hikoi diary

THE 10 WORST THINGS

2011-12-14T14:57:00.002+13:00

At almost 700 pages long the Te Rarawa Deed of Settlement was written mostly by the Crown, but is interspersed with some nicely presented Te Rarawa history. Between the Crown core and the Te Rarawa wrapping, it's easy to get confused about what it all means.

I read it with two simple questions in mind; at the end of the day, who controls what happens? and how do those with rangatiratanga benefit? The answers are so comprehensively bad it’s not possible to cover them all; so here are just the 10 worst things about it:

NO CHANGE ALLOWED:
The Crown has stipulated that no change to the deed is allowed.
LITTLE LAND RETURNED:
Less than 3.5% of Te Rarawa's original land base will be returned.
LAND RANSOMED:
Most of that <3.5% will be “sold” to Te Rarawa, and has to be paid for (ransomed) before the Crown will release it.LAND ENCUMBERED:
The rest of that <3.5% will be “given” to Te Rarawa with encumbrances on it that ensure the Crown keeps control of it. RANGATIRATANGA REPLACED:
In exchange for less than 3.5% of its land and some cash, Te Rarawa gives up its native title that even the Waitangi Tribunal said it still has; Crown sovereignty will replace hapū rangatiratanga.
CROWN CONTROLS 90 MILE BEACH:
Te Rarawa will become advisors to the Crown, Northland Regional Council and Far North District Council on the management of Te Oneroa-a-Tohe (90 mile beach); the Crown refuses to acknowledge the beach is still owned by the five iwi.
CROWN CONTROLS THE WARAWARA AND OTHER ‘CONSERVATION’ LANDS:
Hapū will get to nominate advisors to the Minister of Conservation on the management of the Warawara, and iwi will get to nominate advisors on the remaining conservation lands in their rohe. But it’s the Minister who will decide whether the iwi advisors will be appointed and when they will be removed. The department, Minister and New Zealand Conservation Authority can then amend any plans made by the iwi advisors; the Crown refuses to acknowledge the lands belong to hapū.
CROWN CAN ALLOW MINING ON OUR LAND:
The Crown has reserved the right to allow prospecting and mining anywhere it sees fit in Te Rarawa – including in the Warawara forest.
CROWN CAN SELL OUR LAND:
The Crown has also reserved the right in the future to sell any land it retains control over – including the Warawara; Te Rarawa will have right of first refusal.
CROWN CONTROLS SOCIAL WELFARE:
Te Rarawa will become advisors to 11 government departments on matters of social welfare; the Crown refuses to allow the iwi to control its own social welfare.

On the facebook page, Te Whenua i te Whakaaria Mai – the promised land, I have described the deed as: one ugly piece of Crown crap being sold to you as fertiliser.

You see, besides the Crown itself and those who get shoulder-tapped as its ‘advisors’, I cannot see how one single rangatira in Pawarenga, Panguru, Ahipara or elsewhere will benefit from this deal.

HOPE IS THE THE THING

2011-12-13T09:26:00.000+13:00

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,
and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.”

Last Wednesday (30 November 2011), listening to Margaret Mutu being interviewed on the Ngāti Kahu radio show, we heard the sound of a text message being received and her tone change as she finished responding to the host’s question. “Something has distracted her,” I said to my husband. Then we heard her ask the host, “Have you heard anything about a fire up home?” He had not.

The text Margaret received that night was how many of us first learnt of the fire at Karikari that contributed to the deaths of two men later that night.

I never met John “Prickles” de Ridder but I know his name and it is held for good. I did meet Willy MacRae and he is a good man. As I think of them both flying through that night over our burning whenua, dipping down to the waters of Rangaunu, seeking to find and help our distressed people who had run there to escape death; I recall Emily Dickinson’s poem about the bird of hope.

“And sweetest in the gale is heard; and sore must be the storm
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm.”

The next day, as messages and questions poured in from all over the world, the extent and nature of the losses were becoming horribly clear. Property and acres of land with all its fauna and flora were burnt. Fanned by strong winds, the fires were threatening more destruction. But the worst news of all was the deaths of John and Willy beneath the waters of Rangaunu. Traumatised and bewildered, the people all gathered in one home.

By the end of that day both men had been recovered from the sea and Te Taumata Kaumātua o Ngāti Kahu had placed a rahui from Wairahoraho Stream on the Rangaunu side, around Whakapouaka and down to Matai Bay on the Tokerau side.

Ever since then, it is upon the bereaved families of Willy MacRae and John de Ridder that the aroha and karakia of Te Whānau Moana hapū of Karikari have remained focused. Because they know that, while they can and will rebuild their homes, only God can and will resurrect these men from death.

The fire is being treated as suspicious by the police and a very few people have tried to use that to push their own causes and prejudices. But the vast majority have simply offered Christlike charity and comforting hope.

In the midst of this shared tragedy, may we will all listen for the song of that sweet bird.

“I've heard it in the chillest land, and on the strangest sea;
yet never, in extremity, it asked a crumb of me.”

Haere atu ra e rua nga tangata hautoa ki to mātou Matua i te rangi. Haere haere haere atu ra.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

2011-12-01T14:20:00.000+13:00

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world!
That has such people in it!

Miranda’s speech, taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, aptly describes the mood of the nation, as the Prime Minister John Key assembles a new government.

Earlier in the week, the PM told Radio New Zealand he would continue the model used during the last parliament. He said that Peter Dunne, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples had been very effective ministers for his government and they would likely retain their portfolios. And he mused (perhaps mischievously) that John Banks might suit the corrections portfolio.

This mixed bag cabinet is more to Key’s liking than a clear majority of blue ties around the table because the Māori Party, United Future and ACT leaders, once they’ve signed confidence and supply warrants in return for their portfolios, will be far less trouble than his own people.

Minor disciplinary infractions and infighting will be “their” problem, and giving them freedom to publicly disagree with his Government, without fear of non-confidence, takes some of the heat out of question time for him.

These small party partners will also act as a buffer for Key and National against the backlash over the coming austerity programme. If the European nations fail to meet the challenges they face, our debt crisis will evolve into a credit crisis and foreign lending will stop completely. When that happens, asset sales here will be accelerated against a backdrop of massive programme cuts.

The resultant carnage will be like that scene from Murder on the Orient Express where Inspector Poirot and Doctor Bianchi examine the scene of Mr. Ratchett’s murder. The body has twelve stab wounds of varying depth; some inflicted by a left-handed person and some by a right handed person. Handkerchiefs, buttons, a pipe cleaner and other things litter the scene, each pointing to a different suspect. Finally Poirot turns to Bianchi, and asks, “Has it occurred to you that there are too many clues in this room?”

As it turns out, twelve different people have stabbed the victim at least once with the same blade.

Well, the New Zealand we knew as children is about to experience a similar death of many cuts. Why?

Will the gap between rich and poor narrow? Will the outflow of New Zealanders stop? Will Papatūānuku be better cared for? Will our children be healthier? Will our country still be ours?

Whatever the outcomes of this ‘brave new world’, in three years time, John Key will simply point to his partners and remind the electorate that there were many hands on the blade.

SAVIOUR OR SELL-OUT?

2011-11-29T09:42:00.000+13:00

Around 2,254,681 people took part in election 2011. But a further 1,000,000 eligible voters did not bother, producing the lowest percentage of voter turnout in 120 years. This continues a downward trend that’s been going on since 1987, the year in which Andrew Krieger, John Key’s colleague at Bankers Trust in New York, made a raid on the New Zealand dollar. Now John Key has a second term of office as Prime Minister.

Over the next three years there are specific indicators in a wide range of areas to watch out for that will tell us whether Key is the saviour that the slim majority of those who voted hope he is, or the sell-out that the slimmer minority believe he is.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement [TPPA]; the United States will continue its drive to take what is currently a small-ish free trade agreement, and transform it into a European Union-styled entity.

Signs of a Key sell-out on this issue will include any support he gives for the creation of a separate TPPA governing body of unelected officials. Keep a close eye on who, under the TPPA, will have the ability to commandeer and deploy our military and police forces. Watch also for TPPA directives forcing us to buy our pharmaceuticals, arms, energy, agriculture supplies and such from specific suppliers. Look out for any moves to create a unified currency, or to channel our currency through a private banking authority like the Federal Reserve in the US. And look out also for a rise in numbers of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), particularly if they have anything to do with military training centres and water.

Asset Sales; it’s a foregone conclusion that Key will now push forward with asset sales. In the final debate he said that although he can’t guarantee it, he wants the majority and controlling share of our assets to remain in New Zealand hands. Keep a close eye on the detail around asset sales and measure it against this question: who or what will determine the majority ownership and control of our assets? If it’s not New Zealanders or New Zealand law, then it’s a sell-out.

Covert Surveillance and War on Terrorism; now that it is legal for Police to secretly record any private citizen of this country, watch out for expansion of the definition of the word “terrorist” to include activists of every kind, because that too is a sell-out sign.

Settlement of Treaty of Waitangi land claims; the settlement of claims will escalate rapidly between now and 2014. Take care to read each Deed of Settlement with one question in mind: who or what has final control over the resources attached to the land included in those settlements? Particularly look out for who controls any minerals, petroleum and freshwater found on those lands. Again, if it’s not New Zealanders, we’re being sold out.

Three years will go very quickly. Whether the downward trend of voter participation will continue in the 2014 general election is yet to be seen. But before then we will know for sure whether Key is a saviour or a sell-out.

BEHOLD YOUR LITTLE ONES

2011-11-24T23:37:00.000+13:00

Have you ever looked into the eyes of a very new infant and seen them see you, then watched as they shifted their gaze to somewhere just beyond you and smiled in delighted recognition?

When that happens I always ask, “Are you talking to the corner-angels darling?” By that I mean those flickers seen from the corner of adult eyes, but which our little ones see square on and clearly until earth life claims them fully.

I thought of the ‘corner angels’ after watching this week’s Inside New Zealand documentary on child poverty in our country, and I wondered where they were, not just for the children but for their parents.

In the mid-1980s my mother wrote an essay titled “Starving in Paradise” in which she talked about the craziness of living in a country with enough land, water, food, health, housing and education services to meet everyone’s needs, but not enough paid work to give families at the bottom the wherewithal to provide those things adequately to their little ones.

The Prime Minister of that time, Rob Muldoon (for all his well-deserved reputation as an often nasty man) saw what people needed was meaningful, paid work. In Pawarenga the six month PEP schemes with two week stand-downs between each that he established were heaven-sent. Crime rates dropped, health stats rose, and the kainga was abuzz with happy, active, engaged whānau.

Unfortunately not one government since Muldoon’s has shown any common sense about those at the bottom. Instead they’ve clung to the hopelessly failed ‘trickle-down’ theory of enriching the 1% at the top, believing that will lift the earning power of everyone else.

It’s not working for our little ones, because it’s not working for their parents.

I’ve seen good parents break under the stress of not being able to pay for what their little ones need. Some have simply walked away, some have struggled on, some have gone half or wholly mad. Most make it through somehow, a few turn bad. But many, many more are simply choosing to take themselves and their families out of the country entirely.

My brother left for Australia last week to work in the mines. He’s a registered nurse and a qualified teacher with reasonable earning power. But he’s had enough. So he’s gone, and his wife and kids will join him in the New Year.

We’re expecting two new mokopuna in the next few months. When they arrive I want to be able to say to them, “Say hi to me, I’m your corner angel and always will be.”

Then I want to be able to turn and say to their parents, “Behold your little ones, they have a happy, healthy future here in Aotearoa, and so do you.”

MMP - MORE MANA IN POLITICS

2011-11-23T14:48:00.000+13:00

In this last week before we go to the polls I have been thinking a lot about Naomi Wolf’s 2007 book, “The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” in which she lays out the rise of world-wide fascism in this century and the one before it.

Many people may think they don’t know what fascism is, but if you’re old enough to vote, you actually know it better than you may realise.

In simple terms, fascism is a political ideology based on strong leadership, stable government and the removal of human rights and personal freedoms from the citizenry.

Mussolini invented fascism in Italy during the 1920s. Ever since then, fascist leaders from Hitler to Bush have all followed the same ten steps he used to shift their free, open societies into closed fascist states; and all with the consent of their citizens.

Naomi Wolf identifies those ten steps as follows:

1. Invoke a terrifying enemy; it doesn’t matter whether it’s internal or external, as long as it’s terrifying.
2. Create or support secret prisons where torture takes place; preferably outside your borders.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to your citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens' groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release; again, preferably outside your borders.
7. Target key individuals; academics, students, investigative journalists, activists.
8. Control the press.
9. Treat all political dissidents as traitors; recast dissent as treason and protest as terrorism.
10. Suspend the rule of law; remove habeus corpus (innocent until proven guilty) and due process (notice and opportunity to defend oneself).

Do you recognise these steps? You should, because New Zealand governments have advanced quite far down the checklist. We are not yet at the stage that the United States is with regard to human rights violations and suspension of the rule of law, but we’re getting there.

Fascist shifts don’t happen in a straight line of progression. Instead they happen as a series of tipping points (Malcolm Gladwell); here a little, there a little. And, as Wolf says, "When it reaches the point of no return – when democrcy can no longer heal itself – collapse happens real fast. When these tipping points start to come thick and fast, free societies close down very quickly."

As they prepare to go to the polls this Saturday, a number of people are asking me for advice about why they should vote for this person or that party.

In answer I give them the above checklist and tell them to ask themselves one simple question. Which party and which candidate is not following this check list?

Then vote for that party, their candidate and their policies.

And vote yes to keep MMP because it means More Mana in Politics.

SHOW US THE DEEDS

2011-11-19T10:42:00.001+13:00

While an American visitor was shocked at the racism against Māori that he witnessed from a policewoman in Kerikeri during his recent visit here [Lance O’Sullivan’s column in the Northland Age 10 Nov 2011], most New Zealanders would have found it unremarkable, in the same way that they find the Crown’s treaty settlement dealings with Māori unremarkable.

In fact, of all the letter writers to the Northland Age, only a handful can be relied upon to remark at all about the insitutitional racism which is endemic in this country against Māori and, of those, most blame Māori for it.

Anyway, rather than rage ineffectively against the machine I prefer to target its power source, or as close to it as I can get. With that in mind I have written today to Chris Finlayson, Crown Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, as follows:

Dear Chris,

Last week we asked your staff at the Office of Treaty Settlements for copies of the deeds they had drafted to settle our claims against the Crown for breaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The reply was that the documents were too large to email and would be uploaded to the OTS website on Monday just gone. They haven’t been.

Given that we are expected to ratify your Te Aupōuri deed in less than 6 weeks and your Te Rarawa deed not long after that, we want to see the actual deeds. In this age of electronic scanners and high speed broadband, we had expected them to have been made available to us by now. In fact we would have preferred to have seen them before they were intialed by our self-proclaimed chiefs; a courtesy your Pākehā constituents take for granted when agreements are being made in their behalf. But we know that is not how you deal with Māori.

It is not up to Te Runanga o Te Rarawa or Te Runanga Nui o Te Aupōuri to give us access to these documents. They are already very busy posting us explanatory booklets about them, and preparing to hold hui to explain those explanatory booklets to us. So these chiefly persons cannot be expected to also send or give us access to the actual documents. That’s your job.

Please instruct your staff to upload the Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa deeds of settlement to the OTS website pronto; preferably before the chiefly ones hold their first explanatory hui.

In closing, I shall be in Wellington on the 25th of this month at the Waitsngi Tribunal where these deeds will be part of the evidence presented to show why the Tribunal should make binding recommendations on the Crown to return all Ngāti Kahu state-owned enterprise and Crown forest lands to Ngāti Kahu - plus compensation.

Na,

Anahera Herbert-Graves (Inside an Iwi)

SHOW US THE MONEY

2011-11-18T11:22:00.000+13:00

“Show us the money! Show us the money!”

In the first of two televised debates held in early November for election 2011, that was the repeated one-liner that National’s John Key used to pressure Phil Goff over Labour’s election promises.

Disappointingly Goff failed to respond with any conviction whatsoever. Even more disappointing both Key and Goff completely ignored the obvious answer. In these globalised times, to fund our social and economic recovery, tax the banks on every speculative transaction they make in our territories.

How would that work?

In England it’s being promoted as the Robin Hood bank tax. Of course the banks are screaming blue murder that it would be horribly complex, unfair to individual rich members of the public, terribly tough on the banking sector, and would be of minimal benefit to the poor. But let’s unpack these objections and see whether they hold water or not.

First, how tough has this recession been on the banking sector? This is the same sector that has over the past four years received trillions of dollars worth of taxpayers moneys from across the globe to keep it going, and is still paying itself billions of dollars in bonuses. Sound like tough times to you?

Second, how unfair would this be on rich members of the public? The taxes proposed would be charged on all bank transactions that do not include members of the public; bonds, derivatives, currencies, speculative stuff. The bankers would give something like 0.05% on each deal that they did, sometimes even less. Does that does sound unfair to you?

Third, how minimal would these benefits be? Even the most conservative estimates suggest that this tiny tax on the banks would raise hundreds of billions of dollars every year across the globe, Not only would that help save lives and fund vital environmental action around the world, it would help avoid cuts to crucial public services here in this country and fund improved outcomes for us all.

Every one standing in this election says they care, and are going to do something about our falling standards of living and rising poverty. So, in the debate between the two who are most likely to form some kind of government after the election, that’s what I was listening for. What are they going to do? How are we going to pay for it?

What I heard Key say was that National would sell assets to fund education, housing and health, while Goff said Labour would rejig taxes to do the same. But neither gave me a clear vision of what that would look like.

The answer is as plain as the nose on Goff’s face; don’t sell our assets and don’t just take GST off fruit and veges; tax the banks.

The MANA movement has renamed it the Hone Heke tax, and it’s the only sensible answer to John Key’s challenge to, “Show us the money!”

WHAT PRICE SOVEREIGNTY?

2011-11-14T13:27:00.000+13:00

The clear trend across the world is to concentrate decision making and resources in fewer hands by over-riding the sovereignty of nations. Just look at Greece and Italy where elected leaders, unable to govern as a result of having joined the European Union and done a deal with the devil itself (Goldman Sachs) have been replaced by EU appointed bureaucrats who weren’t elected by their citizens and aren’t accountable to them. Instead both men (Mario Monti in Italy and Lucas Papademos in Greece) have very strong ties to Goldman Sachs and banking.

The same devil is now behind moves to change the membership and rules of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was originally set up in 2006 between Chile, Brunei, New Zealand and Singapore. Now Australia, Peru, the United States and Viet Nam also want to join it.

It’s the US interest in joining which has made it a hot topic, because America represents seventh heaven to free trade marketeers and hell on wheels to everyone else.

Right now the TPP has no enforcement provisions, no common currency, and no common governing body. But last year Ian Ferguson (international finance specialist) and Bruce Vaughan (Asian affairs specialist) wrote a paper for Congress identifying the changes that must be made to the TPP if it is to “serve the security and trade interests” of the US.

First, it must have a common governing body made up of non-elected bureaucrats appointed by participating governments. Second, it must have the power to enforce its decisions by force of arms if necessary. Third, it must be able to sue governments, but must itself be exempt from being sued.

Just last week, Secretary of State Clinton said, now that US engagement in the middle east (Iraq and Afghanistan) is winding down, it ‘vows’ to expand its ‘engagement in the Asia-Pacific...’

For us, America’s entry into the TPP will almost certainly mean the end of Pharmac which buys our pharmaceutical and medical supplies from whoever gives us the best price. It will also be the end of the private online auction facility that Fonterra had created to allow us to get better prices than other countries for our dairy products. It will tie us irrevocably to serving the ‘security and trade interests’ of America. And it will destroy what little is left of our already taretare sovereignty.

Already we know that under John Key US Marines will be housed somewhere in New Zealand. Under him, government will have a public-private partnership with some unknown entity to build an SAS training base somewhere in New Zealand. He has shown himself willing to use our navy and police forces to arrest us in favour of foreign commerce. And his government has made laws to prosecute us for taking action against foreign spy activities in our country.

If the steward of our sovereignty is John Key, how buttressed do you feel knowing that he has a home in Honolulu and all his money in US banks? Who is he really speaking for when he has his bolt hole elsewhere and his money safely offshore?

POISONED FRUIT

2011-11-08T22:09:00.000+13:00

Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor in the United States used to describe evidence that is obtained illegally. The logic of the terminology is that if the source of the evidence (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") is as well.

Last week Māori TV showed the documentary, “Operation Eight” about the illegal and racist terror raids carried out by the New Zealand Police for and on behalf of the Crown on the Tūhoe settlement of Ruatoki in 2007.

I say illegal because, in August this year, the video surveillance which comprised much of the Police’s raison d’etre for the raids was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. Cue mad scramble by the Crown to pass retrospective legislation to make the video footage legal. It went through as law just last month after a lot of cross-party dealing and wheeling.

But, as the documentary lays out with precision, even if the video surveillance had been obtained legally, how it was edited and presented by the police in order to get authority to make the raids on Tūhoe is a black joke and an example of ‘fruit of the poisonous tree.’

You can watch the documentary on Māori TV’s website for free and see it for yourself.

Attorney-General, Chris Finlayson, who shepherded the Covert Police Surveillance Bill through the house, is also the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, and he’s been a very busy little bee.

First, he was in the Far North again early last week, trying to convince Ngāti Kuri to drop its bottom lines regarding its lands and initial a deed of settlement with the Crown. Another poisoned fruit metaphor comes to mind here; the one that Snow White ate. To their eternal credit, Ngāti Kuri rejected what the Crown was offering and refused to swallow. Poof! Crown plan one up in smoke.

Then last Friday Finlayson hosted what was supposed to be a four-iwi initialing ceremony of four deeds of settlement (full, final and fair ones) with the Crown. But the negotiators for Ngāitakoto changed their minds when it became clear they too were being asked to drop their bottom lines on a key piece of land (Te Make aka Sweetwater) in which Te Paatu also has an interest. To their credit, Ngāitakoto also refused to swallow. Poof! Another Crown plan up in smoke.

On the same day the annual hikoi to commemorate the 1881 invasion of Parihaka by Crown troops (shades of Tūhoe terror raids) happened. And, as the marchers stood outside the barrier between them and the steps of Parliament, they spotted our Te Rarawa and Te Aupōuri whānau standing on the steps with fresh ink on their hands.

At the end of this month Ngāti Kahu has a judicial conference on our Waitangi Tribunal claim for binding recommendations against the Crown coming up. That means any deed initialed last week is somewhat moot; poisoned fruit even.

Why would anyone swallow that?

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

2011-11-01T12:24:00.001+13:00

The theory of social contract is based on the notion that governments only exist by consent of the people; we the people agree to be governed if, in exchange, government agrees to protect us.

But here in this country, instead of protecting us, governments of left and right have spent the last thirty years deregulating all sorts of laws that have made us easy pickings for Big Banking, Big Pharmaceuticals, Big Energy, Big Farming and Big Industry.

To illustrate, after the Great Depression (1929 – 1945), laws were passed across the world, including here, to reduce the likelihood of it happening again. But in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher took the gloves off in Great Britain, New Zealand governments rapidly followed suit.

Laws that had stopped banks from gambling investors’ money were repealed. Strict separations between bankers, brokers and insurers were removed. Laws that protected workers from unfair employment practices were put aside or weakened. Laws that protected the environment were amended or watered down. And more recent laws that recognised Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the special relationship of Māori with their whenua have been changed to diminish that relationship.

So, what has all that deregulation gained us? Our economy is now in a state of collapse (Hanover Finance, Southern Finance and triple credit rating downgrades), our infrastructure is a basket case (Pike River, the Taranaki gas line), and our environment is under pressure (Raukumara Basin, the Rena). On top of that, people are working harder for less, students are leaving university burdened with mortgage-sized debt, our housing bubble has burst, and our health and education statistics are tumbling down the OECD scale.

The only recent bright spot has been six weeks of RWC and an All Black victory. But even that’s beginning to dim as the spotlight turns on the state of the nation before the election. If you were looking for a metaphor for that state, then look no further than a ship called Rena.

“The government didn’t ground the Rena on that reef,” John Key said. True. But neither did it protect against or prepare adequately for such an event. Instead, it allowed a poorly serviced ship, under-manned by an under-paid and over-worked crew, to sail under a flag of convenience around our coastline and harbours until it fetched up on that reef.

Imagine a revolver with four chambers. First chamber represents our environment, second is our economy, third are our labour laws, and the fourth represents us the people. Well, the Rena is the bullet that fits all four chambers, while governmental negligence is the fire power.

It will take some time before the black oil works its way out of the seafood, sands and aquifers of Tauranga Moana and Te Tairāwhiti. But as each blob sinks downward or drifts shoreward, it becomes more and more clear; our government has smashed its social contract with us all.

And in its place looms a social nightmare called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement [TPPA].

THE REVOLVING DOOR

2011-10-30T00:35:00.000+13:00

Across the world there’s a revolving-door between politics and finance through which high-ranking political retirees like Tony Blair move from government straight into banking, and high-flying bankers like John Key move unerringly into government.

In that world, governments have not only failed to protect their people from the predations of financiers, they’ve actually passed laws that enable financiers to lure people into a state of indebtedness off which they then feast.

In a spectacularly accurate piece of purple prose, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi described Goldman Sachs, the world's most powerful investment bank, as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

To illustrate, the housing bubble was never about getting people into housing. Rather it was about neighbourhood banks and lenders acting as funnels for debts which were then packaged up with thousands of others and bought by investment banks like Goldman Sachs to either be sold again as mortgage-backed securities or held as reserves. Alternatively they could be used as collateral or gambled on via the purchase of credit default swaps (CDS).

On paper, every transaction generated more money. But it was all plaque; a gigantic fraud that makes the Nigerian scam look puny.

That became clear when New York-based bank Lehmann Brothers (the main competitor of Goldman Sachs) collapsed in 2008. Although Lehmann owed a shocking $65 billion when they collapsed, it turned out there was more than $400 billion worth of CDS being held by various speculators on just such a collapse happening.

The biggest holder, and therefore the biggest winner when Lehmann collapsed, was none other than Goldman Sachs. Conversely the biggest loser was a single insurer which was exposed to more than a quarter of those CDS: That was AIG, and it didn’t have a hope in hell of covering their exposure.

AIG had their back to wall, bankruptcy loomed, threatening to bring down the entire derivatives market, and with it the global banking system.

To forestall further collapses, the US Treasury and Federal Reserve bailed AIG out with more than $175 billion. In exchange, they took more than 80% ownership of the company. In short, all AIG’s losses fell on the backs of American taxpayers. Goldman Sachs, and other banking counterparties were paid 100 cents on the dollar. One single individual, John Paulson, received $8 Billion dollars.

The American government and these financiers have done an al-Qaeda on what was once the strongest economy in the world; they’ve flown it straight into the ground.

And yet nothing much has changed since 2008. Lenders are still luring borrowers into debt. Debt is still being bundled and on-sold to investment banks. Speculation continues. The only difference is that, now that housing is a bust, the lenders are using credit cards and student loans as the bait.

Here in New Zealand we’re seeing a similar pattern of financial collapses followed by taxpayer-funded government bailouts. Here too, credit cards and student loans are replacing home mortgages as the bait for borrowers to take on debt.

And here, as well as in America, the revolving door between politics and finance has never been busier.

CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS

2011-10-30T00:34:00.000+13:00

Until this year I’d never heard of a credit default swap. It’s taken some time for me to get my head around what it is and why it’s so important to what’s happening to the economy today. In essence, a CDS is like an insurance policy on methamphetamine.

Here’s a hypothetical: Mr X borrows $50 from me. I want to get insurance on his debt in case he goes broke, so I go to Miss Y and, for a premium of $4 per year, she insures the debt.

Y is betting that X will pay me back, especially since she did her homework by looking at X’s credit rating and saw it was superb. But instead of writing a standard insurance policy, Y writes me a CDS.

Unfortunately Y then has some problems with her business, and she no longer has $50 to pay me in case X goes broke. The premiums I paid her are long gone.

Credit agencies notice this and kill Y’s credit rating. Now Y is stuffed because she can no longer raise cash at good rates to keep her business open (today’s large businesses need a constant flow of credit to maintain operations). Y goes bankrupt.

Now I’m in trouble. The debt X owes me is now uninsured. The credit agencies look at my books, see I have this exposed debt, and downgrade me. I enter bankruptcy as well. But I’m knee deep in the CDS game too. I wrote a ton of them for my mate Z, insuring debts owed to him by other parties. When I go down it puts pressure on X, Y and Z. Like dominoes we fall.
In the carnage it turns out that the ratings we all used to judge each other’s debt worthiness were bogus from the start. Essentially we all just gambled like we would at a blackjack table, but we did it while drunk. And blind.

In reality, the insurance company AIG wrote $78 billion worth of CDS between 2004 and 2009. Ivy League bright boys with MBAs then turned those CDS into a device which didn’t just insure against debt, but speculated if companies would fail or not. These speculative CDS could be on-sold, and often were. So, when a company went belly-up, whoever the lucky sod was holding the CDS on it at the time made a killing.

The Toxic Asset Relief Programme (TARP) in the US, and other taxpayer funded bailouts New Zealand and other countries, meant the bright boys not only survived, they were guaranteed to make money regardless of what happened to the company. As for the poor souls who had invested in it; for most of them it was a case of, “How sad, too bad, never mind!”

Here’s the bad news: the Bank for International Settlements recently reported that total derivatives trades, including CDS, now exceeds one quadrillion dollars – that’s 1,000 trillion dollars.

How is that figure even possible? The gross domestic product of all the countries in the world is only about 60 trillion dollars.

The answer to that is the real bad news.

THE TIPPING POINT

2011-10-15T09:49:00.001+13:00

Spoilt sportsmen, conniving politicians, dishonest financiers; they all get caught eventually. And yet it often seems that, instead of kicking their sorry butts, we meekly accept their nonsense.

Perhaps that is the price we feel has to be paid for being associated with winners. Perhaps it’s what we feel has to be done to keep the leaky ship of state, sport or enterprise afloat. Hei aha? Whatever the reason, the tipping point always comes and change happens.

