The Negotiators

Sir Michal Cullen was Minister of Treaty Negotiations for the Treelords settlement over central North Island forests. After he left Parliament, Michael jumped the fence to become lead negotiator for the Ngāti Tūwharetoa comprehensive Treaty claims.

How did a 24-year-old former television reporter end up negotiating against the Crown? Jamie Tuuta was one of 10 kids raised by grandparents whose generation were shamed into silence. Why then did the 'Young Gun' for Taranaki Iwi call a halt to talks with Chris Finlayson, the powerful Minister of Treaty Negotiations?

Mavis Mullins is a high achiever, not only in the wool-handling industry where she is well known and respected, but also on the international business stage. The #32.5 million settlement she helped negotiate covers the second-largest geographical area of any Treaty deal so far, with the claims process beginning in the late '80s.

Chris McKenzie was a teacher when he morphed into the role of education manager at Raukawa Trust. The Trust asked him to represent them at a series of hui, kicking off the Central North Island Forestry claim. It was only ever going to be temporary "just until they completed the search to find a negotiator." They never did.

As a university student with a flash computer fighting to reclaim tribal land, Ella Henry naturally became 'Secretary of Everything'. Upon her mother's death, the respected scholar took up her mother's baton, which saw Ella going up not just against the Crown but sometimes her own relatives.

Alex Nathan spent 20 years leading the Te Roroa claim. The tiny, cash-strapped iwi were accused of arson, part of a widely publicised campaign to discredit the tribe and undermine the Waitangi Tribunal. Public pressure led to a law change which took private land off the negotiating table.

Sir Tipene O'Regan describes the fire-bombings of his marae in the mid '90s as the "cheerful actions of our fellow citizens." The Ngāi Tahu negotiator looks back to when, amid a hostile media, the looming 'fiscal envelope', and State-Owned Enterprises Act, the teacher, taxi driver, and freezing worker faced the might of the Crown.