Pouring rain forecast for Sunday may be ease by the time protestors take to Katikati streets on Sunday morning, but they will be there rain or shine says co-ordinator Meremaihi Aloua.

The march is a continuation of the harbour protest on June 17, when a flotilla of small crafts blocked the Tauranga Harbour entrance in protest at the government handing Bay of Plenty property rights to Waikato iwi, without consultation.

'It's carrying on, we are just bringing wet weather gears and tents and everything,” says Meremaihi.

The Hauraki collective is claiming redress through Treaty of Waitangi claims over two areas in Tauranga Moana.

'One of them is Katikati, which is why we are doing our march, and the other is Te Puna which we will be rolling the following Sunday.

'They have never ever lived here. For generations and generations we have been physically here. They have got interests, but those are relationship interests – not rights.”

The Katikati protest March begins at the Uretara Domain at 10.30am, and advances along the main street of Katikati to Diggleman Park.

Tauranga Moana iwi are fighting a plan by the Office of Treaty Settlements to sign a deal that will give rights in Tauranga to a collection of Hauraki iwi.

Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhaio previously told SunLive the Hauraki iwi are using dubious history to establish ownership rights where they have only ever had interests through some shared histories, marriages, previous individual residences. Since 1840 there has been no presence on an iwi basis, says Charlie.

It's a gambit that has succeeded for Hauraki in Auckland and Whangarei, with the result that the number of iwi given rights in Auckland expanded from five to 19.

Each of the additional iwi are free to require ‘cultural assessments' of planned property developments, at the cost of the applicant.

When the Hauraki group first set up in Auckland they found 3600 new sites of cultural interest in Auckland that had not been known previously, say Ngai te Rangi.

Ngarimu Blair from Auckland iwi Ngati Whatua Orakei will be in Tauranga next week speaking with community leaders about the negative impact the deal with Hauraki has had in Auckland.