Up until 1978, local councils could still steal whenua Māori for rating offences. We often talk about the history of Aotearoa being recent history, but this really proves it: councils were stealing Māori land until the 1970s. As a result of these insidious colonial policies and continued breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, less than 5 percent of Māori land is still in Māori ownership.