IWI PANDEMIC RESPONSE

We’ve kept a close eye on the COVID19 pandemic and believe that, while there is no reason to panic, there is every reason to plan a response to it. 

In formulating our response, we took into account researched advice on the timeline of the virus, its contagiousness and severity, its mortality rate and risk factors, its likely effects on our iwi specifically and society in general, the vectors of community transmission, how long it can survive on surfaces, false comparisons with the flu, the importance of ‘flattening the curve’ of its growth, the importance of social distancing, the possible failure of our healthcare system and possible anti-viral treatments, the timeline for a vaccine, the importance of pandemic preparedness and the gradations of personal responsibility.

If you have not already done so, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu urge our whānau, hapū and marae to plan and put in place tikanga to cover the following matters:

1.       RISK IDENTIFICATION: eg. hui and hosting manuhiri, hongi and handshaking, kai prep and serving, etc.

2.       RISK REDUCTION: eg. holding online hui where possible and postponing or cancelling all but the most essential gatherings, being extra vigilant around hygiene, etc.

3.       SICK WHANAU: eg. getting them tested and treated while limiting their contact with others, etc.

4.       SELF-ISOLATION: eg. doing online shopping (or organising proxy shoppers), setting delivery/pickup protocols, contacting schools and employers, etc.

5.       KAITIAKITANGA: eg. checking on and where needed providing for our most vulnerable - the chronically ill, kaumatua and kuia, etc.

6.       STORES AND SUPPLIES: eg. storing water, stocking up on food and medicines (enough for 14 days), stocking up on hygiene and cleaning supplies, etc.

This week, we urge you to sit with your whanau or roopu and make a plan because, while we must always hope for the best, we must also plan for the worst.

Our own whanau plan has two stages.  We are currently in stage one which involves:

1.       No longer hugging, giving hongi or shaking hands with anyone outside of our home

2.       No longer attending non-essential hui or public gatherings of any kind

3.       Only making essential trips to work, shop or attend a critical service

4.       Carrying and using soap or hand sanitiser after any contact with outside people / things

Stage 2 will kick in when the first case of COVID north of Mangamuka is diagnosed and will include:

1.       Ordering our groceries online and only one of us going to pick them up

2.       Wearing surgical masks and gloves if we must go out in public

3.       Thoroughly washing all purchased vegetables and fruit and wiping all packaged/canned goods with a bleach solution

4.       Closing our workplace and working from home

5.       Discouraging visitors or at least limiting visits to those who are taking similar precautions to ourselves

6.       Completely isolating if it gets really bad – our diet may be a bit boring but it will be adequate.

HOPING FOR THE BEST - PLANNING FOR THE WORST

SHOULD MAORI WOMEN SPEAK AT WAITANGI?

Last month, Mere Mangu, the Chair of Te Rūnanga-a-Iwi o Ngāpuhi, spoke at Waitangi during the pōhiri for various parliamentary political leaders and traumatised several traditionalists on the taumata, as well some who weren’t even present. 

A week later, the question was posed by Dr Rawiri Taonui, “Should Māori women speak at Waitangi?” 

As a descendant of wahine me tane toa (strong women and men) who spoke beautifully in two or more languages (both on and off the marae), it is sad that this question still has to be asked.  But I am grateful to Rawiri for asking it.  It provokes thought and progress on the issue and enlarges the space in which to define, unpack and understand when, why and how this so-called ‘tradition’ of a male only taumata came to be.

In the 1980’s my generation of Muriwhenua wahine toa  were privileged to be taught and mentored by kuia who had experienced and analysed many things, including that ‘tradition’.

One of the most influential of those kuia was Kahurangi Mira Szaszy.  Wise in both western ways and tikanga Māori, we loved being in her reserved presence and being able to ask her stuff without fear of rebuff.

One day, one of my mates asked her, “Why can’t wahine Māori speak on the taumata?”

The ensuing group kōrero was lengthy and considered and I can’t reproduce it verbatim here, but one part I recall exactly.  Mira said, “It was a Victorian assumption that Māori women could not speak because Pākehā women were not allowed to by their men.”

She was then asked who made and gave power to that ‘Victorian assumption’ over us?  Her reply, “Initially, Pākehā men, and then, as their status in their own land diminished, so too did Māori men.”