Right now we’re seeing it happening with regards to ‘the economy.’ As millions of homeless, jobless, cashless people (and those who are about to join their ranks) wake up to the fact that someone is making a financial killing off their misery, they are taking to the streets in protest.

Waves of civil disobedience are rippling across North America, the Middle East, and Europe against the moneymen who profit at every turn of the screw. The brokers, insurers, bankers and financiers, as well as the princes and politicians who serve their interests; to millions across the world they all deserve to be thrown out on their ear. And who can blame them for feeling that way?

However a word of caution.

It is good to see the rising awareness amongst the middle-class in particular that our nations and economies are not being run well by those in power. But, unless we understand that it is our own attitudes, expectations and practices that feed the problem and support those in power, nothing will change for us.

It does not matter what kind of government it is. Democracy, autocracy, theocracy, and even that strange beast called plutocracy (the rule or power of the wealthy); they are all addicted to an economic system called money upon which all international trading and commerce occurs. In turn we are addicted to it, mainly as borrowers.

As with any addiction, we who suffer from it are all subject to the increasingly centralised control of the money by an increasingly small and powerful group.

So, until enough of us understand how the addiction works and how to recover from it, nothing will change. In fact it will just get a whole lot worse as the cycle of boom and bust recurs on ever-increasing scales.

How do we break the cycle? Well, the people I respect most are all advising the same things. First, stop spending on anything but the necessities and pay your debts down. Second, drop your expectations and ‘use it up or wear it out, make it do or do without.’ Third, grow your own food as much as possible. Fourth, make alliances with likeminded people.

Depending on how much of this advice you take, when the tipping point comes (and it will), you’ll either already be in recovery, in jail, or dead and buried.

GO FLY A KITE

2011-10-04T17:33:00.003+13:00

For some time now Chris Finlayson has been flying kites for the crown amongst the iwi of Te Hiku o Te Ika, gauging how much he can get away with and who will support him against Ngāti Kahu.

In August he wrote instructing Ngāti Kahu to comply with Crown deadlines about providing information relating to the settlement of the other four iwi. Last month he wrote again saying he has now decided how to extinguish (not settle) Ngāti Kahu’s claims.

He intends to vest a lot of Ngāti Kahu lands in other iwi; Rangiāniwaniwa (kura kaupapa and airport), Te Make (the Sweetwater farm), Te Hiku forest lands as far north as Hukatere, and several properties in Kaitāia and Takahue. On top of that, he has withdrawn more than 60 other properties altogether that were in the Ngāti Kahu and Te Rarawa agreements in principle, saying the Crown wants to keep them (presumably to sell). In any event they have disappeared off the ever-shortening list of lands the crown is willing to transfer to the other iwi.

With regard to Rangiāniwaniwa, Finlayson instructs that the land will be transferred in a 50:50 split to Ngāi Takoto and Ngāti Kahu. But, until Ngāti Kahu behave like good Mowries, the crown will hang on to the Ngāti Kahu share. And if Ngāti Kahu are still being bad Mowries 36 months later, then the crown will transfer the Ngāti Kahu share to Ngāi Takoto. So, if Ngāi Takoto waits long enough, they can swoop in and take all of Rangiāniwaniwa. Never mind that the two whānau from whom it was taken during WW2 are still living right next to Rangiāniwaniwa; the Erstich and Pōpata whānau of Ngāti Kahu. Fortunately we can rely on the rank and file Ngāi Takoto not to fly that kite.

But wait, there’s more. Finlayson has also decided he must protect Far North District Council’s $1 per annum lease on more than half of Rangiāniwaniwa. Never mind that the lease doesn’t expire until 2013 or that he has no title on the land. Never mind that it still belongs to Patukōraha and Ngāi Tohianga hapū of Ngāti Kahu and Ngāi Takoto. And never mind that the council is lead by a man who, when told in 2008 that the land was going back to Ngāti Kahu and Ngāi Takoto, said there was no way Mowry could ever own an airport.

The legal owners of Rangiāniwaniwa met last Thursday and reaffirmed that they are happy for both the airport and the kura kaupapa to remain on their land. But it is they who will determine the terms of the renewed leases.

As for crown and council, they will get their answers in the Waitangi Tribunal soon enough. Until then, they are invited to take their racist whim, will and purported authority over all iwi including Ngāti Kahu, and go fly a kite.

UP IN SMOKE

2011-10-04T17:33:00.000+13:00

On 12th November 1996 the first MMP general election in New Zealand was held. Just five months earlier, on the morning of 17th June, Ruapehu had erupted spectacularly, spewing 7 million tonnes of ash into the air.

Both these events impacted hugely on the land claims of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupōuri, Ngāitakoto, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kahu. But of the two, the Ruapehu eruption had the most immediate impact.

How so? Because, apart from contaminating the drinking water for miles around, damaging buildings, vehicles and the Rangipo Power Station, the ash and smoke also brought air travel between Auckland and Wellington to a halt for several days.

That meant a scheduled meeting between then Minister of Treaty Negotiations, Doug Graham, and Te Rūnanga o Muriwhenua didn’t happen. Partly as a result of that missed meeting, the Crown’s plans to quickly settle the five iwi claims before the general election of 1996, and before the Tribunal released its 1997 report on those claims, went up in smoke.
In the fifteen years since, there have been four more general elections, countless meetings between Crown and Iwi negotiators, and Ruapehu has erupted twice.

In 1996, those who supported settling on the Crown’s terms had two catch-cries; “Land the whale first, then cut it up,” and “Settle now, or miss the bus.”

I never beleived either catchcry. Instead I insisted on knowing how fresh the whale was, where the bus was going and who was driving it. I’ve always been picky that way.

In 1996 the whale was said to be worth $120 million. Where that figure came from and what it was based on, is not known. In the end it didn’t matter because both it and the bus it rode into town on were chimera. The original chimera was a monster in Greek mythology with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a snake’s tail. The word now means a vain or idle fancy.
For hapū rangatira, unless settlement is based on extinguishing the Crown’s false claims to their lands, and until the Crown relinquishes its grip on those lands, the whale will prove to have been a chimera. And if settlement is done under the Crown’s current terms of extinguishing Te Tiriti and Te Whakaputanga, the bus will have delivered them into its hands.

Fast forward to 2011. On November 26th, another general election happens. Before then, in the week of October 10th – 15th, the Crown plans to sign deeds of settlement with four iwi other than Ngāti Kahu. Those deeds will include the gains that Ngāti Kahu won off the Crown. They will also include lands that Ngāti Kahu, through Te Paatu, has a strong interest in; Kaitāia, the airport, the forests, Te Oneroa-a-Tohe, Te Make (Sweetwater), Kaimaumau and Maungataniwha.

Ngāti Kahu has not agreed to any of its lands being included, and will not be present.

Hei aha. Regardless of what Ruapehu might do, someone’s plans are about to go up in smoke.

WAITANGI TRIBUNAL MEMORANDUM AND DIRECTIONS

2011-10-04T17:31:00.001+13:00

Thanks to Ngāti Kahu the Muriwhenua Land Claim before the Waitangi Tribunal is alive again.

Last week (12th September), the Tribunal’s Chief Judge released a two page memorandum of directions on Ngāti Kahu’s application for binding recommendations asking that the Crown be ordered to return all State-owned Enterprise and Crown Forest Lands in the Ngāti Kahu rohe, plus pay compensation to Ngāti Kahu. Following is the substance of that memo.

1. On 5 July 2011 the Tribunal received a memorandum of counsel for Ngāti Kahu seeking to revive the application for remedies filed in October 2007 and amended in November 2007.
2. In accordance with my memorandum-directions of 19 July 2011 and 19 August 2011 the Waitangi Tribunal’s Registrar has completed a review of the record of inquiry for the Muriwhenua Land Claim and concluded that despite some inconsistencies in the record there is a reasonable level of docmentation available, both physical and electronic, to enable a new peresiding officer to be appointed.
3. Notwithstanding this conclusion, the review identified missing documents that may be of relevance to the current application, and may be in the possession of the Crown. These documents are as follows:
a) Topographical display map with overlays.
b) J Williams, Claimant Submission in support of Kaimaumau recommendation (22 Oct 91);
c) Submission from Te Runanga o Muriwhenua, “Outline of Te Runanga o Muriwhenua to this and subsequent Tribunal processes”;
d) Letter from Juken Nissho Ltd to OTS, 2 Apr 98, which is attached to Crown submission re pre-remedies hearing, 31 Mar 98; and
e) Submissions of Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu, 5 Apr 98
4. If the Crown is in possession of these documents it is to file these documents with the Tribunal no later than midday, Monday 19 September 2011. Alternatively, the Crown should notify the Tribunal if these documents are not available.
5. However, having regard to the report I have received from the Registrar, I am satisfied that there is an adequate record of inquiry that is in a condition to enable a new presiding officer to review and familiarise himself or herself with the relevant documents.
6. Accordingly, pusuant to clause 5AA(1) of the Second Schedule to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, I now appoint Judge S J Clark, a judge of the Maori Land Court, as the replacement presiding officer of the Muriwhenua Land Claim inquiry.
For the bush lawyers amongst us, that means the Crown had until yesterday to respond as directed.

Interestingly prior to releasing this memo, the Tribunal had released a much lengthier one on 26th August with regard to the Turanganui a Kiwa inquiry; that’s the consolidated claim which includes Stephen Haronga, the man whose success in the Supreme Court reopened remedies as an option for Ngāti Kahu. In that memo the Tribunal has decided to hold hearings. Its decision to do so is based on a number of determinations it had made in 1998 about binding recommendations in Muriwhenua.

The Crown should be worried.

UNRIGHTEOUS DOMINION

2011-09-12T11:20:00.000+12:00

A phenomenon I have only just recently registered, but which really (when I cast my memory back) has been around all my life, is how little conviction and belief the Crown and its supporters have in the language, culture and laws they derived from England.

Take just one word and its legal, linguistic and cultural meanings as an example: “rightfully.”

When I see and hear that word I immediately get that it is a compound of “right” and “fully”.

The first part (right) brings to mind classic English words, phrases and colloquialisms like: “the golden rule”, “courage of one’s convictions”, “a moral compass”, “a sense of responsibility”, “the sword of righteousness”, “defender of truth”, “the ten commandments”. When you use the word “right” you are describing something in the Crown’s language and law that is right – not wrong.

The second part (fully) brings to mind other great English colloquialisms and phrases like “a sense of completeness”, “full as a bull”, “chocker-block”, “pregnant with possibility”, “my cup runneth over”, “total capacity”. When you use the word "fully", you are describing something in the Crown’s law, language and culture that is in a state of fullness – not emptiness.

The compound word “rightfully” not only holds all of the meanings of both its parts, it takes on a number of additional meanings as well. However, none of those meanings adds up to a state of wrong or emptiness.

So, can the word “rightfully” be applied today to the Crown’s assertions in word and deed that it is sovereign with dominion over the country known as New Zealand?

The answer to that question has been evolving for some time now through the kōrero, research and writings coming out of the marae and hui, parliament and select committees, the universities and institutions of this and other lands, the United Nations, the media. But nowhere is it more clearly to be seen taking shape than within the courts and tribunals of this and other lands.

From my long observation of the courts and three decades of working on the interface between the Crown and Māori, the answer is “no”. No, the Crown cannot yet rightfully assert that it holds sovereignty and dominion over this country. No, it cannot continue to get away with breaking its own laws. No, it cannot continue without a written constitution based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Crown is inching towards doing the “right” thing “fully”. It’s going begrudgingly, even angrily at times; consider Chris Finlayson’s outburst last year telling Ngāti Kahu to go to hell. But it is going.

It has been prophesied that one day we shall all see eye to eye, and that which is wrong shall be set right. That day is coming.

Until then the trend is clear. Māori and others who have strong conviction and belief in both the Māori and English cultures, languages and laws will continue to fight for and win well-argued and legal outcomes against the Crown’s unrighteous dominion.

THE CROWN'S CROWBAR

2011-09-05T09:53:00.005+12:00

How can you tell when the Crown is lying? Who decides how and when a hapū claim is settled?

If you know the answers to those questions, congratulations. You have just passed the minimum entry requirement to ‘Direct Treaty Negotiations With The Crown 101.Work hard and you might one day be qualified to given the mandate to negotiate for your hapū who lodged, researched and presented their claims to the Waitangi Tribunal.

But you will first have to reach a much higher level of knowledge, even wisdom.

Paper one is titled, What Does Settlement Mean? You will need to answer that question correctly with regard to the different perspectives of at least four distinct groups; the Crown, the public, your hapū and you. Here is your cram sheet.

With regard to your hapū, only they can tell you what settlement means for them, because only they know what they have lost since their tūpuna signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. You must take the time to be instructed by their ahikāroa, kaumātua kuia and historians because it is these holders of hapūtanga, not the individual hapū members scattered throughout the world, who know what and how settlement will be reached. It is their mandate you must first seek, and the best place to hear their kōrero is in the preparation and presentation of their hapū claims to the Waitangi Tribunal.

With regard to the public, you can take it as a given that settlement means little to most of them. That is sad. But it is not your job and you don’t have time to educate them.

With regard to the Crown, settlement means ‘extinguishment’ by 2014 of the Treaty and amen to the mana whenua, rangatiratiratanga and kaitiakitanga of your hapū. Having finally and irrevocably crowbarred your hapū away from their lands and everything that made them and you rangatira, the Crown will make itself your sovereign.

In exchange it will not pay a cent of compensation. Instead it will, with one hand, give no more than three cents in the dollar on the current value of the land it stole from your hapū. Then with the other hand it will force you to give back more than 90% in ransom before it will partially relinquish control over perhaps 5% of that land.

Those calculations are based on the largest ‘settlements’ to date.

For you, based on those same settlements, it means the Crown will write a deed into which it will slip clauses that beef up its claims to own everything under the land of your hapū, and its control over everything above it.

If you are the negotiator that lets all this happen, you will have successfully swapped the rangatiratanga of your hapū for a position as advisors to Crown agents like DoC and FNDC. Instead of revitalising your hapū, you will have gutted them.

Finally, you will be remembered forever as the Crown’s crowbar; the one who let the Crown decide when and how your hapū’s claims were settled; the one who never learnt that the Crown is lying whenever its many lips are moving.

Q & A

2011-08-29T12:07:00.000+12:00

At the hui-a-iwi held last Thursday in Kareponia marae a good cross-section of people from across Te Hiku got their questions answered about Ngāti Kahu’s application to the Waitangi Tribunal. For everyone’s enlightenment, I’ve summarized the kōrero in a question and answer format.

Why have Ngāti Kahu gone back to the Tribunal? Because negotiations reached an impasse, so the claimants told the negotiators to go back for binding recommendations.

Why did negotiations between Ngāti Kahu and the Crown fail? Because of ongoing Crown bad faith.

Will this hold up the other iwi? Potentially. They can settle their own claims where they have exclusive interests any time they and the Crown agree. But if they attempt to settle claims on lands and resources in which Ngāti Kahu hold an interest, this process may hold that up.

Who are we acting for? For all the claims which have already been investigated and reported on by the Waitangi Tribunal. Additionally we act for several claims lodged after the Tribunal report was released in 1997.

What redress comes from binding recommendations? We get a percentage of the lands under the Te Hiku (formerly Aupōuri) and Ōtangaroa forests, a percentage of the forest value, plus a percentage of the annual rentals paid by JNL. Additionally we get Rangiputa and Kohumaru stations, other SoE and education properties, and properties that have 27B Memorials on their titles.

However, we don’t get any pūtea to ransom back our lands from the thief, or the interest on those funds as per the 2008 AiP. Nor do we get our wāhi tapu sites or reserve lands, the social revitalisation funds or the Ngāti Kahu Statutory Board over DoC administered lands. In short we don’t get settlement. But seeing as the Crown uses settlement to extinguish the Treaty rights and status of those settling, that’s not as great a loss as some might make it out to be.

Who holds the redress from binding recommendations? The Tribunal decides, so the options will be part of legal argument presented to the Tribunal.

What happens to negotiations? After the Tribunal makes a binding recommendation, the Crown has 90 days to negotiate an acceptable settlement, otherwise the recommendations become binding. The negotiators will return to Ngāti Kahu during this time for instructions on any Crown offer.

Can hapu negotiate their own claims? They have been able to elsewhere. But for some unknown reason the Crown refuses to negotiate with hapū or individual claimants in Te Hiku o Te Ika.

What happens next? The Crown has to file its response to the Ngāti Kahu application this month. The Tribunal will complete its review of the Muriwhenua record of inquiry and readiness for hearing next month. There may be additional interlocutory steps required before the end of 2011. Appointment of a new presiding officer and panel will then happen, followed by the setting of dates and issues for hearings, hearings themselves-, consideration of arguments from all parties and a Tribunal decision, all hopefully in 2012.

Then, dependent on the outcomes of any negotiations during the 90 day period following binding recommendations, either a negotiated settlement will be processed for ratification by the Crown and Ngāti Kahu, or the recommendations will become final.

THE IK FACTOR

2011-08-23T13:02:00.001+12:00

As I prepare to vote in the general elections later this year, I’m looking at the environment and carefully measuring every candidate and party for what I call the Ik factor.

I coined the phrase from the late Lewis Thomas who had the knack of writing about all sorts of things in a way I could understand. In one of his best known essays he considered the case of the Iks, an indigenous tribe of Uganda who had two disasters befall them in the 1960s. First they were displaced from their land to create a national park and consequently suffered extreme famine. Second they had a British-American anthropologist come live with and study them for two years, by the end of which he seems to have thoroughly despised them.

He recorded that they lived solitary and unloved lives, snatched food from their weakest members. defecated on each other’s doorsteps, and shouted derision at each other’s misfortunes. Even worse, they treated him as one of the family, meaning they showed him no love at all.

As a result he concluded that not only were they the grabbiest bunch of misery-guts imaginable, they were also proof that at heart humans are naturally inclined to be brutish and anti-social.

When I read that I felt sick because, although my experience said it wasn’t true, it reminded me of something. What? I go with Lewis who suggested that the Iks, in their despair, had gone mad and devolved into singular municipalities, even nation states of one, with no sense of familiness or social bonding to each other or their environment.

Yes, that was it. To illustrate, while such nastiness is still relatively rare between neighbouring whānau, we see Ikness between district and regional authorities every time there’s another spill of raw tiko into our waterways. It’s even worse between sovereign nations where warfare is widespread and whole oceans are polluted. Iks the most of them.

In this, as in every election year, the current government has made sure that any issue that might anger voters is either out of sight, or sopped into silence. Asset sales? Not this year. Protesting Māori? Leave them to mainstream media. Shoddy health and safety standards in our mines? Reinstate mine inspectors. Deepsea oil exploration? Off the table.

Will any of these silencers and sops last? Unlikely while parliament is full of Iks who see people as labour units and Papatūānuku as an impersonal resource that can be exposed to risk of pollution and sold to the highest bidder.

Back to Lewis. "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am by the realization that we are a social species,” he wrote in 1976, “you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us." Ever since then, I’ve been keeping my eye out and it’s clear. Being a ‘social species’ is not only good for us it’s good for the environment. But only when we bring the Ik factor way down and treat Earth and each other as known and loved members of the whānau.

REVIEW

2011-08-15T11:05:00.000+12:00

As they prepare to return to the Waitangi Tribunal, it is timely to review the Tribunal and its work, as well as that of the Crown, with regard to Ngāti Kahu.

The Waitangi Tribunal is a Crown appointed Commission of Inquiry established in 1975 to inquire into and make recommendations on breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown. It is made up of people who have specialist knowledge and expertise in British culture and law as well as in aspects of tikanga Māori. It relies on claimants appearing before it to advise on the tikanga of each hapū and iwi making claims. From 1990 to 1994 Ngāti Kahu, led by McCully Matiu, sent many kaumātua to explain their tikanga to the Tribunal.

The Tribunal inquired into the actions of the British Crown, settlers and settler governments to find out whether they had complied with British law when they made claims to or took over control of Ngāti Kahu lands. The Tribunal found that they had not. Instead they had deliberately ignored and violated Ngāti Kahu tikanga in respect of their lands, repeatedly breached the Treaty of Waitangi, and stolen most of that land. As a result, the Tribunal recommended the Crown transfer substantial property back to Ngāti Kahu.

The fact that the Tribunal made the findings it did is extremely important. This is one part of the Crown telling another part of the Crown that it has acted illegally and that it now has very large and serious liabilities as a result. In terms of both Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in terms of its own laws, the Crown has little choice but to return what it stole.

All of Ngāti Kahu’s rohe has historical and cultural significance. Many of those places and their associated wāhi tapu have suffered severe degradation physically and/or spiritually when the Crown and its supporters have falsely claimed them, and when Ngāti Kahu have been unable to maintain full association as mana whenua.

Before European contact, Ngāti Kahu exercised its own laws and customs based on values rather than a rigid set of rules. Despite superficial changes after contact with Europeans, the essential nature of Ngāti Kahu social organisation, authority, leadership, tikanga, law, and protocols, has remained unchanged.

In 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi set out the conditions under which the Queen of England could exercise authority over her own British people and guaranteed that the rangatira of Ngāti Kahu would continue to exercise the same rangatiratanga that they had always exercised and that had been previously acknowledged in the 1835 Te Hakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni. It also guaranteed that Ngāti Kahu would enjoy all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of British citizens.

As the Tribunal has already found, the Crown has failed to honour these guarantees to Ngāti Kahu.

GHOSTBUSTERS

2011-08-08T02:03:00.000+12:00

Last month, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu lodged an application formally asking the Waitangi Tribunal to order the Crown to return all Crown forest and State-owned Enterprise lands in the Ngāti Kahu rohe. A mere four days after the application had been lodged, the Tribunal issued a memorandum in which it directed the Crown to respond by 5th August.

When the application was lodged I had fully expected a two-pronged attack from the Crown. First, it would claim Ngāti Kahu was holding up other iwi in the region from settling their claims. Second, it would try to delay any hearing so it could sort out the details of settlement with the other iwi this month, before parliament shuts for the general elections.

Sure enough, media reports quickly appeared saying that the other iwi’s settlements would be jeopardised if the Tribunal agreed to hear Ngāti Kahu’s application. These reports are total kaka. There is nothing stopping other iwi settling their claims. What they cannot settle are claims over lands in which Ngāti Kahu has an interest.

But it gets better. By the end of the month the Crown had sent a memo to the Tribunal saying it couldn’t respond to the application until Ngāti Kahu had provided further information. Quite apart from the fact that it is not for the Crown to dictate the Tribunal’s direction, it actually already has all the information it claims it needs.

Then, just four days after that delaying gambit, the New Zealand Herald ran a story saying that, so rarely is the power of binding recommendations used by the Tribunal, ‘that some have likened it to a “kehua" or ghost.’

Such a claim is astonishing. I have been intimately involved with land claims for almost three decades now, and I have never, ever heard anyone refer to the Tribunal’s power to make binding recommendations as a ‘ghost.’ Who are these nameless ‘some’ quoted by the Herald? They can only be Crown stooges. Certainly no self-respecting Māori would ever say such a thing.

However in the same report the Herald does quote another iwi’s leader saying he believed [Ngāti Kahu] was on a "hiding to nothing" with its application, because ‘the Haronga decision applied to land which originally belonged to a Māori incorporation.’

That is such utter gobbledegook that I must assume he has been misquoted. Anyone who has actually read the Haronga decision knows it applies solely to the duty of the Waitangi Tribunal to hold a hearing and make a decision on an application.

What next? Well, I expect the Crown to carry on trying to delay the hearing, to continue painting Ngāti Kahu as ‘bad’ and the other iwi as ‘good’, and to persist in urging those other iwi to settle fully and finally on Ngāti Kahu lands. I also expect the Tribunal to hear Ngāti Kahu’s application and make a decision based on law, not on politics.

Now that the kehua has been well and truly busted, the Crown should just get on with preparing itself for the hearing.

Kei a rātou.

AN EPIC FIGHT

2011-07-25T13:00:00.001+12:00

In 1847, in an epic decision that was not appealed to the Privy Council, the Supreme Court declared that aboriginal title "cannot be extinguished (at least in times of peace) otherwise than by the free consent of the Native occupiers."

Instead of developing laws around that decision, the New Zealand Parliament responded with the Maori Lands Act 1862 and the Native Rights Act 1865 which established the Native Land Court (today the Māori Land Court) to hear aboriginal title claims, and—if proven—to convert them into freehold interests that could be sold to Pākehā.

Why did the Crown do that? Because it knew that the key to removing land from Māori hands and getting it into the hands of Pākehā, was to break and replace the hapū system of collective ownership with a system of individual ownership. Having done that, it was then able to ‘legally’ separate hapū from their lands, and vice versa.

Given the suffering caused by individualisation, you’d think Māori would recognise and shun it like the plague if it ever appeared again, wouldn’t you? Well, apparently not.

Earlier this year the hapū of Ngāpuhi, the largest iwi in Aotearoa, finally began to establish before the Waitangi Tribunal the basis of their many grievances against the Crown for its innumerable breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi since 1840. Having completed the first phase of their hearings, they were preparing for the second stage when it became clear that, with the Crown’s support, Tūhoronuku, a sub-committee of Ngāpuhi’s iwi authority, were about to seek a mandate to settle their claims for them.

The hapū are not happy. Under the banner of Te Kotahitanga o Ngāpuhi they are now trying to persuade Tūhoronuku to back off the mandating process so they can focus their energies on second phase hearings of their claims.

Last week I listened to the live broadcast on iwi radio of the hui held in Te Tii between the two groups. With several hundred people present, it was clear that the overwhelming majority favoured the Kotahitanga position. But it was just as clear Tūhoronuku are not going to back off.

That is very bad news for all of us who don’t want them to fight each other.
Their key messages are very similar sounding but are actually quite different. Tūhoronuku says repeatedly, “Let Ngāpuhi speak.” Te Kotahitanga says just as consistently, “Let Ngāpuhi be heard.” The difference hinges on the fact that Tūhoronuku is not seeking its mandate from the hapū, but will instead appeal directly to individuals like myself.

For hapū, the use by their iwi of individualisation will be even more destructive than when the Crown did it to them in 1865.

Hapū are the transformer in the circuit between whānau and iwi, and many Ngāpuhi hapū are bigger than some iwi. So regardless of what I and others want, unless key iwi leaders do what is right by their hapū, an epic fight is inevitable.

Aue! E koutou, e ngā mea ataahua, nā te aha i āhei ai i a koutou te kōtiti ke atu i ngā huarahi a te hapū?

BACK TO THE TRIBUNAL

2011-07-19T10:23:00.002+12:00

In 1986 Ngāti Kahu’s hapū leaders agreed to allow our land claims to be consolidated into WAI 45, along with those of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto and Te Rarawa.

What followed were thirteen long and arduous weeks of hearings held over five years. It then took a further three years before the Waitangi Tribunal released the Muriwhenua Land Claims Report (1997) in which it comprehensively upheld all of Ngāti Kahu’s claims and found that the Crown had breached Te Tiriti grievously, thereby seriously prejudicing us. The Tribunal also recommended in its report that the Crown make immediate redress for its breaches, starting with a substantial transfer of assets to the claimants.

Ngāti Kahu has been trying to negotiate a settlement for eight years now. But from the start the Crown has shown nothing but bad faith.

First it tried to dictate both the settlement process and the content of our settlement. Then it passed laws to steal the takutaimoana, sold off claim lands to private buyers, sold mineral exploration rights to foreigners, and allowed Landcorp to try and sell parts of Rangiputa station.

More recently it has insisted that Ngāti Kahu and the other iwi must pay it almost $10 million for the Aupōuri forest lands when it has already had a return on that land of $37 million from JNL for the cutting rights. Now it has told every iwi in Te Hiku, except Ngāti Kahu, that it has given up trying to settle with us at the same time as the others because it doesn’t like the terms of our deed of partial settlement.

Instead of settling with Ngāti Kahu at a high level, thereby lifting the other iwi settlements up, the Crown is maneuvering to leave us to the side while using lands in which our hapū share an interest to settle at a lower level with the other iwi.

Ngāti Kahu’s hapū have now instructed our mandated negotiators to file with the Waitangi Tribunal for a resumption of the hearing it adjourned in 2008, and to make binding recommendations that the Crown return to Ngāti Kahu all Crown forest and State-owned Enterprise lands in the rohe, plus pay compensation on the forest lands. Legal counsel for Ngāti Kahu filed last Friday.

The Crown has never acknowledged the findings of its own Tribunal. Nor has it paid a cent or transferred any assets to Ngāti Kahu. For now it will get its way ~ there will be no settlement done on Ngāti Kahu’s terms at this time.

But the Crown also knows that this is only a delay, not a reprieve, because even after our hapū get what they can through the Tribunal, they will still be able to pursue settlement, and it is a dead cert that they will.

But an even greater certainty is that the next generation of Ngāti Kahu hapū leaders will be even stronger than the six generations who preceded them.

This delay will cost the Crown dearly.

FEAR OR FREEDOM

2011-07-12T17:44:00.001+12:00

At a recent meeting of Christian women here in Kaitaia, one of our number walked out because two others publicly commented on her perceived shortcomings. In a mere minute the feeling in the meeting went from pleasant to poisoned. I actually envied those amongst us who were deaf because they didn’t get to hear the acid tones of the petty and unintelligent exchange.

At another meeting on the same day another group of women, this time Māori in Auckland, openly mocked and ridiculed a Christian woman who they perceived as being wrong for their organisation. Whether Hannah Tamaki should lead the Māori Women’s Welfare League or not is a matter for their ballot box. Certainly the lady doesn’t float my boat, but to belittle her for being a peroxide blonde was nothing but petty and unintelligent.

The presenting problems between these different groups of women are not unique to any gender, race, faith or age group. Instead they are symptomatic of some deeper difficulty. What is it that causes any one of us to act offensively, or react defensively? How can we feel right about hurting or being hurt? I believe that in every case the underlying cause is spiritual and is triggered by fear.

