67 Regional Council to change its decision, declining resource consent for a proposed prison site. The Department of Corrections built the prison anyway despite the sacredness of the site to Ngāpuhi. East Coast Mana whenua Ngāi Tāmanuhiri challenged an Overseas Investment Commission decision approving the offshore sale of the historically important ancestral canoe landing site at Te Kurī a Pāoa (Young Nicks Head). The first case advocated equal consideration of spiritually important Māori sites; the second case argued that land should be returned to tangata whenua to uphold the mana of Māori, and New Zealand history and ownership, rather than be sold offshore (Harris, 2004). Ōrewa (2004) The Crown returned official Treaty commemorations to Waitangi in 2003. In January 2004, Opposition National Party Leader Don Brash delivered a divisive speech at Ōrewa aiming to win support for his party by fuelling Pākehā paranoia and racist sentiment against Māori. Brash attacked the “special status of Māori”, accused Māori of engaging in a “grievance industry” driven by financial gain, referred to the Māori parliamentary seats as anachronistic, proposed expunging the Principles of the Treaty from legislation, and questioned the validity of Māori identities which, he argued, were diluted by intermarriage. Brash’s Orewa speech overlooked that Treaty claims were addressing just one to two per cent of losses while denying the billions of dollars of white advantage and privilege that Pākehā had accrued from generations of stolen land and institutional racism. Foreshore and Seabed Act (2004), Takutai Moana Act (2011) The Ōrewa speech had a significant impact on the longstanding debate about Māori ownership of the foreshore and seabed. In 2003, the Court of Appeal overturned assumptions that the foreshore and seabed automatically belonged to the Crown, ruling that Māori could seek customary title through the courts. The Court found that Māori possessed the foreshore and seabed under Aboriginal or Customary Title. Human Rights Commission Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour government, concerned about losing the next election because of Ōrewa and ill-placed Pākehā alarm at losing holiday time beach recreation, launched a pre-emptive strike against Māori rights with the Foreshore and Seabed Act vesting ownership of the foreshore and seabed under the Crown. The Act allowed Māori to apply for a new limited customary title and granted the same right to Pākehā, which ignored the status of 800 years of Māori ownership. The Act was also racist because it denied Māori equal rights under common law before the Courts. The Foreshore and Seabed Act required Māori to prove an uninterrupted connection with the foreshore and seabed since 1840. This ignored the forced separation of Māori from their takutai moana through successive Crown actions via confiscation, forced sales and public works. The proposal was discriminatory because it did not apply to the 12,500, mainly Pākehā, private titles, and 30 percent of the coastline. Moreover, the Act was high-handed appeasement to white racism by a white government that ignored Māori guarantees that any restoration of Māori titles to the foreshore and seabed would not hinder or impede full public access. Labour Party MP Tariana Tūria resigned from Labour and formed the Māori Party. In May 2004, a hīkoi began in Northland and arrived at Parliament in Wellington with 50,000 people. Prime Minister Helen Clark described them as “haters and wreckers”. The legislation passed later that year with the majority support of the Māori Caucus of the Labour Party, some of whom, tugging their forelocks to racism, argued that this was the best they could achieve (Durie, 2005, pp. 88-135). The UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples and UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) described the Foreshore and Seabed Act as discriminatory under international law (Sunday Star Times, 17 October 2010). Māori abandoned the 80-year Rātana alliance with Labour. Winning five seats in the 2008 election, the Māori Party entered a partnership with the incoming National government. History repeats where lessons remain unlearnt. The partnership passed the Takutai Moana Act (2011) repealing Labour’s Foreshore and Seabed legislation. The new Act remained