Tapuika is represented in negotiations by the Tapuika Iwi Authority who, together with Te Maru o Ngāti Rangiwewehi Iwi Authority, signed joint terms of negotiation with the Crown on 14 August 2008. The Crown recognised their mandate on 30 October 2008. The Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Committee joined the negotiations in 2009 and the three together form the collective Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru. While the three iwi have worked collaboratively during negotiation, each iwi has negotiated separate Treaty settlements. On 16 June 2011, the Crown signed an Agreement in Principle with the Tapuika Iwi Authority.

The Crown and Tapuika Iwi Authority initialled a Deed of Settlement on 11 October 2012. The Deed was then ratified and signed on 16 December 2012. The settlement will be implemented through settlement legislation. The Office of Treaty Settlements, with the support of the Department of Conservation and other government agencies, represented the Crown in day‑to‑day negotiations. The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Hon Christopher Finlayson, represented the Crown in high‑level negotiations with Tapuika Iwi Authority.

The historical account describes how, when the Crown brought war to Tauranga in 1864, members of Tapuika went to assist their traditional allies. The Crown regarded Māori who fought against it in the Tauranga battles as rebels and confiscated 290,000 acres of land around Tauranga including land in which Tapuika had customary interests. The Crown retained 50,000 acres and returned the remainder to Māori. However Tapuika and others regarded as unsurrendered rebels were generally excluded from this process and Tapuika were awarded none of the land they claimed.

Tapuika settlements provided a base for opposition to the survey of the confiscation district. Crown forces, using a scorched earth policy, destroyed these settlements and the surrounding cultivations. The Crown then ordered a military occupation of Tapuika land.

In the early 1870s, Native Land Court operations and Crown land purchase activities caused tensions between Tapuika and other iwi over rights to land in the Maketu district. In 1875 the Native Minister, seeking to resolve the issue, drew a boundary across the takapu that conflicted with an earlier judgment of the Native Land Court. Tapuika were subsequently excluded from almost all their ancestral lands beyond that boundary – approximately 40,000 prized coastal acres. Tapuika, a coastal people, were left with no coastal lands.

In purchasing land, the Crown used pre-title advances, some of which were made to individuals of other iwi, and used outstanding debts to apply pressure to Tapuika. By 1900, Crown purchases had left Tapuika with approximately 10,000 acres of land. Title to this land had been heavily fragmented by Native Land Court partition and succession processes.

In the twentieth century, the Crown took land from Tapuika for public works eighty times, including land taken in 1939 for a Native School. Rather than pay compensation, the Crown returned a smaller area which Tapuika had gifted to the Crown for another school in 1886. In 1971 the Crown took land from within a Tapuika urupa in breach of the provisions of the Public Works Act.

Tapuika consider the waterways of their rohe as taonga. However, since the late nineteenth century, these waterways have been modified and polluted. As a result, Tapuika wahi tapu have been destroyed, Tapuika’s traditional sources of food and water have been compromised, and it has become increasingly difficult for Tapuika to maintain their customary relationships with their waterways.

For a full description of the historical grievances please refer to the historical account in the deed.

Recognition of the traditional, historical, cultural and spiritual associations Tapuika has with places and sites within their area of interest. The cultural redress package consists of a co-governance arrangement over the Kaituna River, the vesting of sites of significance, other site specific redress and relationship redress.

Kaituna River Co-governance

The settlement establishes a framework for co-governance of the Kaituna River. A statutory body, Te Maru o Kaituna (the Kaituna River Authority), will be established through the Tapuika settlement with membership drawn from local authorities, Tapuika and other iwi with associations to the Kaituna River.

Lower Kaituna Wildlife Management Reserve

The Lower Kaituna Wildlife Management Reserve will be vested jointly in Tapuika and Ngati Whakaue, who will, in turn and after a specified period of time, gift the reserve back to the Crown. The status of the reserve remains unaffected during the vesting and gift back process.

Enhancing cultural presence within Te Puke

The Crown will provide $500,000 to assist Tapuika to enhance their cultural presence within Te Puke.

Sites vested in Tapuika

12 sites of special significance to Tapuika totalling approximately 209 hectares will be vested in Tapuika, including:

• 3 sites from within Kaharoa Conservation Forest (Te Pehu, Te Weta, Wai Paepae),
• 2 sites from within Te Matai Conservation Forest (Te Kainga Onaumoko, Te Whaitiri),
• Otahu Pa (Rangiuru area),
• Otukawa (Pah Road area).

One additional site, Te Taita (6 hectares), will be vested jointly in Tapuika and Ngati Rangiwewehi. Three sites will be vested in fee simple, while the remainder are vested subject to relevant reserve classifications.

Whenua rahui

The settlement provides a whenua rahui, or overlay classification, over Opoutihi, a 65-hectare area from within Gammons Block Conservation Area.

Statutory acknowledgements and deeds of recognition

The settlement provides for statutory acknowledgements over a large number of sites and waterways of significance to Tapuika.
Deeds of recognition are also provided in relation to several sites administered by the Department of Conservation and in relation to the Kaituna River.

New and altered geographic names

Tapuika have proposed new or altered geographic names for five geographic features or sites in their area of interest.

Protocols

Protocols will be issued by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and the Minister of Energy and Resources. A Conservation Relationship Agreement will be entered into by the Minister of Conservation and Tapuika.

This redress recognises the losses suffered by Tapuika arising from breaches by the Crown of its Treaty obligations. The financial and commercial redress is aimed at providing Tapuika with resources to assist them to develop their economic and social well being.

Tapuika will receive financial redress of $6,000,000, less the on account payment of $2.5 million provided in December 2008 and the value of 17 commercial redress properties.

The exact mix of cash of cash and properties will be determined following the signing of the settlement, but includes the purchase of:

• 12 commercial redress properties in Te Puke
• up to 4 additional properties as commercial redress, including Kaharoa Forest, Te Matai North, Te Matai Soutn (jointly with Ngāti Rangiwewehi) and Puwhenua Forest (in agreed portions with Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Rangiwewehi). The cost of all commercial redress properties is $3,092,355.

Tapuika will also have a right of first refusal in relation to 11 Crown-owned properties.