There is an old wisdom that says we are only as sick as our secrets. I would amend that to say that we are only as sick as our secret fears. I know what it is to regret saying something stupid or doing something dumb, and to know that it can’t be unsaid or undone. In those cases I’ve had to watch the reactions of others play out, and know that they are beyond my control. I’ve had to face my own fears and failings, and admit to them. I’ve given and received forgiveness, and have experienced the freedom which comes with that.

As a Christian I’ve gotten used to some of my whānau looking at me sideways and making snide comments like, “The problem with Christianity is that it’s full of Christians.” At one level they’re right, wherever there are people there are problems. But at another level they’re wrong, because as someone wiser then me once said, the church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.

Similarly, as a Māori I’ve gotten used to the Crown and its supporters treating me differently and then blaming me for that difference. At one level I’m hoha with them for projecting onto me their fear of losing power and control, especially to Māori. But at another level I feel sorry for them. No matter how much material wealth they garner, they still don’t feel safe from Māori ‘radicals.’ Their fear is poisoning them. They need a hospital.

As one who has to regularly engage with these fearful folk, I can choose to either pass on their poison or to rise above the fears that lie beneath their behaviour.

Every choice has a consequence, but the unique thing about the choice between fear or freedom is that they are also their own consequence. I choose freedom.

KRIS KJELDSEN

2011-07-04T01:18:00.001+12:00

When my Pākehā grandmother married my grandfather she probably had no idea that sometime during their long and fiery union she would move from being considered a stranger amongst Māori, to becoming he tau iwi. But that is what happened.

There are other Pākehā who, although their starting point was different, became similarly connected. One such was Kris Kjeldsen, aka Kris Hippy.

Kris came to Pawarenga with his wife Diane in the early 1970s. Us rangatahi were riding home after a day of just being, when this old bomb stopped, a Pākehā hopped out, looked up and drawled, “Which one of you kids wants to swap your horse for my car?” Willie Pirini was the quickest to do the deal. So that’s how he became the first of us to own a car, while Kris and Diane took tenure of a spavined nag named Freepass. As we watched that delicately blonde and very hapū girl ride away with her husband walking in front, I thought they looked like Pākehā versions of Joseph and Mary. Of course, the horse outlasted the car by many years.

California was Kris’ birthplace, but Papatūānuku was his true address and Tangaroa his post-code. He was an ecologist. During his Zuma Beach / Baja surfing days, he’d fought against Chrysler naming its cars after marine creatures like the Barracuda. And, at a time when we Pawarengans were just starting to gain electricity, flush toilets and inside plumbing, he was renouncing them. We thought he was mad, but the energy crises during the mid and late 1970s proved him sane.

Kris' accent enthralled us. We'd talk to him just to hear it. "How are the kūtai?" we asked one day. "Jerst lahk rerber-banz," was the answer. So that became our response to any number of questions. Sister Peters to our confirmation class, "What is faith?" Answer: "Just like rerber-banz."

Kris’ two oldest children were born in Pawarenga and schooled at Hāta Maria. A third child is buried there. He was a founding Trustee of the Pawarenga Community Trust, and tutored our first community garden courses there. He was also one of the people who revived the sport of waka ama in Aotearoa. In fact its national body was founded in Pawarenga in 1987 at a hui in Taiao marae.

For the last twenty years, Kris had dedicated his life to the growth of that sport. He’d built thousands of waka and many more paddles. However it was during his first twenty years amongst the hapū of Te Uri o Tai in Pawarenga that Kris had moved from being ‘that strange hippie’ to becoming our beloved brother and friend – he tau iwi.

Kris lived and worked beside Māori whakawhiti i ngā mōtu for just over forty years, and he loved us just as we are. Kris died last Thursday.

He tohu aroha tēnei ki te whānau pani kua noho mokemoke nei mo tātou hoa, he tangata aroha kua moe nei ki te pō roa. Haere ra e Kris. Haere ra e hoa, haere atu ra. Say hello to Bo and Chris from us.

THE RACE RACE

2011-06-27T13:32:00.000+12:00

As the provisional results of the Taitokerau by-election emerged on Saturday night, a question was posted to the yahoo newsfeed site from a chap calling himself Bruce. “As a relative newcomer to these fair islands can someone please explain why in a supposed first world civilised country there is a political party called Mana based on race??!!!” The punctuation is his.

Bruce is confused because he doesn’t know that, as a political party, Te Mana is not race-based. But his confusion is understandable because, while Te Mana is not race-based, the Māori seats are. However the racism that gave rise to them was and is entirely that of the Crown and its supporters who, in 1867, created the original four Māori seats in a parliament of 74 at a time when the majority of the population were clearly Māori.

The relevant Act was passed only after lengthy debate. Most conservative MPs considered Māori "unfit" to participate in government, and opposed Māori representation in Parliament, while some MPs from the other end of the spectrum (such as James FitzGerald, who had proposed allocating a third of Parliament to Māori) regarded the concessions given to Māori as insufficient. In the end the setting up of separate Māori electorates assuaged conservative opposition to the bill; they had previously feared that Māori would gain the right to vote in general electorates, thereby forcing all MPs (rather than just four Māori MPs) to take notice of Māori opinion.

Before this law came into effect, no direct prohibition on Māori voting existed, but other indirect prohibitions, like the property qualification, made it extremely difficult for Māori to exercise their theoretical electoral rights. In order to vote, one needed to possess a certain value of land. Māori owned heaps of land, but held it in common, not under individual title, and under the law that disqualified them from voting. Donald McLean explicitly intended his bill as a temporary measure to give specific representation to Māori until they adopted European customs of land ownership. In effect, the Māori seats were the Crown’s way of dressing up as enlightened and benign, its racist marginalisation of Māori and their customs. The Māori electorates remain in place today, despite the property qualification for voting being removed in 1879.

Racism is illogical and it breeds irrational consequences. Currently Māori refuse to relinquish these race-based seats, not because we see them as the best option for our political representation in the future, but because they are the only option. However there is an opposite (hopefully stronger) force working against the racism behind them, which is currently manifesting in an emerging movement composed of a younger, poorer, hungrier and smarter demographic across all races.

If, as I expect, Hone takes the special votes and reclaims the Taitokerau seat, then that movement will have a place on the front bench of parliament as well as more resources with which to unite its constituency before the general election.

Regardless of the final by-election result, Te Mana had to hit the ground still running the moment the polls closed on Saturday night because, as long as racism remains entrenched in the institutions and systems of government, the race has not ended.

FRANKLY FASCINATING

2011-06-20T15:25:00.003+12:00

On Radio Live last Friday morning, Hillary Barry who is arguably the first lady of mainstream news, had a fit of giggles so bad that she had to stop and hand over to the sports reporter. She’d introduced a story in which New York Congressman Anthony Wiener was resigning after having been exposed for sending images of a certain body part to women who weren’t his wife. Cut to Wiener solemnly making his announcement to a handpicked hometown audience. But, instead of politely clapping as one would expect, they cheered loudly and then started chanting, “Leave, you per-vert!” Frankness in politics is as rare as a redneck with all his teeth, so this unexpected frankness completely undid Hillary. Unprofessional? Totally. Forgiveable? Completely.

This time next week we will have a result in the Taitokerau byelection. Like no other, this election is for and about Māori. Its result is also fascinating like never before, not because of the individuals standing, but because of the very different implications that a win for any one of them holds for us.

As a voter in this byelection, my job has been to figure out what each of the candidates’ parties stands for, which one stands closest to where I am, and which is heading where I want to go. It’s become clear to me that although there are three serious contenders in this byelection, there are really only two positions; government by and for the rich and powerful, or government by and for everyone else. So what are the voting options for Māori? I’ve boiled them down to what I call the satellite, the landing craft or the planet.

In my frank opinion, a vote for Kelvin will maintain the Māori satellite that orbits the potential Labour government of the future, while a vote for Solomon involves replacing a crew member on the manned Māori Party landing craft within the current National government. Alternatively a vote for Hone is a stake in the planet itself. As for the other two candidates who are standing, in my opinion a vote for them is a wasted one – pardon the pun.

If my political frankness causes the majority of eligible Māori voters to fall about laughing, then my candidate of choice may be in trouble. But if that same majority share my view, they won’t be clapping politely when the result is announced next week, but will be cheering and shouting, “Go, you bea-u-ty!”

P.S. News has just reached me that Cathy Crene (nee Semenoff) has passed away. She hailed from Te Rarawa, Te Paatu and Ngāti Kahu, and if ever there was a frank lady it was Cath, or Giddy-Gas as some of us affectionately knew her. Moe mai ra e te whaea Cath. I know one thing, if she’d have been in Congressman Wiener’s crowd she wouldn’t have clapped politely either.

AN IMPORTANT RULING

2011-06-13T03:41:00.001+12:00

Late last month the Supreme Court released a majority ruling (4 to 1) in favour of a man named Allan Haronga. Mr Haronga had fought his case all the way up from the Waitangi Tribunal, through the Māori Appellate Court, the High Court, and then the Court of Appeal, before finally winning a ruling from the highest Court in New Zealand. And what was that ruling? Simply that the Waitangi Tribunal must do its job and hold an urgent hearing into Mr Haronga’s application for a binding recommendation that the Crown return 8626 acres of the Mangatu State Forest to Mangatu Incorporation.

In 1893 Mangatu Incorporation was established by Te Aitanga a Māhaki, an iwi based in Turanganui a Kiwa (the Bay of Plenty), to protect them and their lands from the pressure to sell to Europeans. It is a matter of great pride to them that they have managed to hold the bulk of their lands since 1893. However in 1961 the Crown acquired some of their land for ‘erosion control purposes.’ Although the Incorporation was reluctant to sell, as it planned to afforest the land, it was prevailed upon to believe that there was no option other than Crown ownership. But it turned out that the Crown had never intended to use their land for erosion control at all. Instead it planted a commercial forest on it from which it has profited ever since.

In 1992 Eric Ruru, a member of the Incorporation, lodged two claims with the Waitangi Tribunal seeking the return of the land from the Crown. Later, his claims were grouped by the Tribunal into a district-wide inquiry. In 2004 the Tribunal ruled his claims were well-founded, but recommended that all claimants within the district enter direct negotiations with the Crown together. In 2008 a draft Agreement in Principle emerged which showed that the key redress item for the entire district was to be the Mangatu lands. In short, Te Aitanga a Māhaki and their claims had been subsumed, and their lands were to be used by the Crown to settle everyone’s claims.

As soon as he saw where negotiations were headed Allan Haronga returned to the Tribunal and asked it to complete its inquiry by ordering the Crown to return the Mangatu lands to the Mangatu Incorporation, but the Tribunal declined to even hold a hearing on the grounds that its power to hear an application for binding orders against the Crown was a discretionary one. Now it has been plainly told by the Supreme Court that it is not a discretionary power and it needs to do its job; i.e. hold a hearing and make a ruling based on law for or against Mr Haronga’s application.

In 2008 Ngāti Kahu also applied to the Tribunal for binding orders against the Crown and also got rebuffed, but we didn’t have the wherewithal to appeal. Combined with the fact that Supreme Court rulings set case law that can be used by others in the future, this makes Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal and Others a very important ruling for us. We are now considering our options very carefully.

I AM

2011-06-05T17:57:00.000+12:00

I was asked recently how I can work year in and year out on the fault line between Māori and the Crown without getting bitter and twisted. Some years ago, during the worse series of tragedies I have ever experienced, I received a great yet simple insight – the knowledge that whatever happens to me, I am always OK. At the time I thought I was desperately unhappy, exhausted, frightened, and furious. But today I know that, while all those feelings have been felt by me at different times, none of them actually defines who I am. Neither do their opposites for that matter.

The late Anthony de Mello describes this knowledge in his book “Awareness.” Using the sky as a metaphor for who “I am” and the clouds as a metaphor for the things that happen to “me,” he explains how when a cloud appears and then disappears it may affect the look of the sky, but the sky itself remains essentially unchanged by the cloud’s coming or going, or by what type of cloud it is. In the same way, he continues, I am essentially unchanged by whatever happens to me or whoever comes and goes in my life. They may appear to make me look or feel sad, but in reality I am neither.

However, knowing who I am (or am not) does not automatically exempt me from suffering. De Mello defines suffering as what happens when my will comes up against immutable reality. Although reality does not cause suffering in itself, any more than it causes joy, it’s clear that if I try to bend it to my will, then that will cause me to suffer alright.

But if I am not visibly suffering will those who did me wrong ever be held accountable? Am I supposed to just forgive and do nothing to them? Surprisingly the answers are yes and yes. Other people and their actions are not mine to control. If I have an expectancy that they will be honest but they turn out to be lying thieves, I either accept that fact and work to resolve any hurt caused, or I try to force them to be honest and suffer when that inevitably doesn’t happen. There is nothing wrong with having expectancy, but I don’t need to get bitter and twisted when or if it doesn’t match with reality. As for wrongdoers being held accountable, there is a God to take care of that. And guess what? It’s not me. Thank God!

In the past I would crack a fit over the fact that the Crown has yet to right any of the wrongs it has done to me and my people. Now, I simply observe and accept the reality that the Crown currently remains without honour or integrity. Then I cheerfully carry on seeking after a day when that changes.

And the key to doing that year in and year out is to simply know I am.

SOUNDS OF SILENCE

2011-05-30T20:08:00.001+12:00

On Saturday just gone Chris Finlayson and his officials were in Te Hiku meeting with different iwi in the region, starting with Ngāti Kahu. By Sunday we were hearing very muddled reports of the hui with Ngāti Kahu. There was this from TVNZ: “Ngati Kahu broke away from the four other iwi about a month ago, and asked to be allowed to come up with its own draft deed of settlement.”

That would have been news to everyone up here alright. Especially to those who know that, in order to write the deed, Ngāti Kahu made a planned and well-signalled withdrawal in January 2010 from the now-defunct Te Hiku Forum. But even if you didn’t know this background, hands up those who believe Ngāti Kahu ever asked anyone for permission to write its own deed.

Even more interesting than TVNZ’s piece, was the pollie-speak coming from Chris Finlayson himself about the meeting with Ngāti Kahu and our deed. He was reported on stuff.co.nz as saying the draft deed would be a ''partial settlement'' that would ''allow grievances to linger”, that ''full and final settlements are the cornerstone of the historical settlement process”, and that “finality allows the Crown and iwi to draw a line under the grievances of the past and focus on developing a positive future together.''

Translation: “If Ngāti Kahu wants to settle, they have to first let the Crown put the words ‘full and final’ on their deed, second stop acting like they own their lands and other estates, and third start pretending the Crown does.” As you can imagine, Ngāti Kahu’s response needs no translation.

Finlayson and the Crown have had the deed for two months now. The deadline for them to make submissions to it closes at 12 noon today. They hadn’t asked for an extension at time of this column being written.

If the Crown is still not ready to make full redress for all its wrongdoing and lawlessness, Ngāti Kahu will allow it to make a partial settlement at this time. We would prefer to sign a final deed of settlement, on the simple condition that it does actually contain full settlement redress.

It’s worrying for the future wellbeing of this country that the Crown still seems unable to see or portray Ngāti Kahu as anything but breakaways from the other iwi and beggars to the Crown. But even more worrying is the unnatural silence from the other iwi to whom I tātai. Just last month their leaders all sat unmurmuring, except for one of their number who told Ngāti Kahu off to a standstill for having finished our deed and then come expecting to sort out the finer details of our shared interests with them, when some of them hadn’t even started writing their deeds yet. But on Saturday Finlayson announced the other four iwi were all ready to sign their deeds of settlement.

What deeds of settlement are those? Who wrote them and when? Be interesting to hear something more than the sounds of silence from the other iwi.

A LEGACY

2011-05-23T17:06:00.004+12:00

As a youngster I’d get hoha hearing my dad say things like, “Our family name is a good one. Don’t blinkin’ stuff it up.” Over the years since, I’ve come to understand that what dad was talking about was the importance of respecting our relationship to each other. What one did impacted on others in our whānau.

For Ngāti Kahu the relationship we agreed we would have with the British Crown was that between two sovereign nations as was set out clearly in the 1835 Te Hakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (referred to in English as the Declaration of Independence) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840. The British Crown recognized Te Hakaputanga and is a signatory to Te Tiriti.

More recently the United Nations has set out the minimum requirements to uphold basic human rights of indigenous peoples, including the Tangata Whenua of Aotearoa/New Zealand, in its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Ngāti Kahu expects and will ensure that these minimum standards of human rights and mutual respect form the basis of our future relationship with the Crown. There is a great deal to be done before we can claim to have achieved those standards.

Due to the historical Crown breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi documented in the Waitangi Tribunal’s Muriwhenua Land Claims Report (1997) the Ngāti Kahu / Crown relationship is in very poor shape. The many ways in which the Crown has lied to, stolen from, discriminated against and oppressed Ngāti Kahu at every opportunity, are matters of public record.

Ngāti Kahu have now written “Te Hakapūmautanga o te Mana o Ngāti Kahu: the Ngāti Kahu deed of partial settlement towards extinguishment of all Crown claims to Ngāti Kahu lands.” We did this to show how and why the relationship is so bad and to outline a pathway to improving it. We have recorded for those coming after us the work undertaken by six generations of Ngāti Kahu to halt and then repair the damage wrought by Crown lawlessness in our territories since 1840. We have laid out what it will take to fully, fairly and finally settle our claims against the Crown for its numerous breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi since 1840, and to extinguish all Crown claims to our lands. We have written down what has actually been achieved towards that ideal. And we have recorded an agreement to commence those extinguishments through the Crown’s relinquishment of its claims to approximately 10% of our inland territories.

Over the years I have seen time and time again how the mere mention of my parents’ names has opened many doors for their uri. It’s a pretty cool legacy. On the other hand what the Crown has done to Ngāti Kahu has created a legacy of prejudice, poverty, deprivation and marginalization that are still being experienced by us up to and at the present time.

It’s a pathetic legacy. But as long as the relationship between us remains the way it is, it will not change.

THEM AND US

2011-05-16T08:11:00.001+12:00

"Mana May Miss By-election" was the headline in last Friday's Herald, pretty much the same line we were fed by TV1 and TV3 the previous night. As a headline it at least had alliteration going for it, but as important news or even as mundane information, it held little merit. The headline might just as well have read, "Mainstream Media May have Missed the Point.”

Perhaps it’s not fair to expect the mainstream to get it, even 171 years after they began publishing in this country. After all, very few within it have either the chops or the insight to know what is politically important to Māori in general, let alone to Māori who will vote in the upcoming Taitokerau by-election. So let me spell out to them what is and isn’t important to us.

Iwi Chairs have very little influence on how we vote. In fact the support of certain Chairs will almost certainly lose a candidate more votes than it will gain; especially if that Chair is seen by us as a Crown puppet or, worse still, a Crown employee. However, anyone within our iwi who has a long record of standing apart from the Crown and standing up for us can swing a lot of votes.

Political parties don’t have the same clout with us that they held, say twenty or even ten years ago. Add that to the fact that there is no party vote in a by-election, and party branding just doesn’t have a lot of relevancy for us today. Not unless it’s tagged to someone who does.

Planks of policies and platforms of promises; even though most of the razzamatazz of campaigning is based around such things, they don’t impress us much. No matter who the government is, we’ve seen most policies and promises aimed at addressing issues of concern to us come to nothing.

What is important and does impress us is the candidate and his history amongst us. We want to know, does his public campaign match his private character? Is he known to tell his party what we want it to do? Or does he sell us what it wants to do? Does he equate his ambitions with our needs? Do we see him at our hui, laughing and crying over the same things we do? Has he got an honest mouth instead of a smooth tongue? Does he live clean or dirty? If he’s got skeletons, are they closeted or are they out in the middle of the floor dancing for all to see? When we watch him do we sense his strength and mana, or does he feel just like a big puff of emptiness?

We did not create the Māori seats, and if Don Brash has his way we won’t be there when they’re uncreated. But while they exist we do take an interest in who sits in them based on the answers to all the above, and not on whether they have money to run their campaign. In the end, if we like the candidate and what they stand for, we’ll raise the necessary funds. We may even vote for them.

As for mainstream media, they do a fair to middling job analysing the Dons and the Keys of politics. But they still don’t get us.

YOU'VE GOTTA LAUGH

2011-05-09T11:13:00.001+12:00

That great Māori writer, Mark Twain, once wrote, “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”

On a recent flight to Kerikeri, my seat mate was a Ngāpuhi woman coming home from Perth for time with whānau, particularly the mokopuna. She’d been away for a year, and had at least two new descendants to meet for the first time. Like many grandparents who live on either side of Te Moana Tāpokapoka a Tāwhaki, she relies heavily on the internet to keep in touch with her mokopuna.

As the Māori diaspora continues, one of its saddest and yet most appreciated outcomes is that it’s given rise to the facebook whānau. It’s a phenomenon that social commentators and historians will have a field day with in the future. But here, in the present, it’s just about whānau doing what we must to communicate our love and longing for home, and for each other.

And that has given rise to an emerging vocabulary of facebookisms; new words for old meanings, as well as old words with new spellings and meanings. These, in turn, have given rise to a new wave of that unique brand of Māori humour; the kind that keeps us sane in the face of insanity.

The hallmarks of a really good facebookism are that it’s got to make you laugh, it has to be slightly off the mark and yet be oddly appropriate.

A six year old in Perth to her recuperating nanna, “We love you nanna. No more harder tacks ay.” A newly politicised youth in Melbourne commenting on Osama bin Laden’s death, “It’s disgusting to see americans celebrating OBL’s death, nothing but proper gander!” A middle-aged man describing the climate in Brisbane to his mum in Auckland, “Rain rain rain yet stinkin hot, over 30 degrease.” A young father on white Australian attitudes to Aboriginals, “They’re so pignorant.”

You’ve gotta laugh ay. While more of our whānau succeed in Ozzie rather than here at home, we get to stare at and lovingly trace their faces on computer screens in a parody of human touch. And we get to watch homesteads fall into disrepair, marae struggle to manāki manuhiri, taumata manned by boys, and young girls conduct the karanga. But, you’ve gotta laugh.

When those who have been privileged by our dispossession and marginalisation accuse us of being privileged and lazy, you’ve gotta laugh. Especially when they take it upon themselve to tell us our history based on how someone from another culture saw or sees it. Can you imagine if we rewrote their hakapapa and history the way they do ours? It’s too funny for words, so best just laugh.

Back to that rangatira Mark Twain. “The human race,” he wrote, “ has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” I struggle with that. I love laughing, but my problem is that I stopped seeing the pignorant proper gander of degreased racists giving themselves harder tacks as funny a long time ago.

Still, you’ve gotta laugh ay. Because if you don’t ...

HE IWI KOTAHI

2011-05-06T10:08:00.000+12:00

For the past twelve months, while critics within and without Ngāti Kahu have been pressuring us to work towards settlement under the Crown’s processes and timetables, we have been writing the Ngāti Kahu Deed of Partial Settlement under the processes and timetables of our hapū. The first draft was delivered to the Crown on April 1st.

A written Deed is critical to any kind of settlement. In the past, and under the process that our critics wanted us to follow, the Crown has written the Deed with some input from the claimant. After that, it has become a take it or leave it proposition for the claimant, and they have had to choose to either settle under the terms and conditions of the Deed, or go to the back of the claimant line and wait.

Tired of waiting, with no substantial fallback plan, and with high hopes of finally being able to take their rightful place in their own land, almost every claimant has signed when presented with this choice. In fact I think the only claimant who has refused to sign such a Deed of Settlement to date has been Whakatōhea.

Most of us in this country have heard the words apparently spoken at Waitangi on 6th February 1840 by Captain William Hobson, the man the Crown sent to negotiate and conclude a Treaty with the Māori nation. As each of the rangatira appended his signature or mark to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Captain Hobson is reputed to have said: He iwi kotahi tatou. We are now one people.

But the very fact that the Treaty exists is testament to the reality that there are two nations in this country who are on sometimes parallel, other times divergent, courses. The Crown’s course is, by and large, known. Now for the first time ever the course of one small part of the Māori nation has been set down in a Deed of Partial Settlement.

In its Deed, Ngāti Kahu have laid out simply and clearly the central precept on which New Zealand was founded; i.e. two nations, one people. This is the very issue our respective tūpuna began to address with Te Hakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (the Declaration of Independence) in 1835, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The Crown recognised Te Hakaputanga and is a signatory to Te Tiriti. The fact that the Crown subsequently chose to try and simply override Māori with superior numbers has delayed the realization of the full potential of both nations for too long. The Ngāti Kahu Deed addresses this fully.

No-one who knows Ngāti Kahu should be surprised that it has ignored the choice of “sign now or wait until later”. We are now waiting for the Crown to respond to our Deed of Settlement by or before 1st June.

Whether or not the Crown agrees at this time to relinquish the lands it has stolen from Ngāti Kahu and to extinguish its claims over them, it has yet to sincerely address this important issue of two nations, one people. It needs to. Urgently.

MAORI LIBERATION THEOLOGY - PART ONE

2011-04-18T14:10:00.001+12:00

A generation ago I asked a kaumātua why our tūpuna had almost universally embraced Christ and turned away from ngā Atua Māori in all but form, and if, in his opinion, that had been a good thing?

Māori Marsden was a graduate of the Ngāpuhi wananga as well as of St Johns Theological College, and he knew his stuff, both in terms of Christianity and ngā Atua Māori. His answer to both questions was long, interconnected and somewhat complex, so I apologise to his whānau in advance for any injustice they may perceive I do in this summary of it.

He said the reasons our tūpuna became Christians included the parallels between the Old Testament Jehovah, the New Testament Jesus Christ, and the Polynesian Io; the kinship they felt with the house of Israel; the clearer separation they found in Christianity between ‘good’ and ‘evil’; the similarities between the Christian and Māori stories of the Creation; the clearly defined concepts of the Fall, Incarnation, Atonement and Resurrection; and the written word of the Bible. These were all seen as upholding and enhancing the underlying principles of Mana and Tapu so important to tikanga Māori. So Christianity was embraced and accepted by our tūpuna and by himself as a natural spiritual progression for our hapū to make. But he also said that the form of Christianity brought to these islands by Pākehā was ‘broken-legged’ (divided between warring factions of Europeans). And while liberating us on one level, it had also added to our division which was then seized on by the Crown in its drive to rule us. In short, Christianity was definitely a tool of colonisation.

Being an inveterate questioner I then asked him if personal conviction, as opposed to political considerations, had had any part in the conversion of our tūpuna to Christianity? His answer was instant and his look intent, ‘They were people of deep spirituality and intelligence. Make of that what you will, but never doubt that they were excited by the new religion and were fired to make the leap of faith.’

Today Christianity is being increasingly abandoned by the Pākehā and Māori alike. Even amongt those who still hold to its outward forms, many have become ‘Godless Christians’ who treat its theology like a menu from which to pick and choose, and its head, not as God, but as the maitre’d who delivers the menu.

Disillusioned by the wide gap between Pākehā professions of faith in Christian principles and their lack of principles when dealing with us, many Māori have turned to other faiths. Others seek to reinstate ngā Atua Māori as our primary religion. And some have given up on God totally to embrace materialism wholly. Invariably the result is a far cry from the ‘deep spirituality and intelligence’ of our tūpuna and their ‘fired leap of faith’ as described by Māori Marsden.

For materialists, no God or a maitre’d God may be fine. But for anyone seeking liberation, that will not do at all. In fact, if we don’t address God with deep intelligence, spirituality and faith, will we even be fit for the liberation for which we are striving?

Next week I’ll continue exploring this vexed issue.

LAWLESS MĀORI LEADERS

2011-04-11T08:32:00.003+12:00

The closest Pākehā term there is for tikanga is ‘law.’

It’s not necessary to be steeped in tikanga Māori to live by it, anymore than it’s necessary to be steeped in Pākehā law to live by that. In fact, given that there are currently almost 2000 separate Acts in this country, I’d argue that it’s simpler to live by tikanga Māori. However I would also concede that it’s not necessarily easier.

That is a debate I’m happy to have at any time with anyone. However what is not open to debate is that Māori leaders who operate outside of tikanga pose a problem for their whānau, hapū and iwi.

To illustrate; within any whānau, hapū or iwi we have a problem if our leader makes a habit of abusing women or children, has the sexual morals of an alley cat, can barely get through the day without a toke, regularly puts the opinions and needs of others before ours, thinks they know better than us what is good for us, has an ego bigger than our national debt, is prone to doing deals and selling us down the river, and refuses to take our instruction.

We especially have a problem if we do nothing about the problem.

Given our paradigms of collectivism and whakapapa, the impact of such serious tikanga violations by our leaders radiate through and across the generations, and they often take their uri with them.

Tikanga violations may eventually be forgiven, but they can never be tolerated, particularly by our leaders. If we turn a blind eye, we as good as say to the world that their violence, infidelity, addiction, corruption, egotism or whatever, is OK. Worst of all, we condemn that leader to their weakness and become complicit with them in all they do.

To stop the damage, we must apply tikanga to bring an erring leader to account and give them a chance to take corrective action or be removed.

If we want to confuse and diminish our whānau, hapū or iwi, all we need do is appoint, follow and tolerate lawless leaders. If we don’t want those outcomes, then we need to do the opposite.

Tikanga or kaore he tikanga. It’s just as simple as that.

THE PRE-EMINENT UNIT

2011-04-04T01:45:00.002+12:00

Inside a hapū the whānau have always been, and still remain, the pre-eminent unit.

Inside an iwi, the hapū have always been, and still remain, the pre-eminent unit.

With grateful acknowledgement to Tepania Kingi of Ngāti Whātua who first articulated it on paper, I have adapted his words to show how that works in Ngāti Kahu under the following tikanga:

Whānau aggregate to form hapū which in turn aggregate to form iwi.

The authority that resides at each level of this social order is conveyed to the next via a leadership representative.

Hence, whānau leaders engaging with other whānau leaders is a hapū level engagement; hapū leaders engaging with other hapū leaders is an iwi level engagement; iwi leaders engaging with other iwi leaders is a waka level engagement. Up here in Te Hiku, unlike Tainui and Te Arawa, we have a lot of different waka. So we don’t do the waka level thing often, and if we do, it’s only under our own iwi waka.

For engagement to be effective, it must be level to level i.e. iwi to iwi; hapū to hapū; whānau to whānau. The only exception to this is when engagement occurs as part of the aggregation process i.e. own whānau to own hapū to own iwi and vice versa.

