A Waitangi Tribunal hearing in which the Crown is defending the sole mandate given to Te Runanga o Ngati Porou for settlement of East Coast Maori claims has finished after three days of argument.
The tribunal heard a complaint from representatives of several smaller tribes in the Gisborne area who insisted they had independent autonomous identity and had refused permission for the runanga to negotiate on their behalf.
An urgent three-day inquiry in Wellington was told that Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ruawaipu and Ngati Uepohatu properly come under the umbrella of Ngati Porou and will benefit when a settlement is ratified.
Opponents of the runanga system claimed the Crown sought to suppress them ethnically by giving away the mandate to settle their own affairs.
But the Crown believed it was "treaty compliant," legal counsel David Soper said.
It would be difficult to separate out the links of small traditional tribes from Ngati Porou, with whom they shared some of the same whakapapa.
He said the East Coast "claiming community" had strongly endorsed the runanga mandate in a postal ballot.
The tribunal report with recommendations is expected to be released early next year.
