An Aotearoa (New Zealand) report on the state of public land has found up to a third of Māori title is landlocked, giving Indigenous iwi no physical access to its own whenua (land) without obtaining legal consent from their Pākehā neighbours.

The recently released Outdoor Access Commission/Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa report divides land in New Zealand into three types: around 52 percent as private land, another 44 per cent as state owned or controlled, and as little as four per cent belonging to Māori people among the country's 263,310km2 area.

Dot Dalziell, the regional field advisor for Tāmaki Makaurau that covers the Auckland area, said while more than 30 per cent of Māori landholding is locked against its people, the problem was far more acute in rural areas.

The Taihape area, located in the central parts of the North Island, has iwi landholders unable to access more than 70 per cent of its whenua.

Ms Dalziell said it was gravely concerning that Māori territory, which is connected to centuries of traditional culture, is inaccessible to its own people.

"What it can give rise to is a very ironic situation or many ironic situations where we're going into negotiations with mana whenua (land ownership) who have responsibility for land, whatever that relationship might be legally, and we're asking for public access or support for public access or hosting of public access," she recently told Radio New Zealand.

"The irony being that maybe not on that bit of land, but other parts of the of their whenua, they don't have access themselves."

In the report, Herenga ā Nuku strategic relationships manager Doug Macredie said the commission thought of tangata whenua land in several different ways.

There is "ahu whenua" (country law) or "ture whenua" (land law) which has survived confiscation and land which has been retained in Māori ownership, according to Mr Macredie.

This land may or may not have legal public access, but may operate within informal community protocols, only allowing "access by protocol", he said.

There is also a return of the land to the Māori by way of Treaty settlements, which often have public access clauses for non-Māori people.

A third way is where landowners and governance bodies are not identified or were unable to be established, which transfers the land to be administered by Te Tumu Paeroa, the Office of the Māori Trustee.

"We acknowledge fully here at Herenga ā Nuku that mana whenua or mana whenua whānui, mana whenua a hapū, mana whenua a tangata, kind of overrides this idea of legal ownership, and we as Māori all understand that our tribal jurisdictions and our border connections with other hapū and iwi covers all the whenua in Aotearoa," Mr Macredie said.

"Now, it's outside of the legal framework, but of course, tuturu in our ngākau (real passion), in our manawa (breath), in our whakapapa (genealogy) is that understanding that the whole of Aotearoa is under the banner of what I call mana whenua whānui (general ownership)."

Mr Macredie is a trustee of several blocks of whenua — one of which is landlocked — with both his own family and ancestors having struggled to access their land for multiple generations.

"Unless you have got capability, resourcing, knowledge and support, how do the people break through even to get in touch with their land, to touch it, to feel it, to see it, let alone build a trust or a governance board and undertake initiatives to do stuff on and with the land?" he said.

Some forms of Indigenous territory are completely surrounded by the Department of Conservation land in what Mr Macredie terms "different degrees of landlocked" access.

These "DOC-locked" or semi-locked land blocks were often used by neighbouring private landowners for grazing and forestry where boundaries slightly converge, and utilised by recreationists "in the know", he said.

The iwi landholders do not necessarily have a problem with recreationists accessing its natural landmarks on their block, however the scenario sums up the issues Indigenous people face.

"That's a typical situation when you're not empowered or able to manage, and govern your block for all those reasons," Mr Macredie said.

"Then it will just default to other uses by people that are enabled and empowered to get there."

Mr Macredie said while landlocking was a massive problem for Māori people, many of their land blocks were "beautiful, remote, rugged and pristine", which could be an ecotourism opportunity.

Submissions in January for one parcel of deeply historical Māori land could open up a proposed 500-kilometre walking trail along the greater Ngati Porou-East Coast area from Gisborne up to Ōpōtiki, traversing several iwi land blocks between the two points.

The application for resource consent has been lodged with Gisborne District council by Te Ara Tipuna, a Māori charitable trust.

The trail would link up existing parts of public access to reconnect the Ngāti Porou diaspora and back to their whenua, project lead and trustee Hekia Parata said.

"It is intended to be a mainly wayfaring trail," Ms Parata told Radio New Zealand last month.

"So, when we talk about building, we would be developing it in conjunction with all Whenua Māori land block owners that the trial proposes to traverse."

Ms Parata is hopeful the project will contribute to the restoration of Indigenous biodiversity to create economic, social and a recreational artery that will simulate small businesses to start.

She wants the project to allow the return of local uri (their descendants), so they can connect with the whenua of their ancestors.