For the structure to maintain its integrity, the ‘chain of authority’ must be followed i.e. whānau to hapū; hapū to iwi – iwi to hapū; hapū to whānau. • At all levels of engagement there must be authority to engage. At the waka level, iwi leaders engage with other iwi leaders by virtue of the authority vested in them by their hapū leaders. At the iwi level, hapū leaders engage with other hapū leaders by virtue of the authority vested in them by their whānau leaders.

The authority that each representative brings to their level of engagement is non-transferable. Hence no hapū leader could purport to represent another hapū leader, likewise with the whānau leaders, likewise with the iwi leaders. This often creates a conundrum for external parties seeking to engage with the largest collective possible, preferably of iwi. Generally, external parties tend to presume that engagement is with a collective whole rather than a collective of independent participants. While this may appear to be a subtle difference, it can become a significant hindrance to engagement if it is not made clear that the collective incorporates a number of independent authorities rather than maintaining a ‘single’ overarching authority.

Any information shared with the collective must also be shared with the individual members of the collective – particularly those not participating in the collective.

Anything produced by the collective can only be described as ‘collective’ if it has 100% support of all of the individual participants. And, even then, it can only represent the collective participants i.e. the iwi, hapū or whānau leaders, not the actual iwi, hapū or whānau which, by virtue of tikanga, retain the authority to represent only themselves and no others.

Next week I’ll continue this theme by looking at what happens within the whānau, hapū and iwi when leaders presume to speak for others without a clear mandate.

SWISS CHEESE LOGIC, SMORGASBORD ETHICS

2011-04-03T17:43:00.000+12:00

I like swiss cheese and smorgasbords because they’re generally tasty and light to eat. But as metaphors for logic and ethics, they stink. Whenever I see or hear swiss cheese logic and smorgasbord ethics at play along racial grounds, the stench is particularly strong.

A case in point is the use of myths about Moriori to prove that Māori are not indigenous to Aotearoa, and to support the Crown’s confiscation of the takutaimoana.

Moriori are genetically and lingusitically Māori. In 1835/36 when their rohe was invaded by Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, all three iwi had a shared language and common laws, except in one respect – Moriori weren’t permitted to kill, while their invaders were. You may shudder at the ferocity of Ngāti Mutunga / Ngāti Tama, but you can’t logically accuse them of breaking their laws.

However, the swiss cheese logicians and smorgasbord ethicists can and do, and here’s how they roll. They first ignore the Crown’s utter disregard for its own law against theft. Then they apply that law retrospectively to Māori who had no such concept. Next they recall that Māori were cannibals, and follow that up with claims that Māori were not the first race here, and massacred their predecessors. Finally they say that all this proves Māori are not the indigenous people of this land, and therefore the Crown is justified in seizing the takutaimoana for the general public.

Strip away their holey logic and carefully selected ethics, and the guts of their message to Māori is, “There are now more of our type of people in these lands than your type, so we can get away with pretty much anything we do to you, and you may as well shut up about it.”

But the problem with relying on being the majority as your moral compass is that, unlike true ethics and logic, the numbers can and do change often and unpredictably. And they don’t travel well.

Try transporting our majority into Japan or China and how do you think they’d fare claiming ethical ownership of those nations’ foreshores and seabeds? Reckon they’d dare to apply their law and logic to the cultures and histories of India or Indonesia while trying to claim the resources of those lands?

The facts are that their predecessors tried those tricks in those very countries throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and they all got booted out after the numbers swung against them. I’ll bet you anything they complained about the “poor me” attitude of the indigenes they’d oppressed, mourned the loss of multi-culturalism, and wept into their nightcaps over the natives’ failure to appreciate that, at heart, they were all one people.

You know I feel kind of sorry for those whose logic is full of holes and whose ethics are based only on their dwindling majority. It can’t be comfortable for them.
Oh well, they can always comfort themselves temporarily with a slice of swiss cheese and the occasional smorgasbord.

NĀ TE WHANAU, TANGATA ORA E

2011-03-22T00:31:00.001+13:00

Every columnist and commentator seems to have an opinion about where they think Hone Harawira should go from here and what he should do. All of them have one thing in common; they expect him to remain in Parliament. I don’t. There’s far more important work to be done outside Parliament than in, so I say he should finish this term representing Te Taitokerau then turn his back on the place.

The conventional wisdom is that central government represents the height of power in a country and is the only way for a modern state to be run. But there is another school of thought that views it as little more than a mutated and monstrous committee into which all good ideas are lured and either ruined or quietly strangled. I can picture that. I actually believe the highest human power is that found in the smallest unit of society, the whanau.

Māori society is based on whānau, hapū and iwi. So why are we sending our best into a system that bears no resemblance to our society? Our whānau, hapū and iwi are the launching pads for all our physical, emotional and spiritual aspirations. Why have we replaced them with parties and movements when it comes to our political aspirations? The wellspring of tino-rangatiratanga is found solely within the whanau. Does it not make more sense to come back and work within that rather then stay within Parliament?

Although our tikanga provides all we need to be self-governing at every level of our society, it’s no longer true that every whānau knows how to live or teach it. So there’s work to be done showing them how to organise, govern and provide for themselves.

There are also hapū who no longer function well. There’s more work to be done there to ensure that, when whānau come up against something that’s beyond their skill and knowledge, they can combine with their related whānau and act as a hapū to push their cause. Then, if they can’t get what they want as a hapū, they need to have the confidence that they can combine with other hapū and work as an iwi to progress it. Should they still fail, they may need to aggregate further and combine with their waka grouping to finish it off. But most of all, each smaller unit has to be confident that their take won’t get hijacked by the bigger units, and each bigger unit has to be willing to accept the smaller units’ right to accept or reject what they achieve. More work to be done.

Why am I shoulder-tapping Hone for the job? Because it’s all preparatory for an idea whose time is surely coming; the national Māori political forum. The current constitutional review being lead by Moana Jackson is bound to progress its development. Before it’s established though, we must ready the whānau, hapū, iwi and waka to instruct it. What better preparation then to reinforce in them the tikanga of self-government? And who better to lead that mahi then the guy with the most political nouse and experience outside Parliament?

Whina Cooper said it in her karanga on the Herbs album – “Na te whanau, tangata ora e.’ How’s that for a post-political manifesto Hone?

Might be easier to stay in Parliament ne?

CHARITY IS NOT EASY

2011-03-14T07:21:00.002+13:00

I had a couple of lessons in charity this weekend.

The first came from one of my church leaders, a quietly unassuming but brilliant man, who said, “We find it easy to show charity towards others in their times of need. Can we also show charity to them in their times of weakness?”

They reckon one of the sure signs you’ve given a good kauhau is when the congregation is left wondering how you knew so much about their peccadillos. That was a good sermon President.

The second lesson came from my dad who said, “I see you gave poor old Mate hell.” He was referring to a letter I wrote to the editor of this paper last week over the way Council had mishandled (or more accurately, not handled) my complaint of misconduct against Councillor Radich.

Anyway, it struck me that what Dad wasn’t saying was that I may have been uncharitable in some of the things I’d written.

The truth is that that there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and being a doormat. The first is charitable, the second is merely masochistic. However, upon personal introspection, I can see that some of what I wrote was not necessary. I should not have used the word ‘Nazi’ in reference to Mr Radich. That was uncharitable.

That got me thinking about the balance between charity and masochism in recent events on the national scene.

A protest Hikoi against the Crown’s latest planned theft from Maori of the takutaimona left Te Rerenga Wairua 5a.m. yesterday. Originally scheduled to leave last Thursday, it was delayed because the kaumatua of Te Hiku o Te Ika had asked the rangatahi organisers to be sensitive to the Crown’s need to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake in Otautahi. Charitable of them.

They also wrote to the Prime Minister asking for the readings of the Marine and Coastal Bill to cease while grieving families mourned, and while Ngai Tahu, who are strongly opposed to the Bill, were preoccupied with taking care of its own people as well as nga iwi ke within its rohe. Charitable again.

Their letter was ignored, and on Tuesday 8th March the second reading of the Bill was passed by 62 votes to 56. Instead of hanging their heads in shame, the Crown and its supporters in and out of the House, puffed up their chests, stretched their throats and crowed that Hone had failed to vote against it. Gee, call Hone dumb, but his vote wouldn’t have defeated the second reading anyway, right? What price charity huh?

Clearly it was not good form of Hone to have messed with the protocols of Parliament like that. However keeping Parliamentary rules is not why Taitokerau sent him into that den in the first place. Rather it was to accurately and strongly represent what his constituents think, say and feel. He did that when he stood up, faced the thieves, bullies and cowards in the House and said in effect, “My constituents are never going to be doormats for you lot on this one.” To do otherwise would have been merely masochistic.

Indeed there is a charitable balance to be struck when dealing with the bully, the thief, the abuser or anyone who has let us down and shown weakness. The time will come when, unless they repent and humble themselves, they will get dealt to. But until then, we have to struggle as best we can to turn the other cheek without being doormats. Not easy.

TECTONIC TALES

2011-03-08T23:28:00.000+13:00

One of the most enduring relationships I know of is that between my 83 year old dad and his 85 year old sister. For years she used to come home every holiday and set up camp on our lawn until dad built her a bach right where she used to put up her tent. No legal paperwork was signed, and no cash exchanged.

Things went well until aunty stopped coming and her mokopuna started turning up instead with their Pakeha mates and their different ways. That was OK too, until the Pakeha mates arrived one day by themselves and began treating the whole place, not just the bach, like it was theirs.

The time had come to cancel the gift. Aunty understood but didn’t want the hassle of dismantling camp that one last time. So to satisfy any claims her mokopuna or their Pakeha mates might make, dad paid her for the bach and its contents, and that was that. Gift cancelled.

It all went smoothly because both dad and his sister understood that the gift and its cancellation were expressions of Tuku Whenua under Tikanga Maori. The only right attached to the gift was that of use. When the use ended, so did the gift; but not the relationship which continues happily to this day.

I thought of this Tuku Whenua Tikanga while reading two recently released publications. The first is the report by United Nations Special Rapporteur, Dr James Anaya, titled “The Situation of Maori People in New Zealand.”

Several key issues are addressed by Dr Anaya, but his main focus is the settlement process for historical and contemporary claims based on the Treaty of Waitangi. He reports that, while there has been progress since 2005 when the last UN Special Rapporteur was here, there is still a long way to go “to achieve the increased social and economic parity that is necessary for Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders to move forward as true partners in the future, as contemplated under the Treaty of Waitangi.”

The second publication is a book titled “The State of Maori Rights” by Professor Margaret Mutu which brings together a set of articles she wrote between 1994 and 2009. In it she places on record the Maori view of events and issues that have been more typically reported to the general public from a 'mainstream' media perspective. Having lived through all of the events reviewed and taken part in many of them, even I was astonished at how clearly the threads of racism are there for the world to see. Actually, what with the footnotes and cross-references, they are more like whopping great ropes.

Both these publications stand as stark counterpoints to the Tuku Whenua transaction between my dad and his sister. They reveal the racist rubbishing of most things Maori and the tension arising out of that, while the Tuku Whenua transaction shows Maori unselfconsciously practicing Tikanga, and the relaxed ease of that.

Both Dr Anaya’s report and Professor Mutu’s book have understandably been overshadowed by the most recent tectonic shifts in and around Christchurch and the push to rebuild that city. But it is their messages that will contribute more to shifting the tectonics between races and rebuilding this country.

However the key message for Maori lies in the Tuku Whenua transaction. It shows that while others can either support or oppose Tikanga, Maori must do it. Why? Because, if we don’t, race relationships are going to get a whole lot worse in this country; and Papatuanuku will let us know about it for sure.

PROPHECIES FROM THE EPICENTRE

2011-02-28T16:22:00.003+13:00

06/02/11
"A terrible earthquake is going to hit Wellington. I have seen body bags in the streets of Wellington. I have seen houses on the hills of Wellington – seen them disappear. I have seen the roof of the Beehive lying in the debris of the streets of Wellington." (Anglican minister Gray Theodore at Waitangi’s dawn service)

22/02/11
Kia ora whanau, first chance to post on here! Everyone is safe. After shocks still coming! At work and all the cars in the carpark start hopping up and down like an Ice Cube video. He puna hou i puta mai i a Papatuanuku spewing grey silty water into the gutter outside the Greers Rd substation.

“… with great sadness, and after many hours of deliberation …there did not appear to be any way of resolving the complaint besides cancelling Mr Harawira's membership of the Maori Party." (Orohi Paul – Maori Party Disciplinary Committee Chair)

23/02/11
“… the scale of the destruction in Christchurch reminds us all of the value of life and the importance of whanau in all that we do.” (Hone Harawira – Independent MP for Te Taitokerau)

It helps knowing people are thinking of us. Some people’s entire lives are literally turned upside down. Four kids weren't picked up from the kids’ kura yesterday as their parents perished in the CBD.

24/02/11
“... it is best for me and the party to go our separate ways, and to focus on the issues that are crippling Maori people, and indeed Pasifika and Pakeha people living in poverty throughout this country.” (Harawira)

A dude being refused credit because he had no cash and eftpos was unavailable. A mother walking her two young children in circles up and down the street, going nowhere in particular, comforted by the fact they are not alone in the city.

24/02/11
“[I will] go back to my electorate and to supporters around the country over the next month … because it is their energy and support that has sustained me.” (Harawira)

Tried to contact my cousin yesterday. Glad to hear they got out safely. Might accept their invitation yet. Going to check on aunty today.

25/02/11
“… in the best interests of advancing our people’s future, we [should] focus on the issues rather than the personalities, and … not speak disparagingly of one another.” (Harawira)

Aunty is fine. On the way back saw the most random thing, a pure white dove sitting on the roadside? Stopped and got out and was tame as. No olive branch though. First thought was, he tohu tumanako. Second, there’s a magician nearby with a broken aviary.

26/02/11
“A senior National official … gloated they had lanced the boil of Harawira and the Maori Party was now their long-term, docile and trouble-free coalition partner.” (Matt McCarten – NZ Herald columnist)

We have decided to stay in our own bubble for at least a few days to avoid the stresses of what is happening in our city. Unfortunately ugliness is starting to become more common although on the whole most people remain courteous to each other.

06/02/11
“I won’t be taking much away from that last speaker.” (Prime Minister John Key at Waitangi’s dawn ceremony)

THE MISSION BEGINS

2011-02-23T18:12:00.002+13:00

This year I have made it my mission to visit a number of online newsfeed sites and see if I can turn around the racists who post their hatred on those sites. My mission statement is simple; stick to the facts, expose the red herrings, be nice.
I’ve boiled the pet issues of the posting racists down to a few essentials and have similarly distilled my responses to the essentials.

ISSUE: Maori are not the indigenous people of this country, instead the Moriori were ... or maybe the Celts. So, because Maori ‘stole’ the land from the Moriori, they can’t and shouldn’t be making claims against white people for stealing it from them. RESPONSE: First, Moriori are Maori, and Maori had no concept of land theft in pre-European times. Second, Maori claims are not about or against a specific racial colour, but about whether or not the Crown has kept or broken its own laws.

ISSUE: Maori are genetically violent thugs and if it weren’t for the “Euros” signing the Treaty with them, they’d still be murdering and eating each other. RESPONSE: “Scratch John Bull and you find the ancient Briton who revels in blood, who loves to dip deep into a murder, and devours the details of a hanging." So said the Pall Mall Gazette in 1887. In any event the Crown’s colonial and contemporary thefts can’t be excused by the amount of blood shed during its own or others’ histories.

ISSUE: Maori are ungrateful wasters who should be thankful for things brought by white people like “Christianity, iron, clothes and education.” RESPONSE: Maori always had clothes and education, so we have never credited anyone else for those things. And the introduction of iron, Christianity or any other thing in no way permitted the Crown to steal from us. In fact Christianity is against theft.

ISSUE: Maori are greedy bludgers, and Treaty settlements are a gravy train that are running the country broke. RESPONSE: To date, it has cost the Crown almost nothing to settle any land claims. It has achieved this through the simple expediency of requiring claimants to use almost every cent of their so-called redress to buy back the lands it stole in the first place. These alleged settlements are almost entirely fiscally neutral for the Crown and the taxpayer. And yet, ironically, Maori are vilified for being greedy.

ISSUE: Pakeha are all honky rapists and should commit an impossible indecency on themselves. RESPONSE: Don’t be a reactionary racist. You can do better than that.

Two months into the mission I’ve turned a couple of posters. They’re still fragile in their new freedom from the fear and ignorance that fed their racism, but they’re getting there.

Other people from many different races, but with similar motives as me, are also posting with compassion and dignity, even humour. None of us are surprised at the levels of ignorance, anger and fear we’ve found.

These things are inevitable when the media delivers headlines rather than facts, political commentators write opinion pieces rather than subjective analyses, and the Crown acts with expediency rather than integrity. If the joint mission of media, commentators and Crown was to keep the population dumb and divided, they’ve been quite successful to date. However they are not going unchallenged.

Inside every racist poster there is an angry, frightened, unhappy human being. The key to turn them is to show love, courage and happiness towards them. It's a mission.

You know, missionaries often get a bad press, but we don’t care. We're on a mission and you’re welcome to join us any time or place.

A STATE OF GRACE

2011-02-23T18:09:00.001+13:00

Years ago I and a bunch of mates, all nurses at Kaitaia hospital, were on a night out in Awanui hotel. The large crowd there that night included a small number of out of town gang members – some with local connections, including a cousin of mine. The general mood was sweet.

I’m not sure when that changed, and I have never known what triggered the change, but at some point we heard something was going down outside – so out we went too. There we saw three gangers, including my cousin, punching and booting the publican who was on the ground whimpering. And dozens of locals, men we’d grown up with and knew to be tough sorts, were standing watching it happen.

Without a word we crossed the street, pushed the gangers away, picked the publican up, and helped him back inside past all our local tough guys. Someone called the cops and ambos, while we cleaned the guy up, comforted his distraught wife and berated the few remaining locals. In our eyes their inaction was a disgrace and they knew it. With heads down, none of them could answer our repeated and distressed question, “Why didn’t you stop it?”

Now, years later, and with the perspective of time and experience, I think the answer to their inaction boils down to five basic failings of humanity. Some of them were uncertain (was this a stoush between family, or had the publican started it?), some of them were afraid (they might get a hiding too, or might hurt someone else for the wrong reason), some were weighing up where their best interests lay (a grateful publican later, versus a violent ganger now), some were just too plain drunk to care, and others were a bit of all those things.

Thus it ever has been. When a bad thing unfolds in front of our eyes and we do nothing, it can generally be put down to uncertainty, fear, self-interest, incapacity or callousness.

When the Crown takes money through iniquitous taxes like GST on food – is it uncertainty of what to do that stops you acting? When politicians legislate to allow 10% rises for themselves, while others are legally screwed down to less than 2% – is it self-interest that gags you from speaking out? When government officials intimidate and threaten the very people they are supposed to help – is it fear that freezes you? When the Crown steals land from Maori – is it that you just don’t care?

I pick on the Crown because its government controls most of the institutions and powers of State in the country – police, army, courts, schools, media and infrastructure – and because it’s lead by powerful people who answer to even more powerful people, who are not you and me, and who do not have our interests at heart.

Division is a terrible thing; rich against poor, men against women, young against old, and race against race – yuck! But division amongst us does serve the interests of the powerful because it keeps our eyes off what they are doing and who they are serving.

So here’s the challenge. Can we overcome and master any uncertainty, fear, self-interest, incapacity and callousness in ourselves? Can we get to the point where we ignore the symptoms of that in others and keep our eyes on the real danger? Can we act with grace under fire?

As for those who beat up the Awanui publican all those years ago and those who didn’t move to help – their failing was not one of gender or race, but one of humanity.

Would you cross the road to save another? For sure you would – if you were certain, unafraid, interested, able and caring.

THE PLIGHT OF THE PAWN

2010-10-23T15:12:00.000+13:00

Well, here we go again. Business as usual in Aotearoa / New Zealand as the issue of sovereignty comes ever sharper into focus and closer to resolution one way or another. Unsurprisingly Ngati Kahu is at the sharp end as our Hapu continue to assert sovereign power and authority in their rohe.

Barely twelve months out from the next general election and one month past the latest local body round, we’re seeing and watching pawns being marshalled against Ngati Kahu; most to certain capture of one type or another, a very few to freedom, given the nature of the game in which pawns are used.

In human terms, pawns are those who are acted upon by base emotions like fear, jealousy and resentment. For a sovereign power whose legitimacy is coming under increasing question and pressure, such pawns have their uses. Certainly if the reigning majority wish to retain or shore up their hegemony in this country, now is the exact time I would expect them to be moving their pawns against Maori expressions of sovereignty.

Fearful pawns are good for generating distrust and doubt about anyone who looks, sounds, or believes differently to the majority. They say things like, “If we don’t watch out, we’ll all end up speaking Chinese,” or, “Crown and Maori deals on the foreshore and seabed is sovereignty by stealth.” A nice turn of phrase that – sovereignty by stealth. It identifies sovereign Maori as untrustworthy and deserving to be attacked as a threat. Those who utter it either don’t know or don’t care to recall that what they fear has already happened in this country; to Maori – and it was done by people who looked a lot like them, not by any Asians.

The jealous pawn is especially interesting because they are mostly from within the same group as the object of their envy. As a result they are very mixed up – just like the metaphor I am about to use. A jealous pawn will invariably play the person they envy instead of the ball. They will occasionally make what, for them, is a direct tackle, like writing a letter that says, “She’s a liar!” But more often they will indirectly use an issue as a platform from which to snipe at the person they are jealous of by writing something like, “The court case he took in our behalf was lost, so that proves he has wasted our money and time, therefore he has to go.” Very rarely will such a one front up and say these things in person. For the rulers of this country, the best pawn to combat Maori assertions of sovereignty is a jealous Maori, who, forgetting the big picture in their desire to get at the one they envy, will “say the things that most of us think but are too scared to say.”

The saddest pawn of all is the one motivated by resentment. Only able to see what someone else has that they don’t, they neglect and find no joy in their own gifts. For example, unable to ever be mana whenua, some tauiwi make a dog’s breakfast of being manuwhiri.

Resentful pawns are the least useful because they don’t last long as they tend to drink metaphorical poison in the expectation that the focus of their resentment will die. Sadly, for them, it doesn’t work that way.
Regardless of motivation, it seems to me that both the pawns and the powers that deploy them have either forgotten or never known that Ngati Kahu has its own board and its own rules of engagement. Interestingly the Ngati Kahu board requires no pawns, just people who have the patience and integrity to do as their respective people tell them and stick at it until tikanga prevails.

Pawns can only serve those who are themselves ruled by base emotions. While they are of little use, they do have a nuisance value. But the most important thing for a pawn to realise is that, unless and until they stop being pawns, they are of zero value to themselves.

HISTORY - NOT HYSTERIA

2009-05-04T21:12:00.004+12:00

In 1918 my great grandfather, Te Para Puhi Te Paa, died of the flu leaving behind his young wife and 7 children. He left his home in Ahipara that morning, fit and healthy, and died that evening while visiting whanau in Pukepoto. Quarantine was put in place almost immediately. Result - his wife and kids weren’t allowed through from Ahipara – so they missed the entire tangihanga. It was a desperately sad time. The big picture context for this one death is provided by the following facts that my husband researched. Some are well-known, others may be new to you.

Servicemen returning from The Great War brought the flu virus to Aotearoa, and one of its characteristics was that it attacked in waves. In the first wave, only a few died and many people were lulled into believing it wasn’t the same flu as the one that had killed huge numbers in other countries. But it was the second wave that caused the majority of the 8,600 officially recorded deaths in New Zealand, and Maori suffered heavily. Our overall rate of death was 42.3 per thousand people, seven times that of Europeans.

In one community, Mangatawhiri in the Waikato, about 50 out of 200 local Maori died. Closer to home, in her biography Dame Whina Cooper recalled similar suffering at Panguru, in the Hokianga. “Everyone was sick,” she said. “No one to help, they were dying one after the other. My father was very, very sick then. He was the first to die. I couldn't do anything for him. I remember we put him in a coffin, like a box. There were many others, you could see them on the roads, on the sledges, the ones that are able to drag them away, dragged them away to the cemetery. No time for tangis." Although official statistics identify only 9 deaths in the Hokianga, anecdotal evidence is that there were many, many more.

To date, nobody has died from the flu outside of Mexico. But certainly, this H1N1 virus bears striking similarities to the 1918 flu. Both had origins in swine and both claimed the lives of healthy people between the ages of 19 - 35. What makes this virus more alarming than the 1918 variety is the hybrid nature of it. Almost certainly manufactured in a laboratory, this strain has combined the most dangerous elements of both the swine and avian varieties. Because of its exotic nature, it is highly unlikely that tamiflu or any other vaccine will be effective, and a new vaccine, specific to this virus, could take months to develop.

Hysteria is neither necessary nor useful at this time. Instead, planning and forethought are needed.

It may never happen, but if another pandemic does hit Aotearoa, our marae, hapu and whanau will need to have strategies in place to cope. The logistics of a tangihanga are generally easy to manage. But during a pandemic emergency measures, such as closed coffins and quarantines, impact on everything from the tono to the nehunga.

My grandmother, Paniwaka, told me once of the dislocation, shock and hurt of being within walking distance of her father yet unable to go to his tangi. He was a handsome man and I’m grateful we have his photo. I’ve visited his windswept grave on the hill there at the urupa, Te Rangi Hau Kaha, and we named our oldest grandson after him. Ae ra . Kaore e taea e tātau te whakarerekē a mua. But with a little forethought and planning based on our history, we don’t have to repeat it.

THERE MUST NEEDS BE AN OPPOSITION

2008-06-23T17:37:00.001+12:00

When Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil she learned a very simple, yet complex truth: “There must needs be an opposition in all things…” (2 Ne. 2:11). In order for her to fully experience one thing, she had to also experience its opposite – virtue and vice, health and sickness, pleasure and pain, light and darkness. When I was 26 I started on the path that became my life work and learned the same simple and complex truth about a number of things, among them money and marriage.

First, money. In 1986 the government split the trees from the land of the state forests, sold the cutting rights and kept the land available for future Treaty settlements. That included the Aupouri forest, a huge employer of our people here in Te Hiku. At the same time the owners of Northern Pulp’s triboard mill in Kaitaia, where most of Aupouri’s timber went, were going belly-up. So a group of five Maori Trusts and Incorporations from Te Hapua, Te Kao, Herekino, Motuti and Mitimiti who also supplied timber to the mill, cobbled together a bid of $1million for the Aupouri forest. Although we had assets, cash was kind of scarce. Still we were confident we could find a partner with the money in short order. But, to buy time, between us we scraped up the necessary 10% deposit. Then Matiu Rata and I were sent to Wellington with the bid and the cheque; I to observe and analyse, Matiu to speak and make our case. We were received very politely, given a nice platter of finger food and a glass of fruit juice, listened to. Matiu said, “The land is under claim and correctly belongs to the iwi of Muriwhenua, so it should not be sold at all. As Treaty partners we gifted the use of the land in the expectation that we would one day get a return from that use. For that reason neither should the trees be split from the land and sold. If, contrary to all principles of natural justice [a favourite phrase of Matiu’s], the government is determined to go ahead and sell anyway, you must give preference to our bid.” We were invited to place our paperwork in a ballot-type box, then shown the door. In the lift Matiu, bless his dear optimistic heart, grabbed my hand and danced us around shouting, “We’ve done it!” In my bones I knew we’d just been given the bum’s rush by the Crown and its officials. Why? Because, in their world view (as our bid proved), we had little money and less credibility. We did not succeed in buying the Aupouri forest. I filed the experience away.

Next, marriage. In the mid-80s a group of us talked with Dame Mira Szaszy about what we were experiencing as single women. In her time she’d run into the same thing – male resistance, even aggression towards us as leaders. She felt it was something that had come to New Zealand with Pakeha settlers – what she called a “Victorian assumption” where women, like property, marked a man’s status in society. Having married relatively late in life herself, Mira knew the feeling of being soiled by exchanges such as the late night call I once got from a contemporary who, when I politely declined to follow his chosen pathway to settlement of our claims, sneered down the phone in graphic detail what he thought I needed. I filed that away as well.

Money is never something I’ve worried about personally. Even in the poorest of times there’s always been enough to feed, clothe, clean and shelter us. Being single … well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The value both money and a good marriage have for me today, 26 years since I started on what is still my life’s work, is deepened by the fact that I know what it’s like to be without them.
And for that I can partially thank the moneyed, male, married majority whose opposition helped me be a better mother. You showed me that it's while doing ordinary things that extraordinary things are fashioned. Thank you.

THE POWER PARADOX

2008-06-04T13:31:00.003+12:00

It ain’t easy being a Maori leader engaged with the Crown. It can be likened to standing with a crowd of friends and whanau in an unmarked minefield, all of them needing medical help … urgently. But, unlike Western Generals, who generally lead from the rear, we must lead from the front or risk, literally, losing our followers.

Additionally, before we can lead the way out of the minefield, we have to first find where the front of the crowd is. Then, having established ourselves on the front, we have to keep a close eye on our backs for the hits from wannabes and once-weres, all while still keeping a sharp eye forward for those damned mines.

Should we be smart or lucky enough to get through without being blown to smithereens, we then find that we’re actually tied, by a very close and tight rein, to the last man behind us. So we can never totally relax or be completely free of danger until the last of us reaches safety.

The recent hikoi through Kaitaia protesting Te Runanga O Te Rarawa's decision to negotiate the foreshore and seabed has all the elements of the power paradox between Maori leaders and followers, as did an incident during the 2004 Hikoi over the same foreshore and seabed. A week before that hikoi ended, all eight Taitokerau iwi Chairs had agreed to sign and deliver a letter to the government condemning its decision to legislate away the right of Maori to have title to the foreshore and seabed investigated. Then one of the Chairs refused to sign. He felt the best protection for his iwi’s interests was to distance them from the ‘radical’ face of the Hikoi that was so infuriating Helen at the time. His people were not happy with him, BUT – they wanted to keep it hush-hush.

Both these hikoi illustrate the power paradox in a nutshell. On the one hand, how do leaders protect and advance their people’s interests without looking like a kupapa? And, on the other hand, how do people pull their leaders into line without turning it into a bloodbath inside a media circus? Mines everywhere!

My experience is that there is only one sure way through that minefield. It’s found in the example of the greatest leader ever who simply said, “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister … and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Then he said, “Follow me.” Of course at least one of his erstwhile followers proved more lethal than any mine. But the simple principle of leadership that serves arose triumphant with him and remains shiningly valid into eternity.

Being a Maori leader engaged with the Crown can also be that simple … but it’s never going to be any easier. Such a paradox!

THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON

2008-05-30T11:26:00.002+12:00

I know a little bubba who was born with cross eyes. Because his brain gets a different picture from each eye, it blocks out everything from the weaker one. If the problem isn’t fixed while he’s still young, his brain will eventually learn to simply ignore the pictures from his weaker eye; and that will be that.

A permanently blind eye is a problem. But worse still is the ethical blind spot that, here in this country and century, ignores the theft of land and resources and allows them to continue unchecked to the present day. These thefts happen on the back of a history where, after war proved too costly, the thieves simply changed their tools of trade to pen, paper, wig and gown – and konei! In their view, European superiority had beaten Maori inferiority and the Devil take the hindmost.

This vexed history is further complicated by the fact that, nowadays, the thief and his employees are likely to be our rellies and are, often as not, quite likable people.

The thing to understand is that everyone in this country has had a world view beamed into us from birth that’s predicated on key messages such as – Customary title is toast, the Crown holds the Radical title for everything under the topsoil, the Government can issue Fee Simple title to everything above it.

The problem with those messages and world view is that they’re highly questionable, clash hugely with the dictates of good conscience and are totally at odds with the simple facts – Maori were never conquered, we never ceded sovereignty, and Customary title is not extinguished.

How on earth can we reconcile these opposing world views? We can’t. Instead, to stay sane, we have to either ignore the view from our weaker eye or forcefully over-ride the view from our stronger eye. We can choose either to be brave … or to be governed.

Since the original series of thefts took place, apart from discarding the wig and gown for anything other than ceremonial events, regularly updating the pen and paper, and occasionally shifting shape between local and national governing bodies – the thieves and their agents haven’t had to put too much energy into keeping power in New Zealand.

But there is someone who has the power to upset and change their world. They fear him above all others and will do anything to marginalize and ignore him. Who is it? It’s the one who, regardless of age, gender, race or religion, sees things as they really are, and is totally unafraid.

If we think about the legitimacy of any of this, it could me or you. It could even be a little bubba. Very dangerous.

Say, "Cheese!"

2008-05-20T16:58:00.002+12:00

Last year, I wrote a column encouraging our people to plant gardens in back yards to help take the bite out of the cost of kai and gain some measure of self-sufficiency. Perhaps they should also get a cow. I ‘had a cow’ last week when I examined a bill from PAK ‘n SAVE after purchasing bread, milk, butter and cheese. Statistics show cheese up 45.5 per cent, milk up 21.1 per cent, bread up 13.1 per cent and butter up 86 per cent over the past year. And families are hurting.

The experts blame drought caused by global warming and the high costs of feed grain because corn and wheat are being sold to produce ethanol. But this shift didn’t happen overnight. The truth is that food is becoming “the new black” – as in oil. If OPEC taught the world anything it was that fortunes could be made if you can control world markets. Take cheese for example.
Every Friday at 10am, in Green Bay, Wisconson, half a dozen major producers set the price for American style cheeses like Cheddar, Monterey and Colby, most of it for export. Although there are approximately 40 members of the National Cheese Exchange, only a few show up for a meeting that typically lasts half an hour. So if the Yanks can get $12 for a kilogram of cheese on the world market, well, why shouldn’t we? All Fonterra had to do was take their cut and give farmers a massive raise so they would produce more.

Since cows become more valuable on the hoof instead of in the freezer, the price of mince increases. Sheep and pork producers follow suit because … well, because they can. And, here in Aotearoa, all of these prices are subject to GST. So the government wins too. Is it too large a stretch of imagination to picture food riots in Kaitaia, the same as are happening in the Third World?

In the short term, there is a lot families can do: Plant gardens. Begin baking your own bread. Cut down on the amount of meat and dairy products purchased and take your whanau fishing more often. One thing in our favour is that dairy and meat products have a limited shelf life. So, not buying cheese, milk, and butter one week should result in sale prices the following week.

In the long term, it is time our government eliminated GST on foodstuffs. Countries like Canada do not charge GST on food purchased in the supermarket. The government argues that it would be too difficult to parse food purchases from the list of taxable goods. But if the Saudis and Venezuelans can get away with charging their citizens 12 cents a litre for petrol, then why is it we are paying 12 dollars for a block of cheese?

Talking to Each Other

2008-05-20T16:58:00.001+12:00

Contrary to the impression this column might give, my whanau definitely come before my hapu and iwi. Because, at the end of a hard day’s mahi, it’s they who put their arms around me and make it all worthwhile. So, regretfully, I had to decline going to a couple of hui this weekend – one out at Taipa resort, the other at Mangamuka marae.

Both were called by the Crown to give Iwi Maori in Te Hiku a chance to talk to each other about our shared land claim interests – you know, the land on the boundaries (like parts of Kaitaia) and the stuff that’s spread far and wide (like the forest, the mountain and the beach).

Now, you’d think that the last thing we need is for the Crown to hold hui so we can talk to each other. Isn’t that that what we do every chance we get? Think about it – kettle korero (over the teacups), church (behind the hymnal), sport (inside the ruck), school (on the blackboard jungle), Pak N’ Save (in the aisles), radio and TV (across the airwaves), print media (between the lines), hui (on the floor) – you name it and we’re talking. Hika! Even the basket cases amongst us get to be heard. Engari, it’s all good. We can use Crown hui as well. As long as we don’t think they’re the only game in town.

That’s why it puzzles me to hear someone turn up to a Crown hui and say, “Man, it took the Crown to get us together.” It did not! The main reason both Crown and Maori come to those hui is to keep an eye on each other and make sure the story doesn’t get changed in our absence. I think it’s called ‘healthy skepticism.’ For example, it sometimes seems the Crown would prefer that the different iwi only tell each other what it agrees we can tell. Well, well, well. If one iwi managed to get a better deal out of the Crown than anyone else, is it seriously expected to just sit on it? Kei hea te iti me te rahi?

Now, of course, the Crown want everyone to talk to each other – ka pai tena. But, instead of trying to script what we can and cannot say to each other, it’s going to have to trust us. Now, there’s a novel idea!

From my viewpoint as an iwi insider, we’re working things out. Not always nicely, no. But resolutely, yes. So I say to the mandated negotiators for each iwi – haere tonu atu. You’ve done the hard yards to get your people’s mandate to speak for them. Carry on getting their guidance. Carry on inviting them to the hui you have with the Crown and with each other. Carry on putting your cards on the table with each other. Send your ops people in to liberate some cash from the Crown to resource your talks, then let it know what you finally decide about our shared interests. But, above all else, carry on talking to each other.

That way I can stay home of a weekend and relax with my family each night knowing the story remains straight.

Talking to the Crown

2008-05-20T16:56:00.000+12:00

When dealing with matters that impact on our existence as Maori, the general rule of thumb is that we’d prefer to talk with another Maori because it saves us a lot of time not having to first explain ourselves. The exception that proves this rule is when it comes to Treaty Negotiations with the Crown.

I firmly believe that no Maori should ever front for the Crown in these negotiations. Not even the List MPs of Maori descent. Their world view and loyalties are always going to be ambiguous, even compromised. I tell you, it’s too awful watching them walk the tightrope between Claimants and Crown.

So, when Michael Cullen (Hon Dr, Dep. PM, MICOTOWN) walked into Tatai Hono marae last Friday for his first meeting with the Ngati Kahu Land Claim Negotiators, we were pretty pleased to see him. And I have to say that he seemed genuinely pleased to be there too – comfortable even.

His lineup included Parekura Horomia (Minister of Maori Affairs), Mita Ririnui (Deputy Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations), John Clark (Crown Kaumatua), Lewis Moeau (Te Puni Kokiri), Ben White (Office of Treaty Settlement Manager), Paul James (Office of Treaty Settlements Director), Maureen Hickey (Office of Treaty Settlements Researcher) and 3 others.

On the Ngati Kahu side were our Head Claimant, Ven Timoti Flavell, plus our Negotiators, Prof Margaret Mutu, Rev Lloyd Popata and Te Kani Williams. Best of all, there were more than two dozen of our own people who’d traveled from Kaitaia, Taupo and a few places in-between to keenly watch and listen.

Picture it. Mandated Negotiators on either side of a large table start to talk. Then, as the marae acoustics swallow the sound of their voices, Ngati Kahu people move quietly and respectfully to sit at the table beside Professor, Reverend, Venerable and Minister. Not a word is spoken by anyone other than the Negotiators. No-one is the least discomfited. Everyone hears and sees clearly what is said. With democracy, dignity and respect the business is concluded rapidly and efficiently. Within two hours positions are stated, next steps are negotiated and the meeting is closed.

When Waitangi Tribunal Judge, Carrie Wainwright, directed the Crown and Ngati Kahu to re-enter negotiations last month, she hoped for a positive outcome under this new Minister In Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. Now that we have held our first meeting with him, my impression is that, for the first time ever, Ngati Kahu is talking directly to the Crown without the filter of third parties pushing themselves between the Minister’s ear and our mouthpieces.

That’s a good thing for us as Maori. How good? Only time will tell.

KEEPING IT HONEST

2008-04-28T14:51:00.000+12:00

The most fascinating thing about hui for me, especially those between opposing groups, is watching the faces and bodies of the people who sit and listen while others stand and talk. Because it’s the faces and bodies that tell me more about what’s likely to happen after a hui than anything the speakers might say during it. That’s why, after years of faithfully writing entire books of who said what at any number of hui, I gave it up and opted to sit back and quietly watch instead.

So what do the faces and bodies tell me? Well, a darned sight more honest stuff than the spoken word generally. Take one simple gesture, like a chin in hand, for example.

Now, I’ve noticed that when the supporters of a speaker put their chin in hand, they tend to lean forward – they nod, they smile, they even laugh. Their approval is easy to read. On the other hand when those who oppose a speaker put their chins in their hands, they tend to do it while leaning back and their language, although just as honest, is also a lot more subtle. Interestingly it often has prayer-like tones such as, “Oh God, do we have to hear this again?” As other parts of their bodies come into play, this language gets more fervent. Eyes slowly closed with a sigh while in this position say, “God give me strength to not scream.” Pushed out lips and a raised eyebrow signify a mutter of, “S’truth! I doubt it.” An added snort turns the mutter into a full-blooded shout of, “God smite them!” or something similar.

All in all, after hearing this kind of body language at a hui, I can accurately predict that afterwards it will be business as usual. And, depending on whether they think their side’s view carried the day or not, the listeners will say the hui was either another missed opportunity or a another lucky escape.

So, if no-one is clearly knocked out or beaten, what value is there in holding hui between opposing sides at all? Heaps actually. Quite apart from the theatre put on, hui give newbies and observers a chance to witness, maybe even understand, the dynamics between the sides. They also make incremental progress one way or the other as hearts and minds are won or lost. And, although there will likely be some undisciplined shouters there, hui are generally a much more civilized way of airing differences than most other ethnicities have come up with to date.

To read a hui accurately it helps to know the people and their views, but it’s not essential. The most important thing is to be honest in your own body language. Because if what you are feeling is out of synch with what your body is saying, you will just make yourself sick and any outcomes of that hui will not be true.

And if you’re lucky you’ll get to hear a priceless piece of wisdom like this one I heard just last week courtesy of Ted Jones of Ngaitakoto, “To have strength you need Unity. To have Unity you need Trust. To have Trust you need Honesty.”

Honesty. Can’t be beaten really.

WISDOM AND ORDER

2008-04-28T14:49:00.000+12:00

Most of you will know that Ngati Kahu has had claims lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal since 1984 and that these claims have been partially heard and were reported on by the Tribunal in the Muriwhenua Land Report of 1997. You may also know that in 2003 Ngati Kahu and the Crown opened direct negotiations, and that those talks broke down in 2006 after the Crown tried to sell claim lands at Rangiputa. What you may not know is that, in November 2006, Ngati Kahu applied to the Waitangi Tribunal for Remedies Hearings on its claims, and that two weeks ago, on April 10th, the Tribunal held an interlocutory conference to help it decide if it could and should hold those hearings. The written direction of Judge Carrie Wainwright dated 11th April 2008 is reproduced below.

Having heard submissions today, I adjourn this application until Thursday 10th July 2008 to allow parties to progress further negotiations. At the judicial conference on 10 July, the applicant and the Crown will update me on what has occurred in the intervening three months. The applicant will indicate at that stage whether it wishes its application to be further adjourned or withdrawn, or whether it wishes the Tribunal to issue a substantive decision on its application that was the subject of today’s hearing. Meanwhile, if for any reason the Crown is not in a position to focus on negotiating a settlement with Ngati Kahu in the next three months, it should inform the Tribunal as soon as possible. Otherwise the judicial conference will reconvene on Level 2 of the Tribunal’s offices at 10 am on 10 July 2008. The Registrar is directed to send a copy of this direction to all those on the notification list for Wai 45, the combined record of inquiry for the Muriwhenua inquiry.

Following on from this direction Ngati Kahu has initiated a meeting with Minister Cullen for the 2nd May. Interestingly and concurrently, his officials in the Office of Treaty Settlements have been very persistent in trying to get Ngati Kahu involved in a Crown-initiated Muriwhenua regional forum. Why these officials would think it was in Ngati Kahu’s interests to be dragged back into a time-warped morass of non-mandated and divided interests is a mystery. Ngati Kahu is already talking with its neighbouring hapu and iwi. It doesn’t want or need the Crown to impose itself into those discussions, especially before they have even met with Minister Cullen. As Judge Wainwright said in her oral decision on the 10th, “Ngati Kahu is clearly a very well organised and capable group who are wanting resolution.” She is right. If Ngati Kahu think the Crown may be able to assist, it will ask. But until then the Crown would be well-advised to exercise some wisdom and order.

The Tribunal direction of 11th April gave Ngati Kahu and the Crown exactly 90 (ninety) days to progress negotiations. There are now 80 (eighty) days left. The options for both parties are really quite simple and crystal clear. Either focus on progressing negotiations – or not.

OUR DAD - Jim Herbert

2007-12-19T05:05:00.000+13:00

Our Dad was born on 28th December 1927 at his grandparents’ (Jim and Ruth Enright’s) home on Kohe Rd. near where my cousin Eddie Tamati now lives. He was the second of Ray and Alma Herbert’s 20 kids – Maude being the oldest.

For the next few years they lived in and around the Hokianga with brief stays in Owhata, Waikeri, Herekino and other places where there was work to be had. Every 2 – 3 years another baby joined them. Millie (Rogers), Alan, Don, Steve and Laurie have all since passed. But George, Dee (Masters), Frank, Bet (Waipouri), Marie (Kite), Ron (Tamati), Jean (Beazley), Margaret (Kaye) and, of course, our Dad, are all still going strong. 5 other siblings were stillborn. Talk about the good old days!

Alma was a fierce woman who did not hesitate to belt her kids (or, for that matter, other people’s kids and even her husband) if they stepped out of line. Ray was softer. But both parents were strong on education and sport, hard work and community service, loyalty and honesty. So our Dad and his siblings all grew up knowing how to work a farm and run a household from an early age.

Eventually Ray and Alma settled over the hill from the Kohe Rd. farm on another family property that is now owned by Averil Sanderson. From there our Dad started school at the old convent which used to be located on the beach at Pawarenga. Alongside his Wikitera and Enright cousins, and under the strict eye of nuns like Sister Cyril and Sister Peters, he learned the three R’s (Reading. ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic) plus the catechism.

Then in 1940 (aged 12) Dad was sent to St Peter’s Maori Boys’ College (Hato Petera) on the North Shore where his best mate was Tom Topia (brother to Emma Pirini and Rosie Samson). Tragically less than 2 years later Tom was killed in a farming accident on the College farm. That was a hard time for our Dad. However he remained at St Peters and continued to learn the art of farming, which in those days meant everything from animal husbandry to carpentry.

By the time World War II ended Dad was 17. He scored his first paid job under manpower laws as a porter at Rawene hospital. This was not his dream job, and as soon as manpower laws were lifted he was off. Over the next 10 years he worked all over the country on various post-War projects like the dams at Cossyes Creek and Huia. He also did stints as a bushman, a driver and a deer hunter. It didn’t matter how hard the working conditions or how long the hours, as long as a job involved a little travel and adventure and offered reasonable company and pay – Dad was up for it. But eventually the single man’s life lost its hold on him.

Coming from a loving but unsentimental home, Dad rarely returned to Pawarenga for visits during those years. In fact after one 4 year break he came home and was so puzzled at the presence of several little girls in their home that he had to ask his mother, “Whose kids are these?” He was surprised when she snapped at him, “Mine!”

It was on one of his rare return trips to Pawarenga that our Dad first laid eyes on Gloria Rollo. She was home visiting her parents (Andrew and Bunny) who were working for Bunny’s mother (Erina Hunia) on the farm at Te Ahuahu that is now owned by William Hunia. Anyway the rest, as they say, is history.

Dad and Mum married on 23rd December 1955 and initially lived in Auckland. Not long after I was born in 1956 they returned to Pawarenga to work and eventually take over the Kohe Rd. farm. A few years later they bought Mana Muru’s farm in Awaiti where me, my 3 sisters (Cathy Chapman, Pat Stephens and Jenni Herbert) and 3 brothers (Bo, John and Aaron) were all raised, and where Dad and Mum still live today.

It’s impossible to do 80 years of living any justice in 2 pages. But when I think of our Dad there are some key things that come to mind. The second of these things are the words, “Hard” and “Work.” In fact, just this spring I heard Dad say with real joy, “Man! A body loves to work!” I just grinned, because I know none of his kids loves to work anywhere near as much. For sure, none of us can keep up with him, even now.

So now our Dad is about to turn 80. No mean feat for anyone, let alone a Maori man from Pawarenga. Along the way he’s had happy and sad times. I know he blames me and my sisters for his baldness and grey hairs! But, by and large, I think that we (along with our spouses, kids and mokopuna) have brought him more pleasure than pain. Of course he’s also seen his fair share of tragedies.

So, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think of our Dad? Our Mum, of course! For 52 years, ALL our Dad’s good times have been made better and all his bad times have been made bearable by having his sweetheart (our Mum) beside him.

Happy 52th Anniversary Our Mum and Dad (23rd December). And a HAPPY, HAPPY HAPPY 80th Birthday Our Dad, Grandpa and Papa (28th December).

From Anahera and Doug, Cathy and Denny, Pat and Hepa, Bo and Chriss, John and Colene, Jenni and Steve and Aubrey, Aaron and Bonita and all your mokopuna and moko-mokos. We love you so much.

To help celebrate our Dad’s birthday, there will be a Mass at Pawarenga on Sunday 30th December. Koutou ma, please come and join us.

PARTNERSHIP PLATFORMS

2007-11-26T23:54:00.000+13:00

Many years ago a friend offered to take me to work on his prized 1000cc Yamaha. It turned out to be a horrific ride for us both. In my case the fear factors were – I had no helmet on (they weren’t compulsory at the time), I was wearing only a light summer dress with platform-soled sandals, and he was going really fast. As my wind-whipped eyelids peeled back I remember thinking two things, “OMG – I probably look like Marty Feldman!” and, “Never again!” How right I was.

At the end of the trip I wobbled my way into work. Then I realised – “I’m not wobbling, my sandals are.” A quick look revealed an exhaust pipe-shaped hollow of melted synthetic in both soles that gave my every step the look of the proverbial drunken sailor. “Look at my shoes!” I wailed. But my friend was down on his knees staring tensely at his bike’s exhaust pipes.

Our friendship did not develop any further. In fact it didn’t survive the experience at all. But I learned a key principle from it – whether we’re going to make or break in a partnership depends on how far we’re willing to compromise. Out of those compromises will fall our bottom lines. And where those lie is best found out before we formalize the partnership.

Looking at the potential of the newly sworn in Far North District Council I’m reminded of my Yamaha experience with a few little variations.

The guy at the wheel of the Council bike looks and sounds the part of a seasoned rider (100%). But his pillion partners look like a fashion grab bag – some in leathers, others in chiffon. Still, he seems to be in control. Of course this bike is not blatting freely down the Awanui Straight. Rather, it’s inside a small arena being cheered by a hardened audience that seems prepared to give the bike and its riders a newbie’s chance. But it’s only a matter of time before some of them start lobbing rocks, even explosives, on to the track. And, believe me, this crowd will not be averse to seeing blood on the ground if or when the bike and its riders wipe out. Add to the spectacle one or two rogue riders on their own bikes, running their own races, and there’s always a prang in the offing.

The frame of the Council bike itself is another matter altogether. Instead of resembling high tensile steel, it’s more like bamboo with a bad case of borer. Shoot! How’d you like to try strapping a 1000cc engine on something like that and opening the throttle? To top it all off, waiting in the pit-stop to service the Council bike is a crew who know that the riders will take any glory, while any blame will be theirs. In the words of the immortal Charlie Chan, “Vel-ly intelesting.”

His Mayoralty and partners will have considered all these things, I’m sure. They’ll have plans (either already in place or being scoped) to replace this valve, reinforce that joint, hold everything together, keep it all on course.

My advice to them all is simple. If they want to stay on this particular bike and not get booted off at the next pit-stop, then they’d do well to watch where they put their feet.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

GONE FISHING

2007-11-07T00:59:00.000+13:00

You have to give Winston Peters credit for consistency. A year out from the next general election and he’s rat-a-tat-tatting the same boogie-man drumbeat about Maori ‘separatists’ that he’s banged out every election since 1993.

His timing, like his dress sense, is as impeccable as ever. But, unlike his hair, the pool of ready supporters for the message has thinned somewhat. So, has natural attrition amongst the Grey Power generation forced him to go a-fishing in browner waters? Is that behind his recent call for Maori to turn their backs on the Maori Party and, presumably, climb into his open arms?

In a way it’s a backhanded compliment to Tariana and co – a concession that heaps of Maori support them at present. But how could Winston seriously think that he and NZ First would be the natural next choice for any disaffected MP’ers? Sure – his cheeky, Ngapuhi boy from the backblocks grin, coupled with the aforesaid hair and suits, all hold undeniable appeal. So too does the ease with which he chews up and spits out Pakeha reporters. Engari, Hone does Ngapuhi styles, cheek and intimidation even better. So nah … those charms alone wouldn’t win over loads of MP’ers to NZ First.

Could it be that this time round Winitana is offering Maori something more cultural – like, maybe, a claim to being matakite? Why not? Before the police have charged any of the recent detainees as terrorists, even before the solicitor general has released his decision as to whether they’ll be charged with anything more than breaching firearms laws, Winston has fingered them and the Maori Party as “taxpayer sponsored militant separatists” who “represent apartheid and the destruction of New Zealand values.” That sounds quite bad doesn’t it? Barely half a rung removed from terrorism. What perspicacity! What bollocks!

This brand of politics had its heyday during America’s McCarthy era and its name comes in two versions. Either “BOO!” or “oooh” will do. The second is pronounced with an accompanying quaver in the voice and shiver of the shoulders. Winston does both quite well and he may have a potential audience of 1 in 7 New Zealanders for his message. According to a recent UMR poll that’s how many don’t think the recent “terror raids” were an over-reaction. I’ve never heard of UMR before, but I’d be very surprised if their findings reflected the views of Maori voters.

Mind you, not even the Maori Party can afford to be complacent about the Maori vote. It’s a strange beastie, strong on complex loyalties and defiant of logic. Consider this – even though Labour has again ignored, even trashed, Maori issues this term, it will probably still corner a significant slice of that vote next year. Stranger still is this fact – before the advent of the Maori Party, many Taitokerau constituents would approach National’s Northland MP for help and not bother with the Labour member they’d voted in. Yet they’d never change their allegiance to National. Go figure. You can bet Labour will.

Of course that doesn’t stop Winston pretending to look like he wants to buck the trend amongst Maori voters. But his message to them, in the face of their persistent and growing call for self-determination, sounds odd – somewhere between wondrously frank and sadly desperate. The reason for that is simple – it’s not actually aimed at them.

No. Mister Consistent is once again trolling for votes from amongst nga kaki whero me tangata matuku (the red necks and the frightened) and using Maori as the bait.

E rite tonu. E rite tonu.

Cheers

2007-11-03T05:25:00.000+13:00

Alcoholism beats me down and makes this a strange, tense time.
My God lifts me up and shows me this new and exciting time.

Alcoholism silences my laughter.
My God shouts "Cheers!" at me and laughs out loud.

Alcoholism puts a brake on me and makes me sick.

My God opens the throttle and sends shepherds to rescue me.

Alcoholism poisons my marriage.
My God heals my marriage with unconditional love.

Alcoholism hardens my heart and deadens my feelings.
My God softens me with true repentance and forgiveness.

Alcoholism perverts my sexuality.
My God gives me straight and great sex.

Alcoholism brings hate, fear and anger to me.
My God gifts me with serenity, courage and wisdom.

Yay for God!

****************************************************

[D & C 68:6] Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

IGNORANCE IS NOT BLIS

2007-10-29T09:41:00.000+13:00

My upbringing, like most people’s, was influenced by things beyond my knowledge and understanding at the time. Things like the potato famines in Ireland, the land clearances in Scotland, and the Huguenot persecutions in France all contributed to my parents’ frugality, religious leanings, strictness and hatred of injustice. They probably also help explain much of my nature.

It’s not surprising that I wasn’t greatly aware of my European history as a kid. It was all such a long time ago and a very long way away. But it still amazes me to this day how absolutely ignorant I was of New Zealand history. Truly – I had no idea of what had been done in this country until I left school and began holding conversations and reading books of my own choice. I was enraged. Youthful ignorance in the face of the facts is one thing. Deliberate suppression of those facts is quite another. Can you imagine the impact on adult Germans if German schools did not teach that country’s full history?

Yet that is what was done here in New Zealand and still is. Our kids are barely exposed to the reality of how power and resources were taken from Maori by the Crown. There’s little specific mention of the well-researched histories told to the Waitangi Tribunal. Very few broadcasters, publishers, educators, public services and public figures in this country are informed by the facts of our history.

All this means that informed adults in this country are hugely outnumbered by the woefully ignorant. It’s no wonder, then, that most New Zealanders, renowned for our fair-mindedness, can draw the dotted line between what was done to our Irish, Scots and Huguenot ancestors and their fierce resistance to those injustices – yet fidget like someone farted when faced with this country’s history of colonial and contemporary injustices and the indigenous resistance to them.

The prevailing desire of the ignorant is to romanticise these islands as a haven to which our many different cultures came for a new start and to ignore their human history. Is not ignorance, after all, a form of bliss? Sorry folks – until we face, teach, accept and honour the fact that Aotearoa was not, is not and will never be just a pretty piece of geography with no history, there’s no “new” start. Rather, there’s a nagging sense of dis-comfort – even dis-ease.

Anyway, back to my growing years. As kids we had to be in bed early. Even as teens, we were only allowed out alone after dark to go eeling. Any other night event – a dance, the pictures – and we had one or both parents for company. I think they figured if we were doing something useful we couldn’t get up to tutu. Wrong. The stuff they didn’t want us doing at a dance could be done just as easily (probably more easily actually) on a riverbank. Let me tell you – we enjoyed our nights out eeling. Until the night our dad, suspicious of the lack of eels, checked on us then kicked our butts all the way home. It was about then I learned – ignorance never is bliss. Seriously.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

ALARM BELLS RING

2007-10-22T09:09:00.000+13:00

DATELINE: 23rd October 2027 : 10:02:24

[Morning Report – Native Radio]

STUDIO: In breaking news, the Regional Anti-Tourism and Cultural Hegemony Team carried out dawn raids across Northland this morning making several arrests under the Tourism Suppression Act. Amongst those detained is well-known activist and suspected tourist operator, L. R. Mist, along with a busload of Chinese nationals.

RATCHET Leader, Howdy Narrow, says there is enough evidence to warrant this morning’s detentions and subsequent closed Court hearings. Our reporter, Patai Ngawari, was at Mr Narrow’s media conference in Auckland.

PN: Team Leader, what evidence have you got of illegal tourism in Northland?
HN: Enough.
PN: The Court hearings for those arrested have been closed to the media. Why is that?
HN: We don’t want the evidence to embarrass anyone.
PN: Does that mean the evidence wouldn’t stand up to public scrutiny?
HN: Nope. It means it’s sensitive and private.
PN: Sensitive and private to whom?
HN: Them and us, of course.
PN: So the closed Court hearings are to protect the alleged tourists?
HN: Absolutely. They have rights too. Next!

STUDIO: Prime Minister, Domina Trix, has confirmed that she was briefed by Mr Narrow months ago on the suspected tourism operations, and says she is satisfied they pose a threat to national security. She spoke to Huakina Waha in Wellington earlier today.

HW: Prime Minister, why are these tourists a threat to our national security?
PM: What basket case are you reporters living in? Our Pacific neighbours have all gone to hell on a banana skin, and you people sit there asking, “ Why?” Let me tell you why pal. Tourism! That’s why! Well – not in my country and not on my watch!

STUDIO: However, co-leader of the Nationalised Labour Party, Daffodil Kee, who also spoke to Huakina in Wellington earlier today, is highly critical of the raids.

HW: Ms Kee, have you managed to speak to any of the alleged tourists?
DK: Yes. And I can say they very upset to be in this predicament. They say they come here on a goodwill spiritual journey and are just mortified to be accused of tourism.
HW: What will happen to them now?
DK: They not sure. But, for shore, they wanna go home to China as soon as.
HW: Do you believe the raids were justified?
DK: Hell no! They set this country’s Asia-Pacific relations back twenny-five years, AND they endanger our nuclear-free status. China is super pissed off! They even talking about no All Blacks at next Rugby World Cup in Rewi Alley City!"

STUDIO: Meanwhile Native Radio has learned that today’s highest profile detainee, L. R. Mist, will be shipped to a holding cell on White Island tomorrow.

From his own cell on the island, long-time and venerated detainee, Tame Iti, made a statement via his mainland spokesperson. We close this bulletin with Winitana Petera speaking from Tauranga.

WP: Mr Iti has asked me to pass his best wishes and encouragement on to the Chinese cuzzies. He also has this simple message for L. R. Mist – 'Welcome to my world, bro.'” No! No questions!

STUDIO: Hei konei. Hei kona.

Just Spreading the News

2007-10-11T12:20:00.000+13:00

PAKEHA POWER

2007-10-08T17:16:00.000+13:00

When I started my working life as a trainee nurse in 1974 one of the first things I learned was that it was just as dangerous for a body to be over-hydrated as it was to be dehydrated. I already knew having too little water over a long enough time meant eventual death. But it was news to me that taking in too much water diluted the sodium in a body to dangerously low levels, producing a condition called hyponatremia that, left untreated, would also kill.

This latter is an awfully close analogy for what has happened to the Maori presence in local government since my nursing days. Back then, what is now known as the Far North District, was still made up of Mangonui, Whangaroa, Bay of Islands and Hokianga Counties, as well as Kaitaia and Kaikohe Borough Councils. Maori had a strong presence in each Council, including at least one Mayor and numerous Councillors.

The pivot on which the six bodies eventually turned into one, was the Hokianga, where Maori were an overwhelming majority. Determined to keep the Hokianga identity alive within any larger grouping, people like my parents resisted and roundly rejected the initial amalgamation proposal that wanted to split them and put North Hokianga in the Kaitaia Ward, South Hokianga in the Kaikohe Ward. A revised proposal that created two distinct Hokianga Wards (North and South) able to elect a single Councillor each was finally approved by a slimmish majority.

Elsewhere in the District, the nod had already been given to establish Wards representing North Cape, Doubtless Bay and Whangaroa (with one Councillor each), as well as Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Kawakawa and Kaikohe (with two Councillors each). So, once Hokianga capitulated, the way was cleared for the creation of the Far North District Council with its original nine Wards and thirteen Councillors plus the Mayor.

Since then, the Hokianga has been butchered, nine Wards have been collapsed into three, and Maori representation and participation in decision-making at Council level has bombed. In fact Maori have been so comprehensively washed out of local government throughout the motu that many on both sides (Local Government and Maori) have started to act like we don’t matter to each other. Disaffection and disengagement are very dangerous paths to carry on walking down.

Recognising this, Government finally passed the Local Government Act in 2002, part of which requires Councils to come up with ways and means for the Maori vote to count and the Maori perspective to be represented. The Far North District Council has really struggled to make much headway on this matter, and it probably always will until the Pakeha voters of the district get their heads around two facts. First, Maori are an important part of our body politic, without which we will simply not be healthy. Second, the power to include Maori in local government lies in your hands.

In this last week of postal voting for a Mayor and nine Councillors, keep in mind what has happened to Hokianga and to Maori representation in this District.

Kia tupato. Kia whakaaronui. Kia ora.
Be careful. Be wise. Be well.

OLD HURTS / OLD HABITS

2007-10-04T16:43:00.000+13:00

How long does it take to break a habit? What lessons need to be learned before we can say we've conquered it?

I learned early the habit of returning pain for pain. I wasn't born with it - I was taught it. The first hiding I remember I was only 3. The physical shock of it is no longer felt in my nerves and, though it's damage went cell deep, I'm still intact at a sub-cellular level, in my spirit. That's who I really am. That's what allows me to continuously rise above my old habits and hurts.

For the longest time my heart was broken and rebroken every time Dad hit me. I loved him and wanted his approval, but couldn't bring myself to accept his tyranny, no matter how much pain he inflicted. So I learned to read the danger signs and I learned to defend myself when the attacks came. And that readiness to fight defined my life. Verbal, physical, intellectual, spiritual, whatever - I returned violation for violation. People soon learned to leave me alone. Even those who could hurt me bad knew it would come at a cost to them. And no-one ever saw me cry. Never.

That all changed with the advent of the Church in my life. Chev rarely saw or heard much more than a frown or a stern word from me. Determined to break the intergenerational anger and violence, I taught and raised her with a heartfelt gentleness. You can see it in how she is today. I gave and took delight in forgiveness and understood that the past could be healed.

Then I got married and, ever since, I've struggled to hang on to the peace of the gospel in my heart. As my husband has battled an illness he thought he'd overcome years before, I've similarly descended into dark places I thought I'd left behind.

This morning I felt like I was losing the struggle, that I was pointlessly repeating the cycle I'd lived with my father. Then it came to me that there are lessons I hadn't learnt, hadn't even encountered really, in my daughter experience. Lessons that only my wife experience with Doug can teach me. Some are old, many are new. All of them are blowing me away.

I'm learning that when we married I truly did become one with him and it's been a shock to the system. E.g. It might be Doug's Black Dog, but I know the bite of its teeth too. They feel like my father's fists. Another example - it was my blood brother who suicided but Doug knew the pain of it as intimately as I did. We are one.

Next lesson - I'm learning that I have to take personal responsibility for my own shit and simply observe his. I really struggle with this one. (Yes Doug - I know, you know. And yes - I'm not good at it yet. But I will learn baby. I will learn to not confuse my responsibilities as your wife with your responsibilities as my husband.)

I could go on discovering lessons for hours. I don't have the time here and now. Suffice to say that I'm learning that I still have some lessons to learn before I can truly say that I've broken the habit of being hurt and hurting back.

God help me.

MY HUSBAND'S HEROES

2007-10-01T14:41:00.000+13:00

One of our family’s favourite heroes is ex-All Black, John Kirwan. We’ve never met him, but John’s public acknowledgement of his depression has been life-saving for us. Another favourite of ours is the actor Owen Wilson – movie star, good-looking, young, talented … and just diagnosed with depression after a suicide attempt last month. The Black Dog has bitten another sufferer.

It was Winston Churchill (another of my husband’s heroes) who invented the nickname, "Black Dog," to describe his depression. As is true with all metaphors, it speaks volumes. It implies both familiarity and an attempt at mastery. It says, while that dog may bite every now and then, he's still only a dog. He can be cajoled sometimes and locked up other times.

Yes. My husband also lives with that Black Dog, as do Drew Barrymore, Billy Joel, Harrison Ford, and now Owen Wilson, to name but a few. All of them are highly intelligent and creative people who happen to suffer from recurrent depression. Their illness often acts as a spur. Aware of how low they can sink, they propel themselves, when well, into activity and achievements that the rest of us can only regard with awe.

In his book, Churchill's Black Dog, Kafkas's Mice & Other Phenomena of the Human Mind, Anthony Storr talks about the way the demons of the mentally ill can become angels for the rest of us, since they impel their sufferers to rise above themselves – taking those of us who live with and love them along on their peculiar and soaring rides.

Storr takes the approach that a "depressive nature" and feeling unloved go hand in hand. Often they take compensatory steps, i.e., "If I can't be loved, I'll find a way to be admired." Another name for this is ambition. Churchill's was apparently legendary and laden with fantasy – which, oddly enough, may have been exactly what was needed in that particular time, place, and circumstance.

Another bit of fall-out from feeling unloved is hostility, and Storr suggests that never has any depressive had such a wonderful opportunity for venting his hostility as did Churchill. He had an enemy worthy of the word, an unambiguous tyrant whose destruction occupied him fully and invigorated him totally year in and year out. It makes me wonder – if all depressives could battle obvious and external wickedness in this way, would they cease being depressed?

Some time ago, my husband posted these words on his blog at http://idiggraves.blogspot.com/
“People do not handle the insane very well. Support workers in doctor's offices don't look you in the eye when they talk to you. Pharmacy staff lecture you publicly about taking the cocktail of medications that keep you going. Family members resent the constant attention you require and begin to compete for attention with their own drama. Work associates avoid you, or bother you with questions like, ‘How are you today?’ Of course you lie and say, ‘Capital. Any better and I couldn't stand it!’ The insane have become the pariah's of our culture. We have closed down mental institutions to save money. We medicate the poop out of nuts and hope for the best.”

When my husband is unwell, we do often meet with misunderstanding – even hostility or fear. It comes when people, who are totally ignorant of the Black Dog’s fangs sunk deep into his psyche, think he’s being over the top and react to his behaviour in ways that feed the illness. We don’t blame them. When we can, we tell them about it.

That’s why my husband’s heroes are people who live with the Black Dog and talk openly and honestly about the mongrel. Heroes, like John Kirwan, who increase everyone’s understanding and acceptance of mental illness. Heroes, like Doug Graves, who make it possible for this column to be written.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

NONE SO BLIND

2007-09-24T19:02:00.000+12:00

My late teens were a time when I was afflicted with three things that many teens still suffer apparently – vanity, poverty and a flirtation with delinquency. In my case it meant I refused to wear my glasses but couldn’t afford contacts, and occasionally sought solace in a bottle. To say I was delinquent is probably too dramatic. More like a tipsy mole than a gang moll really.

Now, according to a recent study out of Harvard, that part of the brain that deals with higher thought, anticipation, planning and goal-directed behaviour doesn’t mature until around 24 or 25, while the lower brain that deals with emotion and gut reactions is fully up and running between ages 11 to 17. So, daft though it seems to me now, that’s why it was once more important to my teenage brain for me to look good than to see good.

Engari, now that I’m old(er) I still see worrying signs of poor judgment in myself and other so-called adults. One instance of this is the way we are not coming to grips with the Kyoto protocol and its likely impact on our businesses, land use and climate.

The latest announcement out of Wellington that carbon credits will go to forest owners should make every Maori in Te Hiku sit up and go, “hmmm”. The biggest existing source of carbon credits and sinks in our neighbourhood are the forests currently growing on Maori land at Aupouri, Parengarenga, Waikeri, Epikauri, Owhata, Tapuwae, Te Puna Toopu O Hokianga and other pockets throughout the Far North. They are already major contributors to the economic life of every one of us in this region, not just the forestry contractors and the millworkers who are always on the front of any industry downturn. Without them our climate and land use would be very different. Ask anyone who has lived here longer forty years and they’ll get a faraway look in their eyes as they talk about earth-cracking droughts and land-consuming sand drifts on the Aupouri peninsula, or the back-breaking work of clearing ti-tree and blasting old kauri stumps for small-scale dairying in the Hokianga. They have an impact on the livelihoods of our local training providers, construction firms, cartage contractors, road-builders, quarry owners, pastoral farmers, horticulturists, and all the businesses and providers that ply their goods and services in the area.

If these trees were being planted now, they would earn someone a bunch of “carbon credits”. When they’re cut down in the future, they’ll cost someone a bunch of “carbon sinks”. This has big implications for whoever owns the Aupouri forest lands after the Treaty settlement dust settles.

Maori are drowning in new information that requires constant higher level thinking. So the Kyoto protocol has been one of those things where our brains have often defaulted to a gut response of hoha, and we’ve literally failed to see the forests for the trees. Engari it’s as plain as the noses on our faces that, quite apart from trade in the actual pieces of paper that allocate a credit or a sink, their future impact on us is going to be enormous.

Unlike teenagers, iwi with pending Treaty settlements cannot be excused for ignoring these mechanisms. If they do, they risk vain, poverty-stricken delinquency – and there would truly be none so blind.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

LAND OF THE LONG DARK SHADOW

2007-09-12T04:30:00.000+12:00

About 320 years before the birth of Christ, Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes, who was sun-bathing at the time, and asked if there was anything he could do for him. The old man looked up at Alexander and replied, “Yes. Please take your shadow off me.” On 28th April 1840, here in Kaitaia, Pana Kareao convinced his chiefly contemporaries to sign Te Tiriti O Waitangi with these words, “Ko te atakau o te whenua i riro i a te Kuini. Ko te tinana o te whenua i waiho ki nga Maori." (The shadow of the land passes to the Queen, but the substance remains with us). These statements are metaphors for the optimism felt by Maori Rangatira and the Crown at the beginning of this Treaty nation. But they’re also sad counterpoints to the Crown’s broken promises ever since.

Anyway, earlier this year the Waitangi Tribunal put out a report into the impact of the Crown’s Treaty settlement policies on iwi in the Central North Island (CNI). Put simply, the report says that the Crown is setting up Treaty settlement winners and losers and causing once friendly iwi with close blood ties to become enemies over settlement packages.

The thing is that, relative to what the Crown took, these settlements are mingy and mean-spirited. So why, you might ask, do Maori bother fighting over something so piddling? It’s because the settlement assets include key elements of mana and rangatiratanga – cultural cornerstones, like land and authority and the wherewithal for an iwi to enlarge its substance. These are things New Zealanders of all ethnicities have always lived, fought and died over. So it comes as no surprise to see allied iwi going toe to toe over them.

Here in Te Hiku, iwi will have taken note. Te Aupouri, Whaingaroa and Te Rarawa have signed pre-settlement Agreements in Principle with the Crown, and they will not want what has happened in the CNI and Auckland settlements to happen here. Ngati Kuri, Ngaitakoto and Ngati Kahu are not at the table, and they will not want to be left fighting over diminishing settlement resources. All five iwi will not want to return to the Runanga Muriwhenua model of dependence on the patronage of Sir Graham or some other high profile individual, and none of them will have time to waste on ignoring or moaning about their differences. They will all know that they have serious business to do with each other – now.

I have no doubt that if either the Crown or any one of the three AIP iwi in Te Hiku steps one inch too far, the ‘fight filter’ we’ve seen in the past, both here and elsewhere, will click on again. And it will stay on until everyone understands that, while it’s fine for individual iwi to be strong and autonomous, they cannot move too far without the others.

In the end, whether amongst Treaty claimants, Grey Power or Federated Farmers, these ‘fights’ are a filter and protection against the Crown’s tendency to decide who will be the winners and who the losers amongst us. The five iwi now have an opportunity to disagree without being disagreeable, move forward independently but together, and say to the Crown, “Take your shadow off us.”

Hei konei. Hei kona.

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES

2007-09-10T10:24:00.000+12:00

400 years ago Shakespeare wrote, "There are more things under heaven and earth than are in our understanding." Six years ago, and only four days after he’d arrived in New Zealand, I took my future husband to a tangi. Later that week I listened with amazement to him describe his understanding of the karanga to a mate of his back in Canada. "We stood at the gate until a woman came out of the building and screamed at us," he said, “and then Anahera screamed back at her.”

We have a lot in common – born the same year, grew up on the same programmes and movies and listened to the same music. So this was our first concrete encounter with our cultural differences. His understanding has grown hugely over the years since, and it’s now an inside joke between us to spot "the screamers" at every powhiri or tangi we attend. But for many people in this country, other cultures’ practices still fall well outside their understanding. Throw death, grief and spousal ignorance into the mix, and you have a tragi-comedy in the making.

That’s how I saw it when Billty T James died in 1991. The quirky public comedy of his life flowed into his death when his uncle uplifted him from under his Pakeha wife’s nose and buried him at Taupiri over her objections. The media had a field day at the time, and Howard Morrison criticised his old mate and colleague, saying he should have prepared his whanau better. Just how unprepared James’ whanau were, was shown by the fact that, with his death, his only child from a previous relationship, got to experience her first ever tangi. More than a bit sad, but hardly surprising, really, given the freedom we enjoy in this country to love as we choose.

Inevitably, once the media spotlight faded, most of us forgot Sir Howie’s key message which was bang on. Billy T should have prepared his whanau for the inevitable.

So – have you clearly spelt out to your nearest and dearest what you want to happen after you exit this mortal coil? Have you made a Will yet? What if something happened that didn’t kill you but left you unable to act for yourself? Are there people you’d trust to act as your Power of Attorney and take care of your business if that happened? Preferably you’ll be able to think of two such people and can then give one of them POA over your personal property and the other POA over your personal care.

This month’s very public tangle over the burial of James Takamore represents a lot of private heartbreak for his longtime Pakeha partner and his Maori whanau who are now in a classic Mexican standoff where the only thing they agree on is that he died in Christchurch and is now buried at Kutarere, just about exactly 1000 kilometres north of where his partner and kids want him. It could all so easily have been avoided if the gentleman had prepared his whanau before he died.

Koutou ma, there’s enough mystery about death without leaving your whanau ill-prepared for it. Help them to understand what will happen at your death, and do whatever it takes to ensure the karanga doesn’t turn into a scream. Hei konei. Hei kona.

THE STUPOR CURE

2007-09-03T15:42:00.000+12:00

Have you ever had the experience of hearing an embarrassing or hurtful truth from a child, or a simple and certain truth from an adult, and not known what to do with or about it?

There’s a lot in common between the tamaiti who blurts to the smiling newly-introduced adult, “Pooh, you’ve got stink breath,” and the kaumatua who says to his Iwi’s Treaty negotiators, “This government is nothing but a fiction, and that’s a fact, yet you want to settle with them”. Both get either short shrift or a diplomatic sideways shove from the targets of their comments.

A good case can be made for teaching children that not every truth has to be spoken. But for adults who know the difference between tact and teka, we can’t always avoid saying or hearing something that hurts, embarrasses or resembles a lead balloon. How truth-tellers react to the short shrift / sideways shove is up to them. But how we react when we witness these exchanges is totally on us.

Last Thursday I went out to Rangi Point to listen to what was in the Agreement in Principle (AIP) with the Crown to settle all the historical claims of Te Rarawa. Apart from the negotiations team, there were about 25 of us there and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, excepting two passionate and very well-delivered criticisms.

As I listened to the back and forth of the hui I felt troubled. Not at the detail of what’s in the AIP. That’s pretty much embargoed anyway until after it’s signed. I know, it’s cart and horse stuff and makes no sense to me either. No. What really unsettled me was the fact that we were all there wracking our brains and baring our souls over a process (treaty settlements) with a group (the government) that not one of us openly admitted to believing in or supporting. Why?

Whenever I feel confused I always apply what I call the “stupor cure” taken from a revelation given in 1829 through the Prophet Joseph Smith, part of which says – “… you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that … you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right … you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong …”

I tried that here and came up with this clear answer. I choose to give feedback on treaty settlements with this government because I find the alternatives scary and impractical, and I don’t believe it’s necessary to overthrow or step completely outside the process or the government to make change happen.

Wow. That wasn’t easy to write or say. But, having done it, I no longer feel troubled and I either stand upon it, or I stand for nothing.

I recommend the stupor cure to you for use in all your dealings. Hei konei. Hei kona.

A POLITICAL PARABLE

2007-08-27T13:38:00.000+12:00

My mokopuna brought me a fistful of freesia plants this morning from his mum’s garden. No. Not freesia flowers. Whole plants, with bunches of flowers attached.

I didn’t have the heart to growl him, but I showed him how, in future, he must use two hands to pick these particular flowers – one to anchor their stem at the bottom, the other to break it. Then we went home and planted the sweet-smelling remains in pots.

If ever there was an object lesson in how hope works, it’s a child planting spring bulbs when they should have been in the ground months before. Hei aha. My mokopuna had no time for that, or any other, inconvenient fact – like, those bulbs had already well and truly sprung. Unlike the fragile freesias he’d so easily uprooted, his hope sprang deep and tough – just like him.

I think there’s more than a little of that same strong feeling in the hearts of most people who allow their name to go forward for elections to public office.

Even allowing for whakahihi (overweening pride) and muru (vengeance), is it not hope that motivates the candidate who, having spent yonks trashing a Council or Board, now wants to lead or be part of it?

And what stronger urge than hope impels the incumbent who, all but invisible for their entire time in office, now comes courting our votes again?

Consider the candidate who has crashed and burned in past elections. While ego or eccentricity might be the vehicle, hope is the fuel that allows them to throw their hat in the ring again.

And what induces the candidate with no experience, or the single issue candidate, to stand? Sure, passion and self-belief are probably a large part of their motivational mix. But hope gives them the guts to take the chance.

Hika! Even the solid performing shoo-in, who couldn’t lose if they tried, has hopes for things like less friction, more gratitude, or higher voter turnout.

I’ve made hopeful investments in what turned out to be hopeless causes, and I’ve seen success stories that started as little more than jokers in the pack. I’ve planted seeds in stony ground and even stood for public office. So to all those hopefuls in this year’s local body elections – ratbag or radical, saint or sinner – I salute the lot, and point them to the parable of the freesia.

The scent of this flower, planted as a hope and harbinger of spring, is fantastic. But, sadly, like a lot of exotics, it’s too, too easy to pull out.

Perhaps I should have written about thistles or ragwort instead.

Maybe there’s more to be learnt from a manuka stump. Hei konei. Hei kona.

HE WERO (A CHALLENGE)

2007-08-20T17:28:00.000+12:00

Amber Lundy, Britney Abbott, Alice Perkins, Maria Perkins, Cherie Perkins, Cameron Fielding, Krystal Fielding, Coral Burrows.

In this week’s NZ Listener there’s a challenge from well-known New Zealand children’s author, Jenny Hessell. “Try naming,” she writes, “some Pakeha children who have died as a result of child abuse”. Can you think of one? I couldn’t. Yet, of the 88 children killed in New Zealand between 2001 and 2006 by their whanau or caregivers, 48 were Pakeha, 28 were Maori and 12 were some other ethnicity.

Even when I very deliberately went looking for the dead Pakeha children’s names in the New Zealand Herald’s online search engine, all I could find were these eight – Amber, Britney, Alice, Maria, Cherie, Cameron, Krystal and Coral. And after I found their names, I still could not readily recall the faces or the circumstances behind the deaths of these Pakeha children.

Yet I’ll bet, like me, you could chant the names and case histories of many of the Maori dead at the drop of a hat. Try it.

The reason for this is simple. We have all been very deliberately exposed over and over again by the media in this country to a mantra of Maori names while Pakeha names have just as deliberately been ignored.

I’m not excusing or minimising the deaths of Maori children. I am challenging the inherent, unhelpful and unacknowledged racism of those who choose to portray child abuse as a “failure of ethnicity” rather than a “failure of humanity”. And I am joining Ms Hessell’s call for a radical media experiment over the next 12 months, starting with the writers and contributors to this publication, and comprising four simple actions:

Every time you publish an article, write an opinion or letter, or broadcast an item on child abuse, remind the public that about twice as many Pakeha as Maori children die each year at the hands of those who are meant to care for them.
If you must recite a list of names, take them only from the larger, Pakeha group of victims.
Let’s have investigative journalism that asks what it is about European culture that results in them killing their children.
Let’s have panels of Pakeha leaders interviewed about what they are doing to address this problem within their own cultural community.

Amber, Britney, Alice, Maria, Cherie, Cameron, Krystal, Coral and at least 40 other Pakeha children deserve that much at least.

Kanui tena i tenei take!

A reminder: this Friday is the last day for candidate nominations to all local bodies and I am hoping like mad that Maori candidates won’t repeat the mistake of standing against each other in the Far North District Council Wards. Hei konei. Hei kona.

KAUA E WAHANGU (DON'T BE SILENT)

2007-08-14T11:12:00.000+12:00

Just one week ago Hone Harawira roundly criticized the “cycle of violence” that is brutalizing Maori whanau. "Never mind pointing the bone at anyone else, and never mind the platitudes,” he said, “We have the power to make a difference, we have the numbers.” He then went on to propose all 21 Maori MPs work together, across party lines, to come up with some solid solutions. The response of Labour’s Maori MPs has been faint.

This week Toby Curtis, spokesperson for the whanau of three of those accused of abusing the toddler Nia Glassie, announced that his whanau are going to openly approach and deal with and to other members of their very large whanau whanui who they believe may also be abusers.

Did you know and do you care that both these men had put these ideas out there? Or do you prefer to believe that the whanau of abusers are uncaring and that Hone is using the racist injustices against aboriginals as a red herring to distract from the terrible injustices against our Tamariki?

You know, it’s a largely hard and thankless task being an activist for the under-dog, especially in the face of the prevailing social climate that would prefer everyone sat down and shut up. I dedicate this poem to all those men and women who stand up and speak out.

He Wahine Toa –
Body carved cleanly and curved like a Crown,

Nursery of new life in its cyclical round.

Bold and bodacious,

Groovy and gracious –
Woman
He Tane Toa –
Body braced strongly for the sneaky blow
Sent special D by those you know
Laughing and loud,

Pukana proud –
Man

History's high waves sweep your shores like a song

Smashing rivers of right over rocks of wrong

Shattering spray lifts and drifts away.

Arced through the shimmer hangs a shining hope

God’s promised token like Maui’s strong rope

Sign of a future both sunlit and sure,

Lightening on faces of foes set in frowns

Who flit through the fight in the cloak of the Crown

Greedy and rotten their people forgotten.

Fight those behind them with God-given skill.

Wielding the Word whose power can kill

Sharp as a knife yet offering life

Laughing and loud
Pukana proud
Man
Fight hard and strong and persevere

Fight for a future free of fear

Lovely loquacious
Bold and bodacious
Woman

COME ON

2007-08-06T13:59:00.000+12:00

As the oldest child in my whanau I hated hearing, “You must set the example.” I’d sit there thinking rebelliously, “Oh – come on!” But the higher expectations my parents had of me were always offset by the often unearned goodies that came with being first on the scene – like never having to wear older siblings’ hand-me-downs. No matter how hoha I found it, being the matamua both elevated and obligated me.

And the spotlight has gone on Maori leadership again this week for the same reason. Sure, they get to go, do and be things that many of them would not otherwise go, do and be. But, when all else fails, they also get to carry the can. And there’s no more obvious failure than children killed by their own whanau. So yes, right now our leaders are feeling the heat and there’s a lot more at stake than mere hoha. Aroha au ki a ratou, but the mana we vest in them also elevates and obligates them. .

Good on Hone Harawira for putting forward a plan to stop the killing. The Pawarenga aunties say it like this, “Do something! Even if it’s the wrong thing, it’s better than nothing.” But Hone, mate, even if the other twenty Maori MPs agreed to be locked in a room with you – I think the best thing that could happen for the entire country, let alone our babies, would be if only six of you came back out.

You see, I have no time for the majority of Maori MPs who refuse to stand alongside you and say, “There is a connection between stripping Maori of the bulk of our resources and the hopelessness of many of our whanau.” I specially have no time for those who are too lazy or loyal to their party to point out the dotted line between crappy government policies and fractured hapu and iwi.

Come on you Labour party Maori members. Sure, Maori success stories are real and rising. But the gaps between the haves and have nots are frighteningly wider than ever before. And even amongst those who are making it, the edge of the cliff is only as far away as the cuzzie, sis or bro who’s having a tough time. By all means, use your departmental newsletters to celebrate the successes. But don’t take credit for our successes and ignore your failures. For our babies’ sakes, do something. You are not sled dogs. There’s no need to travel in packs following behind your leader. Come to us one at a time and at our behest. Don’t call your own hui and expect us to come to you to be told what your bosses are going to do. Come to our hui and hear what we need you to do.

Come on you National party Maori members. If your first name is not Georgina, then you have not done anything noticeable for your people in parliament.

Come on we who lead our whanau, hapu, iwi and waka alliances, come on. Don’t centralise the power and resources when our whanau can set up their own Komiti, pool and leverage off their own resources and tap directly into whatever resources are out there for them. Don’t just talk about it. Make it happen.

Oh yes. We might hate hearing it. We might get hoha with it. But the fact is we who lead can only remain elevated when we lift those to whom we are obligated. Hei konei. Hei kona.

WHY DO WE DO THE THINGS WE DO?

2007-07-30T17:39:00.000+12:00

I’ve been percolating for months on why Maori, as a nation, can’t crack the hard nut issues. Why can’t we stop the murder and abuse of our kids by their whanau? Why are we letting the Crown pimp Papatuanuku to Rio Tinto? Why aren’t we preparing sensibly for peak oil? I think the answers lie in the fact that too often we equate big with powerful, collective with good and individual with bad.

At one extreme our Runanga attract criticism for being flash and powerful, while hapu and whanau are cast as overlooked minnows in the face of runanga clout. Yet at the same time and at another extreme those same whanau are judged to be more important than the individuals inside them. Try telling that to Nia Glassie.

Any way, as one who's engaged in all these structures I say that's so unbalanced as a perspective, it’s useless. Runanga are useful for some things. But the only structure I'll give my blood for is my whanau. How powerless or powerful is that for an individual? In fact I firmly believe Maori strength and health and capacity to deal with the big kaupapa all starts with me as an individual.

It will be the seed planted in every spare piece of ground that’ll secure Maori once peak oil hits. That's why we're going to teach the whanau on this street to do exactly that. That way we'll all get to grow some kai while at the same time sharing some key skills in horticulture, enterprise, literacy, numeracy, parenting and plain social cohesion. I know it's gonna work and when it does we'll take it on to the next street and the next. This mahi has power in it for our whanau simply because it is at the whanau level.When it comes to Rio Tinto sniffing around Taitokerau for gold and anything else it can make a buck off, it will the individuals who convince their whanau and mates to join them and lay their bodies on the land who will stop it being mined.As for the horror of child abuse amongst us, it will be the individuals who are taught and supported to value themselves who will bring it to an end.

I believe the different structures we are using are but stepping stones on the way back to something we already have to go forward under. They are the whanau and marae. Yet we're overlooking them for other structures and mechanisms that will never wrap around our hearts and carry us forward as Maori the way our whanau and marae do.

And I just can't figure out yet why we're doing that.

Kanui tena mo tenei wa.

MONTHLIES

2007-07-23T15:47:00.000+12:00

This month is my first anniversary with Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu and it’s been fun from day one when I found most of my so-called staff possessed a rough and ready sense of humour. I quickly got used to deleting forwarded emails with subject titles like – ‘50 Ways to Lose Your Job’. I wish! These decreased markedly after I and the Environmental Manager had a heated stoush one day over the fact that he hadn’t sent me his monthly report on time. Finally, I sat him in front of my computer while we jointly scrolled through my email inbox. “See,” I said, “Nothing.” “Try the Deleted Box,” he suggested. And sure enough, there it was – under the title “Monthlies.” Be honest. What was the first thing you thought of when you saw that heading? I’ll bet it wasn’t a monthly report of activities. Funny guy.

Sadly he did a spot of impromptu ice-skating last month during that cold snap we had, and managed to snap some ribs as well as compress a vertebra. Who’d have thought one could find ice to slip on in sunny Tokerau? While our hearts go out to his long-suffering wife (kia kaha Flossy – won’t be too much longer before he’ll be out from under your skin … I mean feet) – Victor’s mishap has left us a bit short-handed with regard to all things environmental. Engari, the work goes on. Here are just a few of a number of take we’ll be talking about out at Karepori marae in Taipa this Saturday where the Runanga hui-a-marama will start at 10 a.m. sharp.

We’re currently handling resource consent applications from Karikari No 2 Ltd and Motutara Beach Holdings Ltd. On top of that the Northland Regional Council’s Draft Navigation Bylaw is open for submissions until August 15th, while the government paper on Bioprospecting is also up for discussion. Bioprospecting is the search for and gathering of material for development of commercial products, and it has big implications for Maori intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge and matauranga Maori. The government is holding a series of consultation hui with the nearest being in Kaikohe on 4th September, and submissions close on 12th October 2007. We’re also prepping a submission to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee on the Treaty of Waitangi (Removal of Conflict of Interest) Amendment Bill. This Bill is a worry because it aims to remove the ability of a serving Judge of the High Court or Maori Land Court to serve as a member or Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal. That would disqualify Joe Williams, Caryn Wickliffe and others from fulfilling their current roles. Submissions for this one close on August 10th.

We’ve been contacted by Sharkey (Shane) Howell, a member of a group of carvers who go by the name of Wharepuwerewere. Every Easter they hikoi to a predetermined place to carve and leave their work for free at their destination marae. In 2008 they’re searching for a destination marae in the rohe of Ngati Kahu. So kia tere whanau ma. If you want your marae to be the beneficiary of Sharkey and his mates’ mahi – come to Taipa on Saturday and let us know.

Anniversaries are generally a time for review. So here’s my take on the last year’s mahi in a nut shell. To succeed inside this iwi you’ve got to know two things. How to work hard without losing your sense of humour, and how to tell the difference between a written report and the monthlies.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

CAUSES AND CURES

2007-07-17T03:09:00.000+12:00

When we got the news last week that we’d passed all the hurdles to get the population portion of Ngati Kahu’s fisheries settlement assets, a favourite song from my Scottish whakapapa popped into my head. It opens with the question,

Oh flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again,
That fought and died for your wee bit hill and glen?
Which stood against him, proud Edward’s army,
And sent him homeward tae think again.

Man – that song could have been written by and for Maori. It came to me again on Saturday when I ran into the Aupouri whanau at the market on their way to a rugby game with Otiria. As I moved along the bench outside the restrooms greeting each one, I saw behind their cheeky grins many other long-gone and sweetly familiar faces from all over Te Hiku O Te Ika. Hemowai Brown and her sister Kahuwhero Nathan, Joe and Lucy Wiki, Mei and John Everitt, Temepara and Kuini Kaaka, John and Hera Brown, Petia Welsh and Amy Tatana, Ngaire Morrison and Paihere Brown, Glass Murray and Mac Matiu, Jeb Brown and Maori Marsden, Simon Snowden and Matiu Rata.

They, and many others, were the grunt behind the Muriwhenua Fisheries claim lodged in 1986 when the Labour government adopted the Quota Management System (QMS) and once again breached Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Eventually our claim went nationwide and a partial settlement covering its commercial aspects was negotiated in 1992. That was the Sealords Deal that also set up the Waitangi Fisheries Commission (Te Ohu Kai Moana) to look after the assets until it could figure out who to give them to and how.

Only now, 21 years later, are Ngati Kuri, Ngaitakoto, Ngati Kahu, Te Aupouri and Te Rarawa, (the five iwi who started it all), nearing some kind of conclusion. In Ngati Kahu we’ll get almost $4 million worth of shares in Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd plus fishing quota and $220,000 cash. We’re still working on getting the coastline portion of our assets, probably in the next month or so.

Was it worth it? It’s my very subjective opinion that in spite of all the shortcomings of how we got here, it’s the duty of us who inherited the cause to make the best of the only cure on offer. I go back to the last lines of that Scottish anthem –

Those days are past now, and in the past they must remain.
But we can still rise now and be the nation again
That stood against him, proud Edward’s army,
And sent him homeward tae think again.

We are the like of those who went before us. E rereke he rakau o te riri, nga tikanga, te whakarangatiratanga o nga whakapapa, me nga wa. Engari, e rite tonu te take.

And congratulations to Aupouri for the win over Otiria on Saturday. That’s awesome whanau. We look forward to the day when all the strands of our whakapapa unite to beat even higher hurdles for even higher honours.

Ka whawhai tonu matou mo ake tonu atu.

THE COLONIZERS' DILEMMA

2007-07-03T15:34:00.000+12:00

In 1966 my mum and dad made a tough call. Along with dad's first cousin and his wife, they decided to pull nine children out of Rotokakahi Maori School and send us to Broadwood District High instead. The reason? The roll had dropped to twelve, including the sole teacher's two kids, and they wanted us to contact and experience the wider world into which we would have to move. Result? The school closed and, personally, my world opened – for better and worse.

At Broadwood, with the guidance of a quite young Dan Urlich, I largely met my parents’ hopes and flew. Already an avid reader, writing, art and science became added passions for me. No star on the sport field, I discovered my body was specially fitted to throwing things that I never even knew existed until he put them in front of me. Engari, I met racism for the first time, and got nasty ridicule for holding hands with my brothers and sisters and talking about mummy and daddy. For those who made the mistake of calling me a dirty Pawarenga hori, I probably confirmed every racist stereotype they’d been taught by seriously punching them out. Otira, we were all just kids trying to adapt to the changes foisted on us.

If the fourteen kilometre move from Rotokakahi to Broadwood seemed huge, the move I made three years later to Epsom Girls Grammar School was like - Off The Planet. What a culture shock it must have been for most of my WASP hostel and class mates to have this Catholic, Maori, Hokianga girl move in. Those very differences protected me from the hostel hazing many of my fellow 'turd-formers' suffered, but not from being homesick to the max. I truly thought I was going to die crying some nights. Yet, in spite of the yuck food, strange people and stranger customs in the hostel (who knew a gingernut broken with your elbow could predict how many letters you'd get?), the school presented me with doors which I’d never have known existed if I'd stayed home.

I regret none of the pains and gains from those years of change and can’t help but think about them when I read that the number of Maori living in Australia has increased 27 percent over five years from just under 73,000 to almost 93,000. The increase is attributable to a mix of migration and self-identification, and the mining boom in Western Australia which is drawing many Maori workers. Whatever its reasons, it raises uncomfortable but interesting questions for me as a Maori. Are we shamelessly riding on the backs of someone else’s loss to improve our lot? Or are we merely taking advantage of the opportunities there? Big questions ne? The same questions my folks debated when they effectively closed the local school and sent us out into the big bad / wide world.

I don’t have THE answer, but the experiences of my whanau, hapu and iwi tell me that all things must change, and the only thing we can choose is what and how we will contribute to the process. The Maori choice to colonise another land has been made. How to contribute to it ethically? That’s the tough call.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

HE PIRIPONO O NGATI KAHU

2007-06-25T16:09:00.000+12:00

Kia ora koutou ma – just a quick catchup on Ngati Kahu Fest 2008 planning.

Yep yep – it is happening over the Easter weekend next year under the theme “He Piripono O Ngati Kahu.” What does that mean? Many things, but the main concepts centre around people who are bosom friends, whose hearts are bound together in a tight weave of loving friendship. Neat eh? And we’re designing every event to reinforce that sentiment in Ngati Kahu.

A small but energetic team of reps from eight of Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngati Kahu’s fourteen marae members, plus Te Hauora O Te Hiku O Te Ika and Ngati Kahu Social and Health Services have been meeting fortnightly and so far we’ve divided the events between us based on age groups. The programme is still fluid, but some things have started to solidify under age group and day / night categories.

Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu are responsible for overall facilitation, funding, administration and communications, while Te Hauora O Te Hiku O Te Ika are organising the hui whakataetae of sporting and physical activities. Other daytime activities include Tupuna Tours running throughout the three days, as well as whakapapa, toi Maori, taa moko, waiata, hip-hop and kai tika workshops. We’ll also have a fishing competition and various stalls and displays running throughout. Then each night we’ll close with a signature celebration. Kenana Marae have put their hands up to run a Mokopuna Idol on the Good Friday. Ngati Kahu Social and Health Services is pulling together a Glamour Night / Fashion Parade to celebrate Ngati Kahu Styles on Easter Saturday, and Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu closes the Sunday night with He Piripono Ball to celebrate and honour those couples who have endured 35 years or more together.

There’s still plenty of workshops and events up for grabs by a lead organizer. So if your roopu or marae wants in, then come to the next planning hui on Monday 9th July at … well, if He Korowai Trust doesn’t accept our request to host us, then it’ll be back at Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu on Parkdale Crescent.

Riki me koutou ma – sorry for this if I haven’t gotten to you before you read this. I’ve just gotten in from Mangonui where we had a fantabulous planning session and the Social and Health Services up there on Karamea Rd, and I have to get this to the Age two minutes ago. Engari – Ngati Kahu e te tuatahi, e te tuarua me te matamuri. Haere mai nau mai piki mai ki te Piripono o Ngati Kahu.

Aroha mai.

A MAORI PARADIGM

2007-06-18T10:02:00.000+12:00

A paradigm is a set of rules, and a paradigm shift is when you change from one set of rules to another. These shifts are always powerful and sometimes painful. If you don’t believe me, consider this slice of history in which you yourself may have taken part.

In 1969 watches “Made in Switzerland” meant top quality while “Made in Japan” was code for cheap and nasty. 10 years later the two nations’ manufacturing reputations had almost completely reversed. Why? The introduction of the quartz watch, invented by the Swiss themselves, had changed the watch paradigm. But Swiss watch manufacturers, stuck in their paradigm of watches with bearings, gears and a mainspring were blinded to the future of a totally electronic and versatile watch that could be a thousand times more accurate. In fact, they were so convinced the quartz watch wouldn’t succeed, that they didn’t even bother to patent it. When it was displayed at the annual watch conference in 1967, the Japanese firm Seiko saw its potential and the rest, as they say, is history.

Turning from the world stage to closer to home, we are experiencing strong and historical paradigm shifts right now. How many of us over twenty knew what Mataariki was when we were growing up? If, like me, you’ve moved in your lifetime from having no or little knowledge to knowing quite a lot about it, then you’ve experienced a paradigm shift. Happy New Year! Of course not everyone is happy with this or other similar shifts.

At this year’s ANZAC Day service in Kaitaia I sat behind an old lady who was all smiles until the head boy at Kaitaia College stood and opened with a tauparapara i te reo Maori, then moved into English for the bulk of his very moving korero. But not before the old lady fumed loudly, “Why can’t they speak English?” Now it was a given, proven by his eloquence within seconds of her complaint, that the Kaitaia College Head Boy could speak English. So who was this ‘they’ the old lady was mad at?

In one of those quantum leaps of empathy that happen between humans it came to me that she was actually mad at the paradigm shift that had happened somewhere between 1945 and 2007. I happen to believe that this particular paradigm will eventually shift to the point where almost everyone will be bilingual and the lingua franca will be Maori. I also suspect that at some future public event I might find myself moaning, “He aha ai kaore taea a ratou kia korero i te reo Maori?!” For that reason I reached toward the old lady and, even though I didn’t actually touch her, I like to think she felt my unspoken thoughts, “Kei te pai tena. I understand. Peace. Be still.”

It’s not easy to be at peace when paradigms are shifting all over the place. And inside an iwi we know that not every shift is as benign as multi-lingualism or Mataariki. Engari we also know they throw up some amazing opportunities. Back to the Swiss. Ask any trend-setting youngster to name the top ten watches today, and somewhere in there you’ll hear the name Swatch. That’s a Swiss watch made with a quartz crystal. Man – those Swiss ain’t dumb, and neither are we.

Engari kia mataara! Kei tënä whanau kei tënä whänau anö te pütake mai o te ora. Ko tätou katoa ngä poito, kia Mataariki te taa i te kupenga, kaua e matararahi! Hei konei. Hei kona.

CORONER HUI ON AGAIN

2007-06-11T15:19:00.000+12:00

When the Coroner Hui was postponed last month I got lots of calls from disappointed people. The interest in Te Hiku is very strong and people specially wanted to have the hui before the July 1st roll-out of the new Coroners. Engari the Chief Coroner had a full month of work in June swearing in and orientating all the new Coroners. Since then we have seen the new Taitokerau Coroner announced and I admit to very mixed emotions. The new appointee, Brandt Shortland, comes with an impeccable pedigree. A descendant of Hineamaru, his whanau is well-known throughout Taitokerau, and his reputation as a lawyer is similarly illustrious. We look forward to meeting and working with him. Engari, we are sad to lose the services of Robin Fountain here in the Far North.

I cannot let the moment pass without publicly and personally thanking you Robin, and by extension your colleagues Max Atkins and Heather Ayrton, for being so consistently sensitive, accessible and available to the people of the Far North, not least ki nga Iwi Maori o Te Hiku O Te Ika. When I heard the news I was deeply disappointed that you were not to continue serving us, albeit on a broader front. Your successor has very large shoes to fill and we will do our best to ensure he does so.

Since the hui was postponed we have used the time to shape the programme so that it covers the coronial scene as broadly as possible. One of the things seriously lacking in Taitokerau is a wider approach to mortality review and what might have contributed to the cause of death. Currently the main reports taken into account at an inquest are those of the inquest officer and the pathologist. That means GPs, social workers, mental health workers, teachers, spiritual advisors and a plethora of professionals are rarely (if ever) approached to contribute to an inquest. The result is a heavily forensic view, while a goldmine of data, that could improve prevention and intervention strategies in general, is often left untapped. The Coroner’s office is ideally positioned to lead and deliver such review.

Koutou ma he panui tenei – the Coroner hui is on again. DATE: Friday 20th July. VENUE: Oturu Marae. TIME: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. PROGRAMME: As above. CONTACT: nkceo@xtra.co.nz or call 4083013. The hui programme now consists of brief (10 – 15 minutes) presentations from:
1. The Chief Coroner and / or the newly appointed Taitokerau Coroner on the Act – both letter and spirit.
2. The local inquest officer on how and why inquests are pulled together.
3. A local funeral director on the roles of police contracted FDs and private FDs.
4. A pathologist and / or mortician on autopsy.
5. A kaumatua on the interface between coronial process and tangihanga.
Each presentation will be followed by facilitated questions / discussion to the presenter.
No reira, whakawhetai hoki ki a koe Robin Fountain. Ma te atua e manaaki e tiaki ki a koe i nga wa katoa. Thank you and God bless.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

PARKDALE PROBLEM

2007-06-04T09:18:00.000+12:00

In Kaitaia the name Parkdale has become code for Problem in some people’s books. I work on Parkdale Crescent and live on Matthews Ave. Mates and whanau have made their homes on Terry Crescent, Allen Bell Drive, Lake Road me nga tini rore o Brown Town. The half-dressed kids playing on these streets, and the diseased dogs – I know them. I also know that it's real easy to write them, their dogs and their whanau off as problems looking for a place to happen. Specially if your idea of a good whanau is one that has the kids appropriately dressed for the weather, the pets' paperwork all in order and the whole lot playing inside the fence. Of course that's a pretty picture on the surface. Who doesn't buy into it? Well, for starters – I don't.

I remember as a kid my mum being really wild when it got back to her that a cousin-in-law reckoned, "Gloria Herbert's children are little savages. They run around in the rain half-naked!" Hey – it was fun to strip off and stand under the spouting. Closest thing we had to a shower at the time. Given the chance, mum would probably have told us “No.” But we didn't think to go home and ask her first if it was OK. It was the same when we swam in floods, played in slips and roamed the roads of Pawarenga, going to war with each other or the neighbours' kids. And I mean real war with real rocks, punches and kicks, and real bruises and tears. Oh yeah - and there was always some mangy mutt hanging close by too.

Now you couldn’t get a better mum than ours. She wanted nothing but the best for us, hated seeing us with hupe noses, and worried when we came home the worse for wear. Engari, for all her loving care we still caught scabies, brought home cooties, developed tapa feet and suffered more than our fair share of broken bones.

There are people who genuinely don't give a toss about their kids’ wellbeing. But I don’t care to leave it up to CYFS and the Police to take our kids away based on judgments about their dress, location and non-criminal activity. Blinking heck! I cannot imagine what would have happened if anyone had decided to sweep me and my brothers and sisters off the road and into the tender care of Social Welfare because we didn't fit the good whanau template. Actually I'm wrong. I can imagine – and the thought makes me shudder. With one road in and the same road out, it would’ve taken an army.

Parkdale Crescent in 2007 is not much different to Pawarenga in 1957. Some people look at the state of its residents and make judgments. Well, let them. 28 years ago, August 3rd 1979 to be precise, when the Stormies and Police went to war on Moerewa's streets in one of the most violent clashes of this nation's history, who'd have believed that stinky old tuna town would one day be proudly known as Tuna Town? Moerewa and Pawarenga refound their true sources of unity, strength and pride. And so too will Parkdale and its sister streets.

It’s time for me to get back into waka ama and stage my own sweep of these streets. I’m thinking of setting up a club called Nga Tini Rore o Brown Town and making Parkdale Pride its motto. All ages, races, creeds, colours, occupations and genders will be welcome.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

MANAGING THE MANA GERMS

2007-05-28T11:39:00.000+12:00

A few years back when I first made it to management, a mate asked me if I knew what most Managers were. Like an idiot I said, "No - what are we?" "Most of you," he said, "are really 'Mana Germs' who work hard to take the credit and give away the blame."

What do you do with that kind of advice? Me – I just stared at him and wondered, "Is he right or is he wrong?" Since then I've figured he's both. As a group, Managers are no different from anybody else. When it comes to voluntary mahi most people find it easy to be humble. But as soon as we feel we've got something to lose – cash, reputation, power, status or whatever – very few of us are immune from the mana germ. In fact some of us never get over it.

So I take my hat off to Chris Hook for his back down over the Cable Bay bridge to mayhem. That whole scene was shaping up to be nothing but a breeding ground for the nasty little blighters, and it took guts to recognise that and change your direction, Chris. In medical circles it’s called recovery, but I know it as repentance. Either way, well done chum. You’ve survived and, hopefully, built up immunity to the germ.

Sadly I don’t see and can’t think of many similar recoveries in recent times. Instead, those who get the bug find ready comfort in numbers. Philip Taito Field is an example. He’s resisting taking his medicine on the grounds that he did nothing wrong. And the main thing shoring up that clearly loopy belief are those who have chosen to back him because he’s a person of standing amongst them. I reckon the higher you stand in a group the more accountable you should be held by that group for what you do and how you do it. Then there’s Rick Ellis of TVNZ who, last week, showed all the signs of a full-blown attack of the mana germs with his sorry excuses to the Maori Affairs Select Committee that his employer is meeting its charter obligations to Maori with a programme mix of Shortland Street, Police-Ten-Seven, Game of Two Halves me nga mea. The feedback to this tells me there’s a mana germ epidemic in this country, and, even if Rick Ellis tried to retract he’s likely get it in the neck from those who reckon Maori are not only well served by TVNZ, but have our own TV station. Well, how about this for an idea? Let's make sure only Maori are allowed to watch MTV and get TVNZ to fulfill its charter obligations to all the other races in this country with the same programme mix Mr Ellis listed. If that happened, do you reckon we’d see a rush of people canceling their SKY subs?

Koutou ma, I’ve made more mistakes in my life than you’ve eaten hot hangi. I know how easy it is to give in to the mana germ. Engari, like most of you, I’ve learned from my mistakes. But the really smart people learn from others’ mistakes. So may I suggest to whoever cut down those pohutukawa trees at Coopers Beach recently – don’t be a mana germ.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

FROM THE LATE MRS GRAVES

2007-05-21T15:18:00.000+12:00

We’ve had to postpone the long-awaited Coroner Hui that was set to be held today in Oturu marae because of a death involving the main whanau of the host marae. Deaths and resultant hui postponements go hand in hand inside an iwi. So, instead of tearing my hair out, which was my first instinct when I heard yesterday morning, I’ll use the opportunity to share more information in prep for the hui, when it’s reconvened, by sharing with you an email exchange I had with someone who is interested but doesn’t know much about the issues.

Kia ora Anahera … what are the major concerns and difficulties iwi Mäori have experienced with the current system?

[The issues are], apart from general hostility to the concept of operating on our tupapaku, and the consequent disruption of their tangihanga:
1. Modesty: It doesn’t take much [for pathologists] to maintain body cover, particularly of the genitals, during post mortem.
2. Intrusiveness: Pathologists … don’t have to remove the whole top of the scalp to get at the brain unless it is absolutely necessary. ... Yet in Whangarei this is still standard practice.
3. Liaison with Whanau: Too often pathologists don’t seem comfortable with the living who want to connect with the person operating on their whanaunga.
Regarding the Act, some of the issues are:
1. On the surface it looks like progress that whanau can object to post mortem. But the inability, once an objection has been made, for whanau to rescind it or for the Coroner to over-rule it, until the full time allowed in the Act has lapsed, makes it likely .. [to] cause damaging delays.
2. The Act defines autopsy as “full internal and external examination of the body” … [What will that] mean in practice?
3. … in reducing the numbers of Coroners in the country from 52 down to 15, there will now be only one Coroner in the whole of Taitokerau, instead of the current three. … Will [that person] have a good grasp and experience of local / regional sensitivities and networks? … Because it’s a political appointment, we simply don’t know.

Thank you Anahera. That doesn’t sound good. I have heard ... that the chances of Mäori going to a coroner can be greatly reduced by … being seen by doctors/NGO’s more often … can I ask if you think that assertion is still valid?

The short reply is yes. The long answer is that autopsy is always mandatory when there is no medical doctor willing to sign off on cause of death. … But autopsy is also mandatory for any death which:
1. Is a matter requiring police investigation (accidents, murder, suicide, etc)
2. Takes place while a person is in custody or in care (prison, hospital, etc)
3. Takes place in suspicious circumstances (e.g. during commission of a crime)
I personally don’t believe investigation of cause of death (including autopsy) is inherently against Maori tikanga. Old whakatauki show we were constantly reviewing and learning from past experience. It’s the way in which it’s done and the attitudes of the people who have statutory roles in the process that needs review and change in some places. … Engari if we take better care of ourselves, … then we do reduce the likelihood of having an autopsy when our turn to shuffle off this mortal coil comes.

Koutou ma, the Coroner’s hui will be reconvened as soon as possible.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

EARTH TO IWI INSIDER

2007-05-14T20:18:00.000+12:00

What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?—

We who work for the iwi get passionate about things like human rights, biological diversity and economic sustainability. Important stuff, sure – but not always a priority in the everyday world of our whanau. To stay in touch with that world from which we came, we do things like mahi in the marae kitchen where we’re just another working stiff, and the VIP we rubbed shoulders with yesterday doesn’t give us any special privileges today. Or we’ll ring fence our whanau time and do the kohanga reo papa bit, the rippa rugby nanna gig, me nga mea. It’s sobering and refreshing to get that jolt back to earth that only whanau can give. Here are some examples.

A STORM IN A TEASPOON
I remember having my monthly report back from the Runanga to my marae disappear without a ripple as the aunties paused briefly to let its last echo fade before moving on to the real bizzo. “We had 100 teaspoons when this whare kai opened and now we’ve got none. Na wai he tangata tahae!?”

BUGS IN THE BELFRY
Our mokopuna love bugs. Shiny bugs, fat bugs, round bugs, buggy bugs – it doesn’t matter. They indiscriminately love the lot. In fact when our second oldest mokopuna got kutus he proudly and loudly told complete strangers in public places, “I’ve got bugs in my hair!” While I’d be saying with a sick smile and an inward cringe, “Well … you know they’re an occupational hazard in the north,” for him it was a source of wonderment that they had chosen to make his head their habitat. He didn’t care to worry about whether his biological diversity was being upset.

THE ARM OF THE ANGEL
On ANZAC morning, while our kids raced round and over the monument, three mothers sat under the angel in Kaitaia’s Memorial Park sadly looking at the names of those who left to fight in two World Wars and didn’t come home again. We felt sad. Then one of the kids asked, “Where’s the other arm of the angel?” And it’s true. I’ve sat under that angel since I was a kid and can’t remember – did it ever have two arms? Well, if it did, it doesn’t anymore. How could I not know?

TAKE TIME
A century ago W H Davies wrote the poem, “Leisure.” I can’t say it any better.

… A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

SOMETHING REMARKABLE

2007-05-07T15:48:00.000+12:00

When my grandpa Spike died in 1986 he and nanna Alma had happily bickered through fifty eight years of marriage, produced twenty one children, more than seventy grandchildren, close to a hundred great grandchildren and something like eight great-great grandchildren.

Gloria and Jim Herbert presenting the 'Ray and Alma Herbert Sports Memorial Trophy for Team of the Year"

By the time Alma died in 1998, I had personally given up counting. But I’ve never stopped feeling that such durability and fruitfulness is something special – even something remarkable – in these days of shrinking love and expanding self, as described in 2 Timothy 3:1 – 7.

The truth is that my grandparents’ whanau experience is not unique. That’s why, when we had our pilot planning hui for Ngati Kahu Fest 2008 last week, I found myself smiling fondly when the suggestion came up that we should make whanau our focal theme. In spite of the regular horror stories that hit the headlines, this week being no exception, most Maori whanau can only be labeled ‘good’. And even amongst those that wouldn’t win any “Family of the Year” competition, most are just trying to do what’s best, especially for their kids and kaumatua.

That’s what prompted the thinking behind our theme. Put the good up there where it belongs as something precious and delightful for all to see, and let it be a model for copying. As a point of celebration it works.

And, like any carrot, what we hope to see come out of it at an everyday level is consistent teaching and support of whanau so that there’s less and less need for the big stick of castigation.

And you know that there are many sticks with which to beat Maori backs. Our famed collective sense of guilt and shame is real for me. A murder, rape or other headlining crime is reported and I find myself thinking, “Oh please – don’t let it be a Maori.” So, no, we are not succumbing to a Pollyanna syndrome and, yes, we are still in touch with reality. But that reality abounds with more happiness than misery. So excuse us while we smile about that. In fact, come and join us if you’re interested in working hard to spread the reason for smiling around.

Ae ra – Ngati Kahu Fest 2008 is definitely on the front burner and, next Monday 14th, we’re going to officially launch its planning stage with a working hui here at Parkdale Crescent followed by lunch. We’ll meet fortnightly thereafter in a variety of locations around the rohe so that all our workers get a chance to host the planning mahi.

I remember my nanna telling me once that after the sixth child things got a lot easier as the older ones showed the littlies what to do. And that’s one of the main beauties of belonging to a large, prolific and rambunctious whanau. Everyone has something remarkable to contribute.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

IN WHOSE INTERESTS?

2007-04-30T15:26:00.000+12:00

I enjoy watching our mokopuna playing together because they are completely honest about their self-interest. Rules are made up, bent and chucked out at will – all to secure a victory. It got to the point recently where the bossiest moko invented a rule that if you won a trick in the card game being played, than you actually lost. The trouble was he couldn’t quite bring himself to lose a trick and ended up crying because, as his cousins gleefully reminded him, according to his own rule, he’d just lost the game. At five he can be forgiven for not knowing the political reality that, whenever a decision is made, someone’s interests are always going to be served. And it’s good that he is learning in childhood that, when the interests being served are his and his alone, then everyone else will probably end up resenting him – a lot.

Not so our local authorities. In whose interest did they make the decision to allow Crystal Waters to build luxury condominiums on the hill overlooking Cable Bay? And whose interests will be served by their decision to allow an overbridge from those condominiums to be built onto the beach?
In spite of evidence that the survey boundaries for the overbridge were wrong, making the Councils’ decision to let it be built legally questionable, this proposal never died when public opposition to it got too intense. It just went behind closed doors along with the developers, the planners, the consultants, the consenting authorities and the law enforcers. Recently they all got together – the Far North District Council, Northland Regional Council, Transit New Zealand, McBreen Jenkins Construction, Crystal Waters Developers and the New Zealand Police met in Council’s Chambers and talked about a construction start date. Some of you may have read in last week’s Tuesday Age a press release giving three working days’ notice that the Far North District Council is hosting a public meeting on this matter today in the Mangonui Hall at 4 p.m. Or maybe you missed it. Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu joins the Cable Bay Beach Watch Network in urging you to go to tonight’s meeting.

You know, you’d think that they would have gotten the message from the past opposition to the proposal, including an 8 week 24/7 presence on the beach, that they had better include the local hapu and community in any ongoing process. For sure, however they might spin the answer to the question, “In whose interests did you make these decisions?” it’s a dead cert that not many, if any, of the local Pakeha community, and not one of the local Maori hapu were included in the process by which they reached their decisions.

It almost seems like they have as much understanding as my mokopuna of political realities. Well, I think they are about to gain some enlightenment. Unfortunately there’s not much fun in watching adults re-learn childhood lessons.

IN WHOM CAN WE TRUST?

2007-04-30T15:25:00.000+12:00

He Panui Aitua na nga hapu o Te Whanau Moana me Rorohuri e noho atu nei i roto i te ao pouri. Kua mate a Aunty Suzie Reihana.

Last week I made mention of feisty women who speak their minds, and this week I got the really sad news that one of the feistiest of all has gone the way of the world. Throughout her long and lively life, Aunty Suzie Reihana had a strong belief in the afterlife. So I feel sure she herself is not sad to find herself ki muri i te arai. It’s me who’s the sad one. Just as I was getting to know her twinkly, prickly humour – kua haere ia. Promoted. E hika!

