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The Velvet Revolution
The fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. The peaceful transition from a Warsaw Pact country with an authoritarian communist government to a Western-style democracy.

Ruruku Whakatupua On 5 August 2014, the Crown and Whanganui Iwi signed Ruruku Whakatupua, the Deed of Settlement for the Whanganui River, at Ruakā Marae in Rānana.

Ruruku Whakatupua is the culmination of well over a century’s effort by Whanganui Iwi to protect and provide for our special relationship with the Whanganui River in the face of adverse acts by the Crown and its agents.

This journey has involved numerous petitions to Parliament commencing in the 1870s; the pursuit of one of the longest running cases in New Zealand legal history concerning the ownership of the bed of the River between 1938 and 1962; litigation concerning the operation of, and diversion of waters by, the Tongariro Power Scheme; claims to, and a report in 1999 from, the Waitangi Tribunal; and extensive efforts in negotiation with the Crown over a long period.

Following the recommencement of engagement with the Crown in 2009, progress was steadily, but carefully, made towards the settlement.

In the Treaty settlement negotiations with the Crown, the vision for the Whanganui River settlement has been founded on two fundamental principles:

Te Awa Tupua mai i te Kāhui Maunga ki Tangaroa - an integrated, indivisible view of Te Awa Tupua comprising the Whanganui River and all its elements in both biophysical and metaphysical terms from the mountains to the sea; and
Ko au te Awa,ko te Awa ko au - the health and wellbeing of the Whanganui River is intrinsically interconnected with the health and wellbeing of the people.