Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri are an iwi whose area of interest in centred on Wharekauri (Chatham Islands). 

In 2016, the Crown recognised the mandate of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri Iwi Trust to represent Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri to negotiate a comprehensive historical Treaty settlement.

The Crown signed Terms of Negotiation with Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri in 2016. On 25 November 2022, the Crown and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri signed an Agreement in Principle which formed the basis for this settlement.

On 11 December 2025 Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and the Crown initialled a Deed of Settlement, which was then ratified by the people of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and signed on 17 August 2026. The settlement will be implemented following the passage of settlement legislation.

The Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana – Te Tari Whakatau, with the support of the Department of Conservation, Land Information New 
Zealand, and other government agencies represented the Crown in day-to-day negotiations.

The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Hon Paul Goldsmith (and his predecessors Hon Christopher Finlayson KC and Hon Andrew Little), 
represented the Crown in high-level negotiations with Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri.

In 1835 tūpuna of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri migrated to Wharekauri in search of security. This followed many years of warfare during which the migrants left their ancestral homeland in Taranaki, and established themselves in Te Whanganui a Tara. After arriving in Wharekauri, Ngāti Mutunga 
established customary interests throughout Wharekauri in accordance with their tikanga through conquest, a process of takahi or walking the lands, and occupation.

In April 1842, the Crown annexed Wharekauri without consulting Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri. The Crown did not consult Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri before finally sending an official to Wharekauri in 1855, though rangatira were willing to negotiate the terms on which he would serve. Since then the 
Crown’s physical presence on the islands has always been minimal.

In the summer of 1842/1843, some Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri migrated to the Auckland Islands which were annexed at the same time as Wharekauri. In 1849 a British company, exercising Crown authority, sent settlers there, but their settlement only lasted until 1852. There was no investigation into the Company’s claimed purchase of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri interests in the islands. By 1856 all the 
Māori migrants had also departed.

In the 1860s the Crown confiscated Taranaki lands in which Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri members had interests. Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri applied for the return of their ancestral lands, but were generally unsuccessful. Many iwi members subsequently supported the peaceful resistance movement founded by Te Whiti at Parihaka.

Between 1866 and 1868 the Crown detained prisoners from other iwi without trial on Wharekauri. The Crown did not consult Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri before the prisoners arrived, but Ngāti Mutunga provided land and supplies for them. The security arrangements were inadequate and, in 1868 the prisoners escaped to New Zealand.

In 1870, the Native Land Court awarded 97% of Wharekauri to Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri under laws allowing no more than ten individuals to hold titles for any land block. The large Kekerione block was awarded to just four individuals, and many customary rights holders were dispossessed.

Eventually the Crown promoted laws providing for customary rights holders to be included as individual owners in legal titles, but this fragmented the ownership of Ngāti Mutunga land as owners died, and successors inherited their interests. This had a lasting legacy of making Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri land difficult to manage and use economically.

Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri were subject to taxation without representation for decades as they were ineligible to vote in Parliamentary elections until 1922. In 1890 two iwi members were imprisoned on the mainland after refusing to pay a dog tax opposed by most members of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri.

The Crown was slow to assist with economic infrastructure on Wharekauri. It compulsorily took land for a roading network in the early 1880s, but construction of the roads did not begin until 1945. Even then, the first roads were of poor quality. By the late 1960s many roads had degenerated into muddy tracks and were described as like crow tracks to the bails.

The Crown sought to assimilate Māori into European culture, and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri recall their children being punished for speaking Te Reo Māori at school. There has never been a secondary school on Wharekauri. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri faced limited economic opportunities, and many lived in poor housing and with bad health. Many members of the iwi have left the island.

The Crown recognised in the middle of the twentieth century that its administrative arrangements for Wharekauri were ineffective. In 1950, it placed administration of Wharekauri under the Department of Island Territories, the body responsible for New Zealand’s Pacific Island territories. In 1961 the Crown concluded its administration of Wharekauri was still ineffective and transferred it to the Department of Internal Affairs. The Crown’s inaction during the crayfish boom of the 1960s allowed for the overfishing of crayfish and an end to the boom in 1970. In 1985, though, a government review concluded this department had never been responsible for the economic development of the islands. Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri were angered during the 1980s by repeated reviews of the Crown’s Wharekauri administration that did not produce outcomes which would improve their future economic prospects.

