KING SIGNS "IMPERALISM RE-DISTRIBUTION ACT" For several days the "Imperialism Re-distribution Act" has been debated in the Tribal Council, yesterday it passed by 9 votes to 1 among Iwi Chiefs, and within six hours the King signed it into law. The proposal for such an act has existed for about twenty years however has always failed to be drafted in a coherent way, however with the work of The Otikoro Muhali Foundation
[1] in indentifying connections to the Hassopite occupation the Act has finally been possible. The Foundation, which started in 1990 by businessman Otikoro Muhali whose family were murdered in the Harris Bay Jail massace in 1982, has been recording the family histories of as many Hassopites based in The Iwi including property grants and purchases. The investigation identified close to 2,000,000 residents of the Commonwealth who are descended from the Hassopite settlers.
The act will aim to take land acquired by families during the occupation and redistribute it amongst the various tribes. The Act will take away the property of anyone who is a direct descendant of an occupier, this property will be granted to the nearest Iwi based on their Chief's place of residence. Any descendent who is living in property purchased since 1984 will not be effected so long as they can show a legally acquired deed to the property. Furthermore any property belonging to a descendent, either acquired prior to 1984 or after, is liable to be searched by members of the governments Maori Heritage Organisation and any authentic Maori artefacts are to be seized and returned to the relevant Iwi as far as possible. Finally the act established the Iwi Claims Commisssion (ICC) which will hear cases brought about by The Iwi's to determine whether property, mainly farms, took land originally granted to tribes. If so the ICC has the power to either return it or charge the holder reparations.
The move gained strong support from Otikoro Muhali who said, "We have seen our Commonweath raped for its wealth and land, a non-native group sought to deny us what is our land and our homes and by that process feather there own beds. This is a landmark moment, it shows that a native group can get back what was taken from them and put right the gross injustices they have faced." It is likely that around 100,000 homes will be taken into possession of the various Iwi in coming days and Tipene Tama, the leader of the Ngāti Rongomaiwahine Iwi which spent longest under occupation, believes this is a positive, "For a long time on the edges of our land we've had non-Maori living there, while we've never sought to oust them they are not part of our community, have made no efforts to and have large areas of land on their estate that are not utilised, we now will be getting access to this and can build facilities for our villages, establish bigger commercial farms and other projects to help our people lead a better life."
However not all support the act, the Te Whakatohea Iwi voted against the act with their chief Petera Rangi saying, "We have made great efforts to bring those non-Maori into our communities, we have a significant number of naturalised Maori whom will now find their homes under threat, if they are within our areas they have nothing to fear, however I worry for those outside our Iwi's sphere, this will put greater stress on our resources as we seek to support our brothers and sisters. We also must think that many of these people have no connection with Hassop, or even Mercia today, it is right and just we punish the criminals, not their grandchildren."
The Otikoro Muhali Foundation says however this is not the end of their work, the founder explained, "There are still a significant number of people who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in our Commonwealth's territory, these will be found and brought to justice, our King has shown the commitment to that. We must realise however that Hassop will have had help and allies from other nations, just because it was not their flag flying above the capital does not mean they will get away with it. If you are an Imperialist who benefited from our misery we will find you and you will face the consequences." One such person is likely to be John Maddison, the 78 year property developer who lives in a 400 acre estate. The Cennegs citizen's family were granted the property in 1906 for providing naval supplies to the Hassop regime, his grandfather being named Earl Maddison of Peirbright. The Otikoro Muhali Foundation are now investigating the land registry details to see whether this property could be seized under the new law.