Wow!  I remember light spreading over the hearts and minds of the wahine there.  And with it came remembrances of wahine in our own whānau, hapū and iwi who had always spoken without fear or favour on the taumata and elsewhere.  Also, memories of the taumata being wherever the speaker was, not located in a specific place or bench.  That ‘tradition’ came only in my lifetime and, in many places, is being reversed.  But most importantly, realisation came that the ‘tradition’ of a men only taumata was not ours, had no basis in logic or tikanga and did not bind us.

However, there was empathy for those of our men who still held to that ‘tradition’ at that time.  Because we understood that they too were victims of this ‘Victorian assumption.”  For myself, I was willing to wait and let it die with them.  But it hasn’t.  And that is why the question is still being asked.

This is my reply. 

It is clear that being on the taumata requires certain qualities, none of which are gender specific.  E.g. It does not require male gonads to welcome, farewell, stitch, mend, inform, guide and protect the people while they are on the Marae, and to do it all i te reo Maori (in the Māori language). 

While I am not personally matatau i te reo, all of my uri are, including a number of brilliant kohine (girls) and wahine.  In my opinion, if we haven’t already done so, it’s way past time for my whānau, hapū and iwi to knock the male only taumata ‘tradition’ on the head once and for all and bury it without a marker.

Should Māori women speak at Waitangi?  Of course!  And not only at Waitangi, but also on the marae, the taumata, anywhere and everywhere they are qualified to speak. 

TALKING WITH OUR WAI

The brewing brouhaha and blame shifting going on between various governing agencies over the shortage of water available to whānau living in Kaitāia, and elsewhere around the motu, has got me wondering: if the water could talk, what would it say to us? and if it could hear, what would we say to it?

So, I went down to the water closest to me here in Kaitāia and here is what it told me.

On my surface lie otaota (weeds) that do not have hakapapa (genealogical links) to this whenua (land).  As they flourish, die and rot they entangle he para (other rubbish and litter) thrown into me – plastic, paper, food and a shopping trolley that used to glitter but is now flaking rust. 

My view of Ranginui (the Sky Parent) is clouded by all these and other parakino (pollutants) coming from upstream.  Over the years I have received avalanches of slipped whenua, been coated by sewage spills, and have had farm and factory runoff, truck washes and stormwater emptied into me; I have even held the dead and the discarded.

I have had karakia and waerea intoned over me, pipes and drains inserted into my banks and rāhui laid on me.  I have seen my tangata whenua (people of this land) marginalised by foreign powers and prevented from exercising their kaitiakitanga (care) of me and their whaunangatanga (relationship) with me.

Each winter, every drop of water that drains from Maungataniwha, Raetea and all the awa between, passes through me.  But, with each passing summer, I have become more and more dirty and diminished.  Aue!  I am tired.  When shall I rest and be cleaned? 

In response, this is what we have to say to our wai.  Ko wai mātou?  (Who are we?)  Ko wai mātou.  (We are water.)  We are here still and, although we have yet to fully recover from our own long marginalisation, we are increasingly carrying out our kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga with you. So, hold on, help is at hand.

It is true that hapū and iwi Māori are still doing the mahi of kaitiakitanga of their wai.  In the case of Kaitāia, the kaitiaki of Ngāi Tohianga at Ōturu Marae are working hard with everyone, including those foreign authorities that still like to think they have some power and authority over our wai.  

They are wrong about that, but they will have a role to play under the correct power and authority of the mana whenua.

In the meantime, we will continue to talk with our wai.

THE PRICE IS PAID

Last Wednesday, our roopu of kuia, mokopuna and rangatahi arose, readied ourselves and made our way to Waitangi in time to join the throngs who came to open the 28 Māori Battalion Museum which is built opposite the ‘treaty house’ there.

In the stygian darkness, Wahoroi Shortland of Ngāti Hine prepared us for the ritual to come, beginning at 5am with the drawn out urgency of the pūtatara, continuing through the rhythmic revelation of the waerea, and culminating in our thrice repeated responses to two questions, “Ko wai te ingoa o tēnei pou?” (what is the name of this pou?) and “Ko wai te ingoa o tēnei whare?” (what is the name of this house?).

Then, as we began the long, slow hikoi past the pou and into the whare, one of my mokopuna became suddenly nauseous.  So, we moved out of the throng and took seats beneath the flagpole to allow him to recover in the warm womb of darkness.

Sitting there, I pondered what had happened and wondered why.  

I thought about how the Battalion’s four Companies had been organised along hakapapa lines and had nicknames reflective of them and / or their rohe. 

A Company, drawn from Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi and other northern iwi were Ngā Keri Kāpia (the Gum Diggers).  B Company, centred on Te Arawa and the Mataatua tribes, were Ngā Ruku Kapa (the Penny Divers).  C Company drawn from the the Tairawhiti/East Coast region were Ngā Kaupoi (the Cowboys) and D Company, which covered the whole of the South Island and the remainder of the North Island were the Foreign Legion or Ngāti Walkabout.

I thought about how the location of the museum was based on Sir Apirana Ngata’s famous 1940 speech at Waitangi where he said Māori serving in World War 2 was “the price of citizenship”.  And I thought about how there had not been unanimous support from the descendants of the Battalion’s other Companies for it to be located in Waitangi.

Then I thought about the men of our whānau who had served.  Two brothers, Arani Pirika Herepete (A Company) and Timoti Herepete (B Company), two cousins Rawiri Te Paa (A Company) and Robert Kara Rollo (B Company).  I thought about how they all came home alive but changed and how not one of them lived beyond 50.  Maringi noa nga roimata and as my tears fell in the darkness, I understood. 

For the next few hours, I told my mokopuna about each of their tūpuna.  Then the sun came up, and as we surveyed the crowds still thronging through the doors we quietly left. 

While Te Rau Aroha (the name of the museum) contains mementos and artefacts of our tūpuna and their compatriots, their essence is contained within us, their uri.  And when we return, to properly honour them all I hope my mokopuna will understand that not only has the price of their and our citizenship been paid, it should never have been charged.

THE WHITE WORRIER

In December 2009, the New Zealand Parliament recognised the tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) flag as the national Māori flag and announced its decision to hoist it alongside the New Zealand flag on all government buildings on Waitangi Day.

This decision, described at the time as a symbolic recognition of partnership and unity between Māori and the Crown, proved polarising.  While some saw it as a mere token gesture to Māori, others saw it as yet another step towards Māori separatism.

Sandra Koster, a Pākehā resident of the small South Island town of Timaru was amongst the latter when she ripped up a Māori flag in protest, arguing that Māori aspirations for greater self-determination posed a threat to the nation and to present and future generations of Pākehā.

Calls for separate institutions in particular led Koster to feel “really quite frightened for my grandchildren because I can see us becoming just like South Africa”. Koster stressed that her actions were not racist and were justified by her desire for “harmony” between Māori and Pākehā in order to re-make Aotearoa/New Zealand “a wonderful, beautiful country to live in”. 

In her 2011 thesis, “Being Pākehā: White Settler Narratives of Politics, Identity, and Belonging in Aotearoa/New Zealand”, Jennifer Terruhn opened with this story as an example of the growing public unease amongst some of the white settler majority of Pākehā about ‘the self-determinative politics of aboriginality’ and, more specifically, the ‘persistent presence’ of indigeneity.‘

In Aotearoa/New Zealand, that unease is reflected in phrases such as ‘Treaty fatigue’ and what conservative politician Don Brash referred to in his incendiary Nationhood speech as the “Treaty grievance industry.”

These phrases match a growing sense of resentment amongst white majorities internationally over the rights claimed by indigenous, ethnic and immigrant minorities.   As Wulf D. Hund and Alana Lentin noted in their 2014 study on international racism, “in just a few decades following the generalised, if at times begrudging, acceptance that racism is unjust, we have hit ‘racism fatigue’.”  

Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the critical whiteness theories and theories of settler colonialism which framed Terruhn’s study of Pākehā identities and imaginaries, indicate that the resentment of some Pākehā often aligns with attempts to “recuperate, reconstitute and restore white identities and the supremacy of whiteness in post-apartheid, post-industrial, post-imperial, post-Civil Rights societies.”

In his 2003 analysis of ‘paranoid nationalism’, Ghassan Hage coined the figure of the ‘white worrier’ to identify how white Australians, particularly males, marginalized by the inequalities of economic rationalism and globalization, had displaced their anxieties onto even weaker ‘others’ – Aboriginals and migrants, particularly refugees.

