DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
Ngāti Te Au members Anton Davis, right, and Reihana Adlam tell the Waitangi Tribunal about their iwi’s loss of land.
A spiritual connection with the land was broken for a Manawatū iwi after it lost land to the Crown in the 19th century, a Waitangi Tribunal has heard.
Members of iwi Ngāti Te Au spoke about their loss of land at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing, the Manawatū ki Porirua inquiry, at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom in Foxton on Tuesday.
This week of hearings, the fifth of 12, concerns the area around Foxton, but is part of the Ngati Raukawa iwi confederations treaty claim on the historical purchase of about 130,000 hectares of land between Manawatū and Kāpiti. Raukawa claims the area was not bought legitimately, but confiscated by the pen.