"[8] If mana in this case is deemed authority and power, then the term ‘motuhake’ is understood as ‘separated, special, distinct, independent, unattached.’[8][9] It is therefore understood to be:Autonomous or independent power that is factual and held by either hapu or iwi, similar to sovereignty but grounded in the whakapapa connection of mana whenua to their ancestor Papatūānuku and their legal system of tikanga.
[8]The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs (rangatira) from the North Island of New Zealand.
The most critical difference between the texts revolves around the interpretation of three Māori words: kāwanatanga (governorship), which is ceded to the Queen in the first article; rangatiratanga (chieftainship) not mana (leadership) (which was stated in the Declaration of Independence just five years before the treaty was signed), which is retained by the chiefs in the second; and taonga (property or valued possessions), which the chiefs are guaranteed ownership and control of, also in the second article.
Hemopereki Simon ascertains that mana motuhake is a more accurate term than kāwanatanga based on a Maori philosophy point of view and the assertions of Ngati Tuwharetoa.
The term had been used by Henry Williams in his translation of the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand which was signed by 35 northern Māori chiefs at Waitangi on 28 October 1835.
The first stage of the report was released in November 2014, and found that Māori chiefs in Northland never agreed to give up their sovereignty when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
Tribunal manager Julie Tangaere said at the report's release to the Ngapuhi claimants: Your tupuna [ancestors] did not give away their mana at Waitangi, at Waimate, at Mangungu.