Throughout this year, I will occasionally revisit this phenomenon of the resentful ‘white worrier’; not to ridicule it (it is a genuine condition) nor to reverse it (only those with it can do anything about it), but, rather, to understand why it exists and why it cannot stop the persistence of indigeneity.

And with that thought, I wish us all a safe and serene Waitangi week 2020,

A HOLIDAY READING LIST

As the Gregorian calendar year winds towards an end, I am preparing to take a break from the daily grind and go on ‘holiday’. 

The dictionary says that the word ‘holiday’ comes from the Old English ‘hāligdæg’, meaning ‘holy day’.  It also tells me that the modern meaning of holiday is “an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling.”  But for me, and I suspect most Iwi insiders, ‘holiday’ mainly means going home to the amazing places and people who raised and imprinted us from birth to be and to belong.

Even though my body has not yet hit the beaches, bushes, valleys and vistas of home, my thoughts are there and my preparations are under way.  That includes compiling my holiday reading list, much of which consists this year of academic papers, treatises and theses downloaded from academia.edu, a free research sharing website.

My current focus and interest has been sparked by the relatively new field (in New Zealand anyway) of ‘critical white studies.’  As an Iwi insider, I suffer from research fatigue, particularly research carried out on Iwi Māori by scholars steeped in Eurocentric pedagogies and methodologies.  They may mean well in most cases, but unless they are aware of their own ethnicity and its attendant privileges, they are quite hoha.

So, I am glad to see more and more white scholars turning the research lens on their own ethnicities and checking their own assumptions, imaginaries, isms and impacts on the indigenous Iwi in whose lands they live.

My list opens with a paper by Vincent O’Malley and Joanna Kidman titled, Settler colonial history, commemoration and white backlash: remembering the New Zealand Wars.  It researches the backlash that occurred when students from a North Island secondary school began a petition to Parliament in 2014 seeking a national day of commemoration for the victims of the New Zealand Wars and sparked a national debate about how, why and whether New Zealanders should remember the wars fought on their own shores.

Other papers on my reading list include Katie Higgins, The migrancy of racial and settler imaginaries: British migrants in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as, Settling in: The politics of Pākehā Ethnicity by Steve Matthewman and Douglas Hoey, and Jerssica Terruhn’s paper, Everything is different now: Memory and settler identity in Aotearoa New Zealand.

  

I have two main purposes this summer holiday; first, to refresh myself through my mahi toi (arts and crafts), whanaungatanga (relationships) and whakangahau (social occasions).   And second, but just as importantly, to better understand how such a significant section of our population have managed to become so selectively amnesiac about the privileging of white people off the back of ongoing Māori dispossession.   

When I return next year, it will be with greater clarity in my work of redressing the damaging imbalances wreaked on everyone as a result.  Mauri ora!

BUILDING BRIDGES

18^th February 2016.  That was the day on which Ngāti Kahu first met with the New Zealand Transport Agency, the Crown entity tasked with promoting safe and functional transport by land. 

Nine days earlier we had received a letter advising that the Agency wanted to open discussions with us about the then proposed Taipā bridge upgrade.  Bearing in mind that this was one of the nine bridges promised by the National government during the 2015 byelection which they had lost to Tā Winitana of Aotearoa Tuatahi, I must say I was pleasantly surprised that it was still on the drawing board.  However, I digress.

At that first meeting in 2016, Ngāti Kahu’s advice to NZTA was simple and clear – you are operating in the rohe of sovereign hapū and iwi, not the other way round; listen to the hapū and iwi, build tikanga relationships with us, then work with us and on those foundations we will build a beautiful  bridge together. 

Did that happen?  Yes.  Was it easy?  No.  Would we do it again?  We already are. 

1,383 days after that first meeting, in the pre-dawn darkness of a balmy Ngāti Kahu morning, more than 1,000 people gathered for the official opening of the new Taipā bridge and the unveiling of the pou, Parata o Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa. 

Those who were blessed to be present will never forget the ihi, wehi, mana and kotahitanga felt by us all; from the first signal of the pūtātara through the rhythm of ancient waerea and the soaring call of karanga; from the karakia Mihingare through the himene, mihimihi and patere; from the speeches, songs and reveille through the laying of the first wreathe at the war memorial plaque; from the reading of the plaques commemorating our voyaging waka and tupuna through to the reading of the plaque honouring Tā Hekenukumai-ngā-iwi Puhipi, the great waka and bridge builder – those feelings were all-encompassing.

