikato of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our case is about the New Zealand Government’s breach of our human rights, rights as Indigenous Peoples, and the Treaty of Waitangi – the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand. This statement focuses on two themes: Indigenous Peoples Rights and Justice.

One year ago today, members of the 53rd New Zealand Parliament at the third reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua Claims Settlement Bill voted to pass it into legislation.

Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani Incorporation is a Māori Land Incorporation from Aotearoa New Zealand. We wish to share the impact and trauma for our people of the recent actions of the New Zealand Government
on our individual and collective wellbeing.