Naida Glavish: Policy an enlightened way forward for all New Zealanders

Posted by karere under Maori News

Naida Glavish writes on what the Whanau Ora initiative means to all stakeholders. Naida Glavish is chairwoman of Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua. The Whanau Ora policy has the potential to be one of the most forward thinking initiatives by any New Zealand government for generations. New Zealand has a reputation for being a testing ground, a population of early adopters of everything from the welfare policies of Michael Joseph Savage in the 1930s to our hunger for new technologies such as cellphones and texting in the 1990s. In fact we’ve been a testing ground for millennia, since my Ngati Whatua ancestors voyaged across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) to experiment with a new life in Aotearoa….

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Sacking of Rau not personal – Morgan

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Tainui leader Tuku Morgan says the sacking of a former tribal executive wasn’t personal - but he still couldn’t resist having a dig at him. Hemi Rau was fired in December after an investigation into embarrassing stories leaked to the media about staff who worked in the personal office of King Tuheitia.. He lost an Employment Relations Authority case on Wednesday, which rejected his personal grievance claim for unjustified dismissal. Yesterday, Mr Morgan, who is chairman of the tribe’s executive board Te Arataura, said a search for Mr Rau’s replacement had begun. “This is not about recriminations nor criticism of my colleagues although there are a few people with egg on their faces. This is about now taking the opportunity…

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Tuhoe talking tough on Te Urewera

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Tuhoe’s chief negotiator says the Crown has no case for hanging on to Te Urewera National Park. Tamati Kruger says return of the 2000 square kilometre park is a bottom line for the eastern Bay of Plenty iwi, but it’s prepared to maintain and improve public access. The government has offered other iwi co-governance of national parks as part of settlements, but it consistently rejected the comprehensive handover the Tuhoe is seeking. Mr Kruger says Te Urewera is in a unique situation.

“It is the only part where the local people live thoughout the park. Their lands are scattered within that park are. That’ s like a smoking gun. It’s evidence the national park looks incidently like the Rohe potae of Tuhie before to Crown interference,” Mr Kruger says. Tuhoe hopes to complete its negotiations this year.

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Hugh Barr: When tide goes out, it will all belong to Maori

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Hugh Barr writes on fears over the future of the country’s foreshore and seabed. National’s public consultation on the Foreshore and Seabed Act, now nearing completion, shows they want a race-based privatisation of the foreshore and seabed from the community to Maori. Maori groups who are awarded customary title will have sole rights of development for mining and aquaculture, through veto rights. They will also have the right to oppose any new structures or developments on the foreshore and seabed. With the Mokihinui River hydro scheme, Meridian paid West Coast iwi to gain their support. Customary rights holders will enjoy the right to be bought off by developers…

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Tainui manager’s sacking upheld

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A senior Tainui manager sacked for allegedly leaking stories to the media has failed in a court bid to claim he was unjustifiably dismissed. Hemi Rau was sacked from heading the tribe’s administrative arm after an internal investigation by tribal heavyweight Tuku Morgan. Mr Morgan, who leads the iwi’s executive board Te Arataura, found Mr Rau had leaked information to a Waikato Times reporter who then wrote stories about staff who worked in the personal office of King Tuheitia.

Mr Rau challenged his sacking but the Employment Relations Authority yesterday rejected the personal grievance claim for unjustified dismissal. Authority member Leon Robinson found that Te Kauhanganui, the tribal parliament, represented by John Haigh, QC, conducted a full and fair investigation and had “compelling” evidence to support the leak claim.

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Maori king’s niece ‘must repay kohanga’

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King Tuheitia’s niece will have to pay back thousands of dollars she took from a Huntly kohanga reo, the National Kohanga Reo Trust says. However, Pomaikelani Paki-Maxwell, whose mother is King Tuheitia’s sister, said she did not misappropriate any money. It’s understood that Ms Paki-Maxwell worked at Kaitimu Te Kohanga Reo last year. King Tuheitia, like his late mother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu before him, is the trust’s patron.

Sources told the Herald that kohanga staff became concerned at irregularities in the kohanga’s books. Trust chief executive Titoki Black said the kohanga brought the issue to the regional manager before it was passed on to the trust to deal with. Ms Paki-Maxwell had been helpful in sorting out the situation and will “absolutely” have to pay the money back, Ms Black said.

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Iwi begins submission on oil issue

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A South Taranaki iwi is on a renewed campaign to have petroleum resources included in a redress for land compensation. Nga Hapu Katoa o Ngaruahine began its submissions in a week-long Waitangi Tribunal hearing at Aotearoa Marae, Okaiawa yesterday. The Management of the Petroleum Resource Inquiry also includes submissions from Otaraua, a hapu of Te Atiawa iwi in North Taranaki, Ngai Kahungunu and Nga Hapu o Poutama.

They claim the Crown has breached the Treaty of Waitangi under its petroleum management regime. Presiding officer Judge Layne Harvey started proceedings, saying the tribunal was sitting to deal with the contemporary claim concerning the management of minerals and not with land claims or issues of mandate within the iwi. The iwi started a claim in 2000 that the expropriation of oil and gas under Maori lands was a breach of the treaty.

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Maori Macrons PC gone mad, says councillor

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An attempt to stop Kapiti Coast District Council using macrons in local Maori placenames has sparked an outcry at a council meeting. Councillor Tony Jack put forward a notice of motion that the council refrain from using macrons in the spelling of Kapiti, Otaki or Paekakariki in any council papers, publications, maps or signage.

The motion was strongly opposed by most councillors and labelled “offensive” and “disrespectful” by the sole Maori representative at last week’s meeting, Andre Baker, who was supported by two Maori women who burst into song. The council starting using macrons – small lines above vowels to indicate a lengthening of the sound – in the spelling of the three placenames about a year ago. Mr Jack wanted the practice to end.

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Tuhoe talk to Goff over action on raids

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Tuhoe have met Labour Party leader Phil Goff to brief him about the tribe’s settlement negotiations and also to discuss the impact of the police “Operation 8” raids in Ruatoki, south of Whakatane, in 2007. Iwi leaders have been meeting politicians across the spectrum as they try to build support for a settlement which could result in them becoming owners of Te Urewera National Park.

Negotiator Tamati Kruger said he met Mr Goff and outlined Tuhoe’s position on its settlement, which could be worth $135 million. But Mr Kruger also used the meeting as an opportunity to tell Mr Goff that the tribe is considering civil action against the police and Crown for the way the raids were conducted, specifically in the Ruatoki community.

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Tamati Kruger discusses the return of Te Urewera to Tuhoe

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Zl3b8atsU

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Runanga faces legal action over funding

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Wellington’s district health board will take legal action to recover nearly $600,000 of health funding, after a troubled Kapiti runanga could not assure it the money would be repaid. This month, The Dominion Post revealed allegations in a police report that health dollars had been “siphoned off” by Te Runanga o Ati Awa ki Whakarongotai. More than $400,000 of it was poured into the failed Tihei cafe and art gallery at Lindale in Kapiti. Capital & Coast District Health Board cut four contracts with the runanga’