As the sky filled with light, smiles and tears were visible on many faces and I saw for the first time that the banks, road and bridge were filled with hakapapa Māori, Pākehā, Hainamana, Iniana and many others); and this hakatauki came to my mind –

Ma pango ma whero, ka oti te mahi

With black and with red the work is completed.

The rest of the day was spent watching waka taua, kiriata and kapa haka, as well as speechmaking, feasting and socialising.  Since then, our beautiful bridge has become a focal point of positivity, excitement, some controversy (jump or not) and pride.

Thanks to our tūpuna, Kahutianui raua ko Te Parata, Ngāti Kahu hapū and iwi exist.  Thanks to the hapū and iwi, tikanga was applied.  

Thanks to tikanga, everyone was kept safe.  

Thanks to the NZTA team, the hapū and iwi were heard.  

Thanks to each and every person who took part.  Together we built a bridge in 1,383 days.  Engari, there are more to be built on the same foundations.  Haere tōnu tātou (let us continue).

REPORT FROM THE NATIONAL IWI CHAIRS FORUM

A large contingent from Ngāti Kahu attended the Te Ātiawa o te Waka a Māui hosted National Iwi Chairs Forum (NICF) hui at Waikawa (Picton) from October 31^st to November 1^st where a number of important matters were considered, including:

(a)    Freshwater: The Freshwater group has received legal advice that it has a strong case to take to the courts over ownership of freshwater and the Forum supported this action being taken. Tainui is leading this work.

(b)    Climate Crisis: In addition to taking legal action against the Crown in this country, the Climate Change group Chair, Mike Smith, is also taking legal action against the Austrian company OMV in the International Criminal Court (which sits in The Hague, Netherlands). OMV is the large international oil-drilling company that is drilling off the Taranaki coast.

(c)     Data: The Forum’s Data group has managed to negotiate an agreement on how Statistics NZ is to engage with them. It is called Mana Ōrite (Equal Authorities) and requires each party to have equal standing and respect for each other in the work they do. It took a multiplicity of approaches and strategies to achieve this agreement.

(d)    Pou Tikanga:  Despite the Tiriti Framework agreed to by the government and the Statement of Engagement between the Crown and the Forum, the government is effectively ignoring it.  

The Forum also delivered the following key statement to the government party when they came on the final day of  the hui.

NATIONAL IWI CHAIRS FORUM KEY STATEMENT

·         Under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Crown is obligated to engage iwi early, meaningfully and effectively on any matter affecting iwi, hapū and whānau.

·         The National Iwi Chairs Forum provides a forum for the Crown to work alongside member iwi on improving delivery of this obligation, while maintaining the mana and independence of all iwi of the motu.

·         The Forum notes that the Prime Minister and the Crown have made commitments over 2019 to a relationship with the Forum that the Crown has not fulfilled.

·         Meanwhile the Crown has embarked on several important policy decisions over 2019 without direct input from the Iwi of the motu and without regard for our individual settlement legislation and in the absence of any discernible plan for engagement with Iwi.

·         This situation leaves the Forum member iwi considering taking direct courses of action to address the serious derogation of Crown obligations to iwi under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

·         This statement serves as notice to the Crown of this situation.

Finally, the forum unanimously supported the government being asked to issue a statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. The Forum will be writing to Jacinda Ardern asking her to issue a statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery.

The next Forum hui is set for 4th and 5th February 2020 and will be hosted by Ngapuhi in Waitangi.  The Forum asked that its February hui spend the bulk of its time determining strategic priorities. Ngāpuhi as hosts will determine how best that can be achieved.

SPOT THE REVERSAL

Most of us have seen it happen. When abusers are exposed, they switch the script and rewrite the narrative to make themselves the hurt ones. 

The example I’ll use here is the racist offender who works to convince their victim and any observors that they deserved the abuse somehow; that it’s the victim’s fault.

This tendency is documented widely and known academically as DARVO, introduced by Dr. Jennifer Freyd in 1997: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender is a three step behaviour that is classical and typical of an abuser.

