Mission
To guide the people of Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kauwhata and Te Reureu towards an enhanced awareness of their tribal identity and potential through the promotion of tikanga and rangatiratanga, so as to ensure that the successful resolution of past grievances fosters future growth, prosperity and constitutional independence.
Principles
- Te Hono seeks to ensure the Te Tiriti o Waitangi claims process is managed in a manner that is consistent with our tikanga, Te Tiriti principle of rangatiratanga and the principles of collective right, self determination and constitutional independence as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. These overarching principles provide the basis for the claim philosophy of Te Hono.
- Te Hono strongly insists that the claims should be prosecuted through rōpū tuku iho, Māori customary institutions of whānau, hapū and iwi.
- The hapū is the primary political unit in our kaupapa and tikanga. The hapū have customary responsibilities to each other and to the iwi collective as a whole. They are represented collectively in iwi.
- Te Tiriti claims belong not to individuals, but to the whānau, hapū and iwi, on whose behalf the claims are made, in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.
- Claimants are guaranteed the right to manage their own claims by the rules of natural justice (no one can be both prosecutor and judge) and the rule of law (judges must be independent of the Crown and of stakeholders). The right of claimants to present their own cases against the Crown is also protected by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
- The claim inquiry should reflect the understanding of the primary history underlying the generic claims, encapsulated in the phrase "Te Pene Raupatu" - confiscation by the pen.
- The claim research and presentation should reflect our cultural institutions as they have developed, which in turn reflect the customary balance between hapū rangatiratanga, hapū whanaungatanga and iwi kotahitanga.
- The most critical element is that the claim research and presentation reflects the principles of kaupapa Māori research where the values applied are values inherited from tūpuna Māori. That is, the history that we present in support of our case and that is encapsulated in the research reports should be our history in terms of our values and culture, and not that of others.