Queen Apologizes For Seizing Land

Queen Elizabeth II signed an unprecedented apology Friday expressing “profound regret” for the seizure of Maori land by British colonizers 132 years ago.

The document also returns to the Maoris 39,000 of the 1.25 million acres of land the British confiscated in the Waikato region, and places $42 million in a fund for Maoris to buy back privately owned land that was once theirs.

A small group of tribal elders broke into a soft traditional chant after the queen signed the deed of settlement, the largest ever reached in New Zealand’s history of tensions between the Maoris and the descendants of European settlers.

Queen Elizabeth, who is on a 10-day visit to New Zealand, did not verbally apologize for past British misdeeds.