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Last reviewed: 16 August 2026

Treaty mapping in Aotearoa

Treaty-related mapping contains many polygons that can look similar on a screen while meaning very different things.

A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry district, a Wai claim area, an agreed area of interest, a statutory acknowledgement, a deferred selection property and a rohe are not interchangeable.

The first job of Treaty mapping is therefore to keep purpose and provenance visible.

Start by naming the geography correctly​

Common Treaty-related spatial concepts include:

  • Waitangi Tribunal inquiry districts
  • claim-specific areas described in evidence
  • Wai claim references
  • claimant group areas of interest
  • Treaty settlement areas of interest
  • Crown forest licensed land
  • landbank or potential redress properties
  • properties transferred as cultural or commercial redress
  • rights of first refusal areas
  • statutory acknowledgement areas
  • deeds of recognition
  • overlay classifications
  • place-name redress
  • co-governance or co-management areas created through settlement arrangements

Some are legal geometries. Some are administrative. Some are evidential. Some are indicative. Some exist only for one stage of negotiation.

Do not collapse them into a generic Treaty boundaries layer.

Waitangi Tribunal inquiry districts​

An inquiry district defines the spatial scope of a particular Tribunal inquiry process.

It is useful for:

  • organising evidence
  • finding inquiry reports and records
  • displaying the geographic scope of research
  • orienting claim material

It is not automatically an iwi or hapū rohe.

If you use an inquiry district, label it as an inquiry district and record the relevant inquiry name and Wai number where applicable.

Wai claims​

A Wai number identifies a registered claim, not a standard GIS polygon.

Claims differ greatly. Some concern a specific block, event, policy or resource. Others are broad.

When building a claim layer:

  • record the Wai number
  • link to the statement of claim or source document
  • distinguish exact described land from indicative research areas
  • avoid inventing a polygon where the claim does not define one
  • retain amendments and superseded descriptions where they matter

A point or document reference may be more honest than a broad polygon for some claims.

Areas of interest​

Treaty settlement areas of interest are often used for negotiation and settlement context.

They can overlap with neighbouring groups and should not be presented as exclusive customary boundaries.

Te Kāhui Māngai specifically warns that areas of interest used for Treaty settlement purposes are not definitive statements of a group's interests and that more than one group may have interests in the same area.

In metadata, record:

  • the source group
  • settlement or negotiation context
  • source date
  • whether the geometry is indicative
  • a clear note that overlapping interests may exist

See Working with mana whenua and rohe without hard boundaries.

Settlement redress​

Treaty settlements can include several forms of redress that map well in GIS when they are kept distinct.

Cultural redress​

May include:

  • transferred cultural properties
  • statutory acknowledgements
  • deeds of recognition
  • place-name changes
  • overlay or classification mechanisms

Commercial redress​

May include:

  • transferred properties
  • rights of first refusal
  • deferred selection properties
  • Crown forest licensed land mechanisms

The legal effect differs by settlement and redress type. The GIS should point users to the deed or legislation rather than trying to encode the whole legal meaning in a symbology class.

Statutory acknowledgements​

Statutory acknowledgements recognise particular associations with specified areas and have defined statutory consequences.

They are useful in planning and consent GIS because councils often maintain spatial layers for them.

Do not describe the polygon simply as an iwi cultural area.

Keep:

  • settlement group
  • statutory acknowledgement name
  • settlement Act or deed reference
  • source authority
  • date
  • the relevant planning or engagement purpose

Rights of first refusal​

RFR areas can be especially misleading on maps because a large polygon may look like ownership or exclusive interest.

It is neither.

If mapping an RFR mechanism:

  • use the exact legal terminology from the settlement source
  • explain that the map relates to a disposal mechanism for specified Crown property
  • do not label the polygon iwi land
  • retain the deed or Act reference

Place-name redress​

Treaty settlements can restore or correct original Māori place names.

Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa records settlement place names in the New Zealand Gazetteer and notes that overlapping and neighbouring iwi are consulted on proposed Treaty place names.

For GIS, keep the legal naming source and effective date with the record.

See Who gets to name a place?.

Crown Forestry Rental Trust context​

Where historical or claims work involves Crown forest licensed land, GIS may need to distinguish:

  • current Crown forest licensed land
  • historical land transactions
  • Tribunal inquiry evidence
  • claimant interests
  • settlement outcomes

Do not infer claimant entitlement from spatial overlap alone. GIS can organise the evidence but does not make the legal or historical determination.

Create a Treaty map legend that explains itself​

Avoid a legend like:

Ngāti A
Ngāti B
Ngāti C

when the polygons are actually settlement areas of interest.

Prefer:

Treaty settlement area of interest, indicative
Statutory acknowledgement area
Property transferred as cultural redress
Rights of first refusal area
Waitangi Tribunal inquiry district

Then use labels or popups to identify the relevant group and source.

The representation type should be obvious before the viewer interprets the colour.

A dark colour can easily imply stronger rights or greater significance.

Do not use colour intensity to suggest a hierarchy among:

  • overlapping iwi interests
  • claims
  • redress types
  • cultural relationships

Use colour to distinguish representation types, not to invent a scale of legitimacy.

Useful source fields​

A Treaty-related layer may include:

record_id
representation_type
group_name
wai_number
settlement_name
source_document
source_url
legislation_ref
effective_date
geometry_status
purpose
notes

Where the geometry is digitised from a document rather than supplied as an official GIS layer, say so.

A practical workflow​

  1. Define the Treaty process or question being mapped.
  2. Identify the controlling source: Tribunal record, deed, legislation, official dataset or claimant evidence.
  3. Create separate layers by representation type.
  4. Add dates and document references.
  5. Preserve overlap.
  6. Mark indicative or reconstructed geometry clearly.
  7. Check whether the map could be mistaken for a rohe map.
  8. Produce a public derivative only where the source and purpose support it.

Sources​

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