Cultural redress is intended to recognise the cultural, historical and traditional associations of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri within their area of interest and include:

• a cultural revitalisation payment of $5 million;
• a statutory acknowledgement over the coastal area, which requires consenting authorities to notify Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri of resource consent applications and enhances their ability to participatein resource management processes; and 
• changes to geographic placenames

The following names will be changed through the settlement legislation:

• Karewa (unofficial recorded name) to Kārewa Area
• Lake Marakapia to Lake Mārakāpia Lake
• Lake Rangitai to Lake Rangitai Lake
• Lake Rotoparaoa to Rotoparāoa Lake
• Mairangi to Mairangi Locality
• Te Roto to Te Roto Lake
• Tupuangi to Tupuangi Locality
• Waihere Bay to Waihere Bay
• Waikanae (unofficial collected name) to Waikanae Historic site [pā]
• Unnamed to Pā Tangaroa Historic site [pā]
• Unnamed to Pīpītarawai Hill
• Unnamed to Hourangi Beach
• Unnamed to Pana Area
• Unnamed Rotokawau Historic site [ex-lake]
• Unnamed Roto Pouaka Lake
• Unnamed Te Roto Historic site [kāinga]
• Unnamed Te Roto Historic site [urupā]

In addition to place name changes, the names listed below will be recorded as unofficial original Māori names:

• Cape Pattisson to Tupuangi Cape
• Mangere Island to Māngere Island
• Motuhara (Bertier or The Forty Fours)
• (unofficial recorded name) to Motuhara Islands
• Nairn River to Mangatūkārewa River
• Ohira to Ōhira Bay
• Port Hutt (Whangaroa Harbour) to Whangaroa Bay
• Rabbit Island to Wharekai ki te Motu Island
• South East Island (Rangatira) to Rangatira Island
• Star Keys (Motuhope) (unofficial recorded name) to Motuhope Islands
• The Pyramid (Tarakoikoia) to Tarakoikoia Island
• The Sisters (Rangitatahi) to Rangitātahi Islands

Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri’s cultural association with the Chatham Islands will be further recognised by involving them in the management of conservation land on the islands. Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri’s participation in the management of conservation land in their rohe will be enhanced by:

• the nomination of a member to the Chatham Islands Conservation Board;
• a deed of recognition over Crown-owned public conservation land on the Chatham Islands, requiring the Department of Conservation to consult and have regard to the views of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri when undertaking specific actions; and
• a statement of Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri interests in the islands, islets and reefs surrounding the Chatham Islands which will be attached to the Chatham Islands Conservation Management Strategy. The Department of Conservation will be required to consult Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and have regard to the statement when undertaking operational activities on these islands, islets and reefs.

Relationship redress aims to deepen the relationship between Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and Crown agencies by developing relationship agreements. Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri are entering into relationships with the following agencies:

• Department of Conservation;
• Ministry of Health/Health New Zealand;
• Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities; and 
• Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions & Transport.

The settlement will also provide for a Whakaaetanga Tiaki Taonga with: Te Tari Taiwhenua – Department of internal Affairs, the agency responsible for  the National Library – Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and Archives New Zealand; Te Papa Tongarewa; Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga; and 
Manatū Taonga – Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri will also be party to Crown Minerals Protocol and a Primary Industries Protocol with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry for Primary Industries respectively.

On settlement date, the Chief Executive of The Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana: Te Tari Whakatau will write to New Zealand Sound and Vision introducing Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri.

• a $13 million financial redress payment (plus interest accrued between signing the Agreement in Principle and the settlement date).
• a right of first refusal over fisheries quota for species managed under the Fisheries Act 1996, to be introduced in the quota managements system after the settlement date; and
• the option to purchase five Crown properties on a deferred selection basis.

Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and Moriori both have interests in Wharekauri/the Chatham Islands. Their areas of interest are completely overlapped and encompass the entirety of the Chatham Islands.

Shared redress is still under negotiation between the Crown and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri. Shared redress will include:

• the transfer of the bed of Te Whanga Lagoon and some adjoining lands;
• a management regime for Te Whanga Lagoon and some adjoining lands;
• a shared right of first refusal over Crown properties on the Chatham Islands;
• a new regime for the management of customary fishing on the Chatham Islands;
• the establishment of a Joint Planning Committee of the Chatham Islands Council;
• official geographic place name changes;
• four Tikitiki Hill sites; and
• Kaingaroa school (land only) deferred selection sale and lease back.