Channeling the Ivy League Helped a Maori Tribe Earn $1.3 Billion

New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people were guaranteed equality when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi with the British Crown in 1840. But it took more than 150 years for the government to apologize and seriously address the injustices the Maori suffered during colonization, when vast tracts of land were bought from them for a pittance. That loss of an economic foundation still disadvantages them.

In 1998 the Ngai Tahu tribe of Christchurch got a NZ$170 million payout from the government, one of the first in a series of compensation payments that have given tribal groups, or iwi, the opportunity to invest. Today, Ngai Tahu owns a portfolio of tourism ventures, commercial and residential properties, farms, forests, and fisheries. Its assets are valued at NZ$2 billion ($1.3 billion), the largest of any iwi, while the broader Maori economy is estimated at NZ$50 billion. “As the peace and reconciliation process continues, as the assets have gone back to the tribes, as economic capability and capital has become available, it’s fantastic,” said Adrian Orr, New Zealand’s central bank governor, in a recent interview with Bloomberg News. “Ngai Tahu is a great story.”