Spaniard: Tikanga plays third rail in public land changes

Tikanga is creeping into much of our nation’s life, with control passed to iwi underhandedly. One mostly unnoticed area is conservation. When Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka recently redesignated 513,042.2 hectares of West Coast public conservation land, he did it on the basis on tikanga.

His decision-making legitimised Ngai Tahu’s leveraging of lore and law in interpreting the Conservation Act and other legislation, serious conflicts of interest, and dominance of Ngai Tahu tribal rhetoric.