This brings me to the new Coroners Act. On Tuesday 22nd May we are hosting a hui at Oturu marae. The Chief Coroner and other key Ministry of Justice officials will be there to explain the differences between the existing Act and the new one that comes into power on July 1st. So, that’s good. But I reckon, though some will want to know what the new Act means, others might simply want the chance to tell their story and be heard. When I mentioned this to Fiona Kale, the Department’s Project Manager who is liaising with me on the hui arrangements, she said that the Chief Coroner will be cool with whatever comes up at the hui. So, that’s even better. E nga iwi katoa, haere mai ki Oturu mo te whakawhiti-korero o te kaupapa tino hohonu nei.

Since the debacle of the FSSB Bill, no piece of proposed legislation has caused as much of a stink as the electoral law reforms put forward by government last week. I had very carefully read Nicky Hager’s meticulously detailed book, ‘The Hollow Men,’ and was already convinced of the need to reform the electoral laws. So, when the government’s proposals came out I carefully read those too.

Question: Given the screaming need to ensure election campaigns are above the corrupt practices that were rife in the last election, how the heck did government get the reform process so wrong? Answer: By making it a unilateral one, and by obsessing over the religious affiliations of seven wealthy men who played a major, if shadowy, role during the last election.

The key issue is not the fact that these characters had affiliations to a particular religion, but that senior National party leaders and they hid their collaborations with each other. Why? Because they wanted to secretly raise and spend more money on the election campaign than they were legally allowed. I think the technical term for that is – buying an election.

The fallout from that gifted this government the chance to make the needed reforms. But, by not making the process as open, independent and transparent as possible, and by making too much of the religious right connections of one group, it has mucked up badly. Meantime the electoral laws are still in need of serious review and reform.

Who can we trust to do it?

Probably not many politicians.

Where are the Aunty Suzie’s when we need ‘em? Moe mai ra e te Whaea ki roto i te ringa o te Matua. Hei konei. Hei kona.

SPEAK THAT I MAY SEE

2007-04-03T08:53:00.000+12:00

For hundreds of whanau in Te Hiku, IMB started last Saturday, and we, like countless others, had to make the choice between our kids’ sport and a hui. I went to the hui-a-marama at Kareponia for Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu while Doug got the hard job (NOT) of going to the Rippa Rugby. Apparently, in his first game ever, our five year old, raised on watching the adult game, failed to connect the concept of ripping a ribbon off opponent’s shorts with the game of ‘rugby’ and tackled everything in sight. He now answers to the name ‘Sin-Bin.’

I went to a hui once where the first guy up said, “Kaore a au e mōhio he aha au i haere mai ai i tenei ra.” Like my mokopuna, he had failed to connect the concept with the outcome, and he too got promptly sin-binned by my feisty karani who stood and told him if he didn’t know why he was there – sit down, listen and learn. Then she did an A-grade job of laying out the issues and kick-starting the whakawhiti-korero. She did the mahi of the Taumata which, traditionally, has been done by men, and is critical to the progress and effectiveness of any hui.

The ideal Taumata has good speakers with good minds and hearts who help clarify the way forward for the people. The best will work together and can offer love as an antidote to hate, counterpoint wrong with right and challenge lies with truth, all the while stitching and mending any tear in the fabric of the hui.

I tenei ao hurihuri the Taumata need solemn wisdom and a wicked sense of humour, topped with some life experience. So, when the scarcity of men who can man the Taumata came up on Saturday, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu delegates talked about the pros and cons of teaching our boys to do it. How to protect them from being gored in the cut and thrust of the task at hand? How to ensure they enjoy their childhood before being asked to take on a man’s work? They talked about the pros and cons of women doing it, with lively recollections of Muriwai Popata who spoke whenever she wished because the only thing she cared about was whether or not the talk was walked. Are today’s women as strong? Are we prepared to take on other traditionally male roles? Will we butcher the beast, collect the kai moana and cook the hangi? Are we prepared to see a man take on our role of kai karanga?

You know, I hate weekend hui because they chew up precious whanau time. So when I do have to sit through one it at least helps when the quality of the korero is as good as what went down last Saturday. Regardless of who we think should be on the Taumata, we all have a right to expect quality from it. We can take a leaf from my forthright karani and sin-bin the wafflers. Or, if we are of gentler persuasion, we should at least take them aside and help them get up to scratch. And if there is a woman or a younger man there who can do a better job, then just do it – please.

Speak that we may all see.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

REDEMPTION SONG

2007-04-02T15:15:00.000+12:00

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our mind.”

In 1979, when Bob Marley sang his iconic number, Redemption Song, he struck a chord in Maori hearts and minds that resonates to this day.

“’Ow long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it’s just a part of it,
We’ve got to fulfil da book.”

This Easter weekend, throughout the country, whanau will gather from all over the motu to countless rural marae for the uniquely Maori unveiling ceremony known as He Hura Kohatu. With a similar programme to the day of burial it allows whanau to once more publicly share their sorrow, while at the same time releasing them from all future obligations to the deceased other than quiet remembrance. My whanau is amongst those who will be gathering this weekend.

Death is always sad, but for those of us who have lost loved ones to whakamomori, it can also be really, really destructive. For me it was like a nuclear bomb going off. Years later it continues to hurt in a way that no other death has. With respect and tenderness I offer these personal insights to anyone who is being touched right now by suicidal feelings or acts. First, hope is the one thing everyone needs to be scripted for. How different things would have been if our whanaunga had found a ‘hope script.’ But here we are, and if we've learned anything from the distress of his suicide it's exactly that. Hope is paramount. Second, consider this statement: - "If I start piling weights on your shoulders, you're going to eventually collapse ... no matter how much you want to remain standing. Willpower has nothing to do with it." Third, here’s another statement to think about: - “Suicide is not a choice; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain.” You're not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, if you feel suicidal. I mean, sure at any given time, you might feel you are any or all of those things. Please believe me, you are not. You simply are having more pain than you can cope with at that time. BUT (praise God) I am here to also tell you that suicidal feelings can be survived when you find ways to reduce the pain and increase the coping resources.

“But our ‘and was made strong,
By the ‘and of the almighty.
We flowered in this generation,
Tri-umph-ant-ly.”

Help is waiting for you right now. It’s only a phone call or a prayer away.

Taku tuakana, I miss you. But I know you are now closer than ever to the comfort, hope and redemption made possible by He who has redeemed the world. Happy Easter brother.

“Won’t you ‘elp to sing,
Dese songs of freedom?
‘Cos all I ever ‘ave
Redemption songs.”

Hei konei. Hei kona.

THE WAY OF JOY

2007-03-27T16:18:00.000+12:00

At every Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngati Kahu hui, a recurring theme and dream I hear is - let's hold a regular Ngati Kahu Festival and celebrate.

Even though the treaty claims are not yet settled, and some people are not always nice to us, joy is a much more welcome and healthier emotion than misery, and there are some seriously choice things for this iwi to celebrate - not least that we are still here. In fact when I look at our runanga and its members I am reminded of a sign that the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley reported seeing hung by a rusty staple to a rundown barbed-wire fence in Texas. It read:

Burned out by drought

Drowned out by flud waters,

Et out by jackrabbits,

Sold out by sheriff,

Still here!

The biggest reasons to celebrate are our people. We feel justifiable pride at the continued emergence of youth like Rangi Moses (2003 Maori Sports Scholar) who will continue to shine in the academic arena, long after her feats in the sporting world have passed. We claim with pride seasoned men of strength and achievement like Hekenukumai Busby (master waka builder) and Eric Rush (double international in rugby union and sevens). And we applaud our women leaders like June McCabe and Dr Robyn Manuel.

Another cause for celebration is our influence and presence on the geography, history and demography of the Far North in our marae, maunga, awa and moana. Place names like Mangonui, Taipa, Puwheke, Rangiputa, Karikari, Oturu, Kenana, Te Paatu, Takahue, Mangataiore, Waiaua, Waiari, Toatoa, Parapara, Kohumaru, Oruru, Kareponia, Peria - these and so many others bear on-going witness to us as descendants of Kahutianui and Parata.

Then there are those things that we do that make it simply cool to be Ngati Kahu. Fishing, pig hunting, kapa haka, fishing, purakau, fishing ... you get the picture.

So, at the urging of ourselves, we are going to hld a big hooley in 2008 and celebrate. The organising sub-committee is being formed now, and if you want in on it, you can contact us on 408-3013, nkceo@xtra.co.nz or www.ngatikahu.com

On the other hand, if you think it can't be done, kei te pai tena. But please don't get in our way while we do it.

To paraphrase peace worker Doris (Granny D) Haddocks

- this is great work. Aren't we joyful for this moment, when all is at stake? We are, we are, and do not stand in the way of our joy. For what is life, if not a theatre of the soul where we might take our part for good or ill? What better thing do we have to do in these months ahead than prepare to celebrate? We will, we will, and do not stand in the way of our joy.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

MAORI POLITICS

2007-03-19T14:51:00.000+12:00

In 1993 Ross Himiona, wrote, “Maori politics are practiced with great gusto, much noise, good humour, and sometimes too with considerable acrimony, … by the wise and respected, … by the not-so-wise, by the manipulators, numbers men and power brokers, behind doors and in dark corners; … by our womenfolk quietly getting on with the real business while the men prance and bluster; just like the other variety.”

The big difference of course is that the other variety doesn’t have to first convince its constituency to vote. That’s the dual challenge for Maori in this year’s local body elections; convince Pakeha that it’s in their interests to vote for you, and Maori that it’s in their interests to vote – period.

You’d be smart to run as part of a slate of candidates who are known to be good listeners, harder workers and champion communicators. And you’d be smarter still to avoid the killer mistakes that put paid to Maori success in the past. First, don’t stand Maori against each other. In 2004 three Pakeha and four Maori competed for two seats in the Western Ward. Result? Two Pakeha won. Second, don’t let mana get in the way of eliminating weak wannabe candidates. If someone can’t attract Pakeha support and excite Maori participation, do everyone a favour and cut them. Third, while you should talk to them, avoid public endorsements for your campaign by any organisation. Electoral laws on campaign spending aside, they can lose you more votes than they’re worth. Finally, don’t run with Maori only nominees or so-called Maori issues. Pick people with character and ability who understand that every issue is of interest to Maori.

Some independent candidates will likely get in, regardless of anything you do. Look at who amongst them might make attractive allies on Council, but don’t get too bogged down trying to win them over pre-election. The same goes for the Mayoralty. Run your own strong candidate before thinking about how you might work with an independent.

You should already have a hard-charging campaign team on the ground to raise the money, run the strategies and close the connections between you and the voters. Engari, the Maori Party showed that, even at very short notice, it can still be done successfully.

Policy statements haven’t played an important part in past local body elections up this way. But this year, if you’ve got a strong slate, a heavyweight Mayoral contender, an ace campaign team and key alliances, then a policy platform that tells voters clearly what to expect from you would be nothing but a plus.

If you can pull it all together in the next few weeks, you’ve got a fighting chance to overcome the dual challenge of conservative Pakeha and disengaged Maori voters, although, from my point of view, the real political challenge facing this entire country is how to make the Maori political process part of the mainstream.

So, how do you convince a Pakeha to vote for a Maori? The same way you convince a Maori to vote. Put your head down and bum up, than go kanohi ki te kanohi and door to door for every vote.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

WHAT'S THE BUZZ

2007-03-13T17:09:00.000+13:00

This weekend I attended two quite different but equally invigorating events. Friday night I went up to the powhiri at Parapara marae, the venue for the long-awaited Tangaroa me ana Tamariki hui, and was blown away by a couple of things. First the Pakeha there almost outnumbered Maori. Second, as soon as manuhiri arrived they went into the whare kai to help get the evening meal ready. That told me straight away this was going to be a hui where a number of different groups would work together practically and get to know something about what made the others tick.
This hui came out of korero between the workers of the Doubtless Bay Marine Protection Group, Te Whakaminenga, the Department of Conservation and Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu. Now, you couldn’t get a more motley crew if you tried. But they took their shared sense of caring for the sea and everything in it, and they carried on talking to each other. The result was the hui – a bridge if you like. For the sake of Tangaroa me ana Tamariki, me nga iwi katoa, I hope it’s one that will get used and extended often.

Sunday, our whanau joined the throngs down at the local pool to celebrate Children’s Day. There was a good buzz happening right from the off with free sausages and cold water being served on demand plus plenty of cool handouts promoting the love and protection of our Tamariki. When the giant inflatable train / obstacle thingy was floated, the buzz deepened. Moving amongst the myriads of ages, shapes, genders, sizes, races and creeds packed around and in the pool I felt the moment when that buzz shifted from good to primo.

Nah - this is really a pool in China. Look relaxing to you?

Spacifix is a West Auckland hip-hop band who started as a school group three years ago, write and record their own songs, tour extensively and have a TV series. Fresh back from Los Angeles they turned up at Kaitaia on Sunday.

Love that Hair. These guys had energy to spare.

What a coup for the organizers, and what a frisson for the crowd. Yep. Their arrival onstage definitely marked the moment that Children’s Day went primo. And don’t ever believe hip-hop is only for brown boys. Because, quite frankly, this fifty year old nanna reckons we could do with way more events like this one in our town. And, judging by the way he rocked his five month old to sleep bopping to the beat, at least one young Pakeha dad would agree. Way to go REAP, Whakawhitiora Pai, Te Hiku Media and everyone else responsible. More please.

To close – last week Trevor Mallard and Mark Burton (Ministers of State-Owned Enterprises and Treaty Settlements respectively) opted for a common-sense month long moratorium on Landcorp sales while they review the ‘policies’ involved. We’re not out of the woods yet regarding Rangiputa, but we have every base covered and will do everything we can to help the Ministers in their review. If you’re interested in knowing more you’re always welcome to phone or call in to our Parkdale Crescent office any time. Or come to the Runanga hui-a-marama on Saturday 31st at Kareponia marae.

Hei konei. Hei kona.

CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY

2007-03-12T14:32:00.000+13:00

Na e aku tuakana teina aroha, ko ahau ko Anahera ki te ritenga o te mahi e tau ana ki runga ki a au hei mahi maku ki te Atua, hei whakanui maku i toku karangatanga i runga i te whakaaro nui, kua tae ake nei ahau ki a koutou i tenei ra kia whakapuaki ai ahau i te kupu a te Atua ki a koutou. One of the things that defines being Ngati Kahu is spirituality. Go to any hui and you can guarantee that someone will be called on to open and close it in karakia. Prayer is great, but not when it’s used to disguise ill-will. I am talking directly to you who lost the battle for Ngati Kahu’s mandate.

The mandated negotiators work hard to keep everyone informed, including you. But you work harder at staying uninformed. Na, kei te mohio tonu koutou, i nga wa kua pahure ake nei, i u tonu ratou ki te whakarite i te karangatanga i karangatia ai ratou. Yet you won’t come to the well-notified monthly Runanga hui where there’s a clear standing agenda item – ‘Negotiators’ Report’ – up for discussion every time. I personally put into your hands all the written negotiators’ reports that had been tabled for the last four years. But, instead of acknowledging their hard work, integrity and transparency, you called a hui and gave them two days notice that their presence was required to report to you. When they declined to meet this unreasonable ‘request,’ you complained you were being ignored instead of owning up to the truth that you were being ignorant.

You want the negotiators to work with and for your leader because you reckon he can open doors in government that they can’t. That might or might not be true. But more to the point, if this government is willing to do a better deal with someone who failed to get the mandate of the people, rather than with those who hold it, doesn’t that ring ethical alarm bells for you?

The negotiators have had a presence at all your hui except the last one so, if you genuinely want to know and have a say in what’s happening, come to the next Runanga hui at Kareponia on the 31st. And before you moan at being talked to through the media, remember that you’ve had this invitation put to you in person several times already, but still haven’t come.

Ae ra, nana toku wairua i whakapouri nana ahau i mea kia memenge i te whakama i mua i te aroaro o toku Kai-hanga, kia whakaatu atu ahau kia koutou mo te kino o o koutou ngakau. He mea pouri ano hoki ki ahau kia korero ahau me te maia, me te nui o te reo ki a koutou, i te aroaro o a matou kaumatua me a matou kuia, he tokomaha o ratou e tino ngawari ana ta ratou whakaaro, e hekore ana, e tu-oi ana i te aroaro o te Atua, ko te mea ia e ahuareka ana ki te Atua.
You have a clear choice before you. Follow the path of the one who sows discord amongst the people, and you might reap war. Follow the path that Paul recommends in 1 Timothy 2:1 – 2, and we will all reap peace.

Both paths are spiritual, but only one is tika. Hei konei. Hei kona.

RANGIPUTA HIKOI

2007-02-27T11:23:00.000+13:00

Although I wasn’t there, (had to keep a prior appointment), the Hikoi through town last Friday went off like clockwork I hear, thanks to the organizational efforts of those on the Noho Whenua as well as old hands like our Taitokerau Member of Parliament.

Thanks also to the many Pakeha who have either lived long enough amongst us to know the justice of our land claims, or are fair-minded enough to have acquainted yourselves with the facts. Having done so, you have supported our cause and not felt threatened by or resentful of the truth that this land should eventually be returned to Ngati Kahu. Thank you also to the workers on the station. Although you’re loyal and good employees of Landcorp, you’re also part of our community, and we’ve had korero kanohi ki te kanohi at a good and human level with you all.

Sadly that’s not been the case with the Office of Treaty Settlements Director (Paul James), Landcorp’s CEO (Chris Kelly), and Landcorp’s Board who are chaired by Jim Sutton, an ex-Labour MP, now a roving Ambassador for New Zealand. Sure they’ve been polite enough, but in the end they’ve all chosen to actively pursue or passively watch the carve-up and sale of our land. To do so they have had to first ignore and deny at an almost cellular level the truth that they are perpetrating and benefiting from an ongoing land theft. It genuinely puzzles me how and why the eight Directors on the Landcorp Board in particular can do that. They are all passionate landowners themselves. So I wonder, if their land was stolen as ours has been, when would they and their descendants stop seeking its return?

But orchestrating it all are the Crown Ministers behind the Office of Treaty Settlements and Landcorp. Trevor Mallard (Minister of State-Owned Enterprises), Michael Cullen (Minister of Finance), and Mark Burton (Minister of Treaty Negotiations) cannot show how they got their hands on our land. Yet, rather than do the honourable thing and work towards giving it back to us, they’ve all chosen to ape Pontius Pilate and Herod. Well wash away you Honourable members. It’s clear you’re here after every cent you can gouge out of our land, and I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to dodge justice a while longer. But how you’ll stand and defend your actions in the hereafter, I have no idea.

Hoha matou! We get tired of it sometimes, BUT we will carry on trying to get our ever-changing Treaty partner to do the right thing and follow its own rules.

And with that in mind, a final and emphatic thanks to Hone Harawira for the excellent questions in the House. Pai ana to mahi Hone hei reo mo tatou i te whare Ngarara. Rangatira o korero. Kua mau nga mahi a te Kawana. Koia e wetiweti nei ki nga Kereme nei.

Kia kaha tatou ma. Hei konei. Hei kona.

THE WOVEN PEOPLE

2007-02-18T19:11:00.000+13:00

Out at the noho whenua on Rangiputa last Saturday I heard a catch-cry I often hear that goes along the lines of, "We’re all the same." Whenever I hear stuff like that, I know straight away I'm listening to someone who's feeling different to me and really means, “I want you to be more like me"

To reword something written by C S Lewis: No man who says, we are all the same, believes it. He wouldn't say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to sameness is made only by those who feel uncomfortable about others’ differences.

Take a look at the weaving in this picture. The korowai at the top is by the late Nicky Lawrence. The rain cape (pake) at the bottom is, I think, done by Jane Allan and Betsy Young of Ngataki. The silky, milky muka and the green putiputi are by Lydia Smith, while the whariki on which they lie were a joint effort by a number of us under Lydia's guidance. Although they are different in make, form and usage, these items are all woven on two universal principles – the horizontal weft and the vertical warp. Just like love' and 'marriage, you can't have one without the other. Well, you can try, but they’ll fall apart as sure as eggs.

Koutou ma – we don't have to be like each other. We don’t even have to like each other, although that would be nice. But we do have to live alongside each other. Why not do it as a woven people? Te whiringa o te muka tangata, ne? Hei konei. Hei kona.

RANGIPUTA REPOSSESSION

2007-02-14T16:55:00.000+13:00

In the 1980s, under pressure from Maori, the government created 27B memorials on Crown lands under claim that were being transferred into the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). For Ngati Kahu this included the Rangiputa station on the Karikari peninsula which is now being used by Landcorp. The idea was that the station would remain available to Ngati Kahu for inclusion in any eventual settlement. But because of the way the Crown has set it up, even though it got the land for nothing, it tries to assert that Ngati Kahu can only get it back if we buy it at market value using the cash portion of any settlement package we might accept.

Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu holds the mandate to negotiate this and all other historical claims of Ngati Kahu. In October last year the Office of Treaty Settlements let our negotiators know that Landcorp was going to carve off a small section of the station and put it on the open market with an asking price of $3.5 – $4 million. Now, given that the Crown had offered us no more than $8million cash to settle all our claims – you can bet we objected. Do the math yourself. If this small section of the station chews up 50% of the entire settlement cash being offered, we really don’t have much hope of getting the entire station back do we?

Still, we didn’t give up. We decided to find a capital venture partner who would provide us the money to negotiate a fair price with Landcorp in exchange for a long-term leaseback arrangement on the section which would allow him to recoup and grow his investment. That way Landcorp would get its cash, Ngati Kahu would hold ownership over of its land, the investor would get the use of it for an agreed term and, at the end of that term, usage would also come back to Ngati Kahu. The idea isn’t new. It’s been successfully done all over the world, including in Auckland where Ngati Whatua has an agreement over the Devonport Naval Base. It was a win-win for everyone. But nope – Landcorp wasn’t interested. Its CEO told our lawyer that the property would go on the open market in early 2007.

Our negotiators asked the Office of Treaty Settlements to purchase the section and hold it in the Landbank, which is another flawed but tried mechanism set up by the Crown to supposedly protect claim lands from being irrevocably alienated away before settlement. But nope – OTS didn’t have the money. Next the Urlich whanau of Te Whanau Moana, the local hapu out at Rangiputa, tried to engage the Crown and Landcorp in sincere dialogue. But no – they too were treated with disdain and fob-offs. Make no mistake. This land was stolen by the Crown. This is backed up by the Crown’s own Waitangi Tribunal which reported in 1997 that it was never sold. The Crown and its tentacles have made mega-bucks off it and continue to do so.

In last Thursday’s Age there was a glowing description of the land going up for sale. For Te Whanau Moana and Ngati Kahu that was the final straw. We have tried every possible avenue to resolve this. Been to the Tribunal, got a report that’s now ten years old, entered negotiations and offered innovative solutions. And what have we got out of it thus far? Nothing. So when you hear that there is an “occupation” out at Rangiputa, don’t you believe it. It’s just Te Whanau Moana repossessing a small part of its whenua.
Kia kaha koutou ma. E tautoko kaha ana Te Runanga-a-Iwi-o Ngati Kahu me nga tini hapu o Ngati Kahu i tenei mahi toa, mahi tika.

BEING HERE

2007-01-25T11:48:00.000+13:00

Sometimes being an iwi insider can be a pain. Like when I hear the words “mai ra ano” as an explanation for why things can or will never change. Don’t get me wrong, I get a kick out of being here and I value those traditions that give shape and meaning to this life. But even paradise can start to pall if things forever remain the same. So I’m really grateful to be something of a magnet for quirky people.

They challenge, exasperate and bug the heck out of me … and yet I must like being here with them because I have no trouble telling people to permanently go away, and I’ve yet to do that with any of them.

There’s my old mate, a Pakeha, who has for years annoyed me with his korero about a “third way” which, according to him, will result as we in this country move from being either western (read Pakeha) or eastern (insert Maori) to this “third way.” He was bad enough on his own then he met and joined up with one of my Kaumatua. Together they prove the theory that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t happen to agree with hardly a thing they have to say … and yet I admire their passion and commitment to the “third way” that they now actively promote throughout the motu.

Another man I worked with was a chronic boozer who, after decades of marriage, had to build himself a custom-made “dogbox” in which to sleep off his benders because his former one got totaled one morning by a visiting horse. I think it involved the horse’s head. Not long after that he and a pal established a political party and their meetings were always in the office I shared with him. I never heard such learned discussions before … nor since. He exasperated me no end with what I saw as an utter waste of one of the best intellects ever to visit this earth … and yet I always felt energized when he was around. God rest his pickled soul.

If you have an hour or a day to spare I recommend you spend it with another mate of mine to just listen to him alternatively korero i te reo Maori and English. You say you don’t speak or understand te reo? Believe me it won’t matter, you won’t get much more than an edgeways word in every now and then anyway. But sit with him long enough and I promise you this – you will learn so much more than you ever thought possible about yourself. Many of my other quirky mates would tell you not to waste your time … and yet his challenging company remains a stimulus for some of their own best thinking moments.

I make no apologies to my well-loved friends who have either been included or excluded from this column. You are truly awesome people so don’t feel anything but pride if I’ve shared some thoughts about you, because you are the point, the reason and even the message for today.

Being here is a privilege. It doesn’t last long. Think about that. That’s one thing that quirky people do really well. Instead of rejecting the possibilities with a “mai ra ano” they think in unlimited ways. They are the ones who give me hope that it might actually still be possible to have an original thought. You know – the kind that produced the wheel and changed the world. Let’s face it, there’s precious little of it happening anymore. But if it does happen it’ll come from one of them. It may even come from one of you. And that would make any pain well worthwhile. God willing.

Hei konei Hei kona.

ON YOUR SHOULDERS

2007-01-25T11:45:00.000+13:00

THE ANNUAL GENERAL

Since becoming CEO with Ngati Kahu I’ve come up with my own interpretation of the acronym – Carry Every One!

One of the most stressful times of the year is that leading up to and inclusive of an Annual General Meeting. This being both my first AGM with Ngati Kahu and my first as a CEO made it nerve-wracking, hair-tearing stuff as my three month lead in time dwindled to weeks then days before the final ‘i’ got dotted and the last ‘t’ was crossed on the Annual Report.

As a result I’m giving a very stern warning to everyone from our directors to our printers – please don’t do this to me next year. OK?

Anyway it turned out to be a great day at Oturu marae. The deliberations were deliberate, the humour was hilarious and the goodwill was … good. Oh yeah, the finances received an unqualified audit report, and so too did the food which was fabulous. More importantly, the unity of purpose and passion lit up the day as bright as the sunshine outside. Yeah I know, you can just about hear the birds singing and the harps playing. Put all cynicism aside, those who missed it missed something special.

TANGAROA ME ANA TAMARIKI

So don’t miss out again this weekend when Parapara marae hosts this Tangaroa me ana Tamariki wananga which literally means, for those still learning the reo, Tangaroa and his Children. But you know Maori, we need to look behind the literal and find the symbol, and it’ll help you to do the same if you want to build the relationship with us and to be part of protecting the marine environment in our rohe.

There’ll be some talk, some practice and heaps of learning. Presenters include Kaumatua, marine biologists, and local Taipa Area School students. They’ll cover a range of kaupapa like how to build and use a hinaki, monitoring marine health and making it happen. If it is fine on the Saturday, there could be a trip to Aurere.

The hui is being co-hosted by the Department of Conservation, Doubtless Bay Marine Protection Group, Te Runanga-a-Iwi O Ngati Kahu and Te Whakaminenga. Come along for the whole weekend or come along for an hour. Everyone is welcome. Oh, and a plate for supper on Friday and a hand in the whare kai would be very much appreciated.

PATHOLOGIST SERVICES IN KAITAIA

Sorry to close on a glum note but I have to signal something that’s going to get my attention. Sitting at the market on Saturday morning I met a whanaunga who told me that post mortems are all being done in Auckland now. Probably not news to a lot of you but, man, who needs the additional burden of having to travel to Auckland and back when you’re already heartbroken and might also be broke?

We’ve got a local funeral service that’s building a new complex with purpose-built post mortem facilities included. So what’s the problem about doing post-mortems up here? That’s what I’m going to find out.

CEO remember.

HERE'S TO THE DREAMERS

2007-01-25T11:43:00.000+13:00

Industry captains and benny-day millionaires, five year old boys and fifty year old nannas, local governments and marae committees – they all have a dream for the future. The difference between realizing their dream and watching it turn to dust most often boils down to three simple things.

Belief is first up – the kind that does not let anything cloud the dream. Second up is planning – the kind that takes note of then disregards how or even if the dream stacks up against everyone else’s. Because if you play that game the ones at the top of the heap tend to stay there and the best everyone lower down can hope for is to be asked how they feel about the deal when, in most cases, it’s already done and dusted.

Too many times that’s how consultation feels when it comes to central, regional and local government plans. You can forgive people if they feel it ain’t worth the bother. But Ngati Kahu doesn’t have that option. In fact no iwi authority does when the consultation and plans are all about the use and development of our resources. In the face of every attempt to ignore, destroy or diminish that simple fact, it not only persists – it positively flourishes.

The government passed the Foreshore and Seabed Act, so Maori put people in Parliament with the nouse and guts to seek its repeal. Council decided that a resource consent application for an overbridge on to the foreshore didn’t need to be notified, so Maori took firm action and the development halted. The Resource Management Act became government’s legislative framework, so Maori churned out resource management graduates by the bucketload who used it to enhance our practice and government’s understanding of kaitiakitanga.

That’s the reactionary aspect of being whanau, hapu and iwi in Aotearoa. But the really mindboggling achievements are in the proactive stuff that’s going on out here in iwi-land. We have produced educators, broadcasters, jurists, tradesmen, entrepreneurs and other influencers – most of them legitimate and most holding the same world view as our tupuna had of this country’s resources. Naku te ao. Eventually all that collective belief adds up to reality.

That brings me to the last and probably hardest part of realizing our dreams – relating to all those others who either share or think they share our interests. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard. Right now Ngati Kahu, the Department of Conservation and the Doubtless Bay Marine Protection Society are all working together to enhance the protection of our marine environment. It has its exciting moments but largely it’s being done very amicably under the mana whenua / mana moana of Ngati Kahu.

So here’s to the dreamers and schemers amongst us who turn the impossible into the unremarkable. Long may we dream.

Hei konei. Hei kona.