DARVO is an incredibly effective tactic used by most racists and their supporters.  But it’s possible to spot it.  Here are the signs.

Denial:  Even if the proof of their racism is explicit, the abuser will either refuse to acknowledge it happened, or will minimise it.  “You’re being crazy.”  “How can you think that about me?”  “I’d never say something like that.”  “Can’t you take a joke?”

Here’s the wild thing: even when we have the proof in our hands, because we don’t like to take sides, the moment the abuser denies it, the easiest place to go is to “hear both sides of the story.”

The minute the abuser has you believing that their side of the story is just as valid as the victim’s, you’ve taken the first step down a rabbit hole of misinformation and deception.

Attack:  Now that you’re doubting the victim’s story, the racist can start tearing away at the foundations of support for the victim.  “As if you’ve never made a mistake before! Take a look at yourself.” 

This builds on our preference to believe that bad things don’t happen to good people. So, the victim can’t be perfect and they must have done something to deserve being abused.

The final step is to reverse victim and offender:  Now that the abuser has us potentially believing them, they flip the switch and start talking about themselves as the victim. “I’m being attacked.”  “This is a witch hunt!”  “I am hurt.”

Racists have been known, when challenged over their abuse, to burst into tears. 

As a society, we hate to believe that bad things can happen to people who don’t deserve it because that opens up the frightening possibility that it could happen to us.  So, we are predisposed to believe the abuser’s point of view and we are more likely to question or challenge the victim; ‘What did you do to deserve this?’  ‘What do you hope to achieve by talking about this?’ 

The thing is, innocent people don’t use these DARVO techniques. They’ll deny a false accusation, sure, but not in this over-exaggerated pattern of reversing the attack.

The three steps of DARVO are correlated, meaning that when a racist or their supporters do one, they tend to do all of them.   The good news is that it’s easy to spot it in the news and in real life and to call it out. 

APPEAL UNDERPINS SOVEREIGNTY

Te Mana o Te Wai Hapū Integration Roopu are a collective of sovereign hapū within Ngāti Kahu who are most affected by the unsustainable overflow of high nutrient discharge levels coming from the Taipā Wastewater Plant which is owned and operated by the Far North District Council. 

In 2009, FNDC applied to the Northland Regional Council for a renewal of its discharge consents, which it was already in breach of. 

The hapū response was swift, loud and clear – the treatment regime is not sufficiently cleaning the wastewater of nutrients (especially phosphates), so find better treatment options and stop discharging into our waterways.  

After an initial period of cooperation, hapū kōrero and engagement with the FNDC ceased for several years due to differences of opinion about the selection process of treatment options.  So, the hapū and their supporters got on with finding and testing the options themselves.

Having found a cheaper and more effective alternative in electrocoagulation (EC), the hapū worked over the past three years with individuals and roopu from the community of Maheatai/Taipā, as well as Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu, to help FNDC implement that alternative into the TWWP.  But all they met with was resistance.

Finally, In June this year, after a decade of delays, independent environment commissioners held a hearing into the FNDC’s application to renew its consents.  To the dismay of the hapū, in spite of the evidence, the consents were granted to the FNDC by the Northland Regional Council. 

There are no conditions in the consents granted that provide any opportunities to explore the EC option that the hapū and their supporters have already investigated and tested.  Instead, the consents indicate that they will have to restart exploring the options’ process altogether.  It seems to be a case of ‘business as usual.’

Te Mana o Te Wai Hapū Integration Group, Far North Envirolab Ltd, Clean Waters to the Sea Tokarau Moana Charitable Trust, Te Pokapu Tiaki Taiao O Te Tai Tokerau Trust (Far North Environment Centre) and Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu are now appealing through the courts to have the three interim resource consents quashed until immediate action is taken to stop the unsustainable levels of nutrients from contaminating their waterways. 

In the lead up to the recently concluded local body elections, the current Mayor-elect and at least three of the Councilors-elect attended information hui on the EC system and showed interest in it.  Now, they need to obtain genuine understanding of the science behind it. 

If the latest iteration of FNDC continues to be obstructive, there are viable alternatives for the hapū and their supporters.  To that end, the FNDC also need to comprehend the role and standing of the hapū whose sovereignty is underpinned by both the appeal and the alternatives.