No legal jargon — just straightforward answers to help you understand how our trust actually works.
A whānau trust holds land and other assets on behalf of a group of descendants, so that ownership stays with the whānau collectively rather than being split into smaller and smaller individual pieces as generations pass.
The ITTMS Whānau Trust was set up for the descendants of Isaac Tohetohe Tarau Metua-Smith and Iritana Lily Tewhou Tukaki Tawhiao. It holds interests in dozens of Māori land blocks, mostly in Waikato-Maniapoto and Waiariki, on behalf of the whole whānau.
Trustees are legally responsible for looking after the trust's assets in the interests of everyone the trust represents — not just themselves. That means:
Trustees are appointed (and can be removed) by order of the Māori Land Court — it's not just a whānau decision on its own, though the whānau's wishes matter a great deal in how the Court decides.
Trustees usually meet at a hui to discuss and decide on trust business. Bigger decisions — like electing new trustees or changing how the trust is run — often go through an AGM (Annual General Meeting), where the wider whānau can have a say.
Whatever's decided gets written up as minutes — the official record of what was discussed and agreed. Minutes are published to the Governance page once they're finalised.
Some decisions (like changing who the trustees are) need to be confirmed by the Māori Land Court before they're official — a hui decision is the first step, not the last.
Māori land is usually owned by many people at once, each holding a "share" of the whole block rather than a specific physical piece of it. Shares can be tiny fractions of a percent, especially in blocks that have been divided among descendants for generations.
When someone with shares passes away, their shares don't just vanish — they succeed to their own descendants, usually through the Māori Land Court. This is why the same block can show up more than once in our records over time, each with slightly different numbers — it's the same land, just reflecting who holds what at different points.
The Māori Land Court (Te Kōti Whenua Māori) is a specialist court that deals specifically with Māori land matters — things like who owns what shares, appointing and removing trustees, resolving disputes, and confirming changes to how a trust is run.
It operates under the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993, which sets out the rules for how Māori land trusts work. Most significant changes to ITTMS — like the trustee roster — need a Court order before they're official, even after the whānau has already decided at a hui or AGM.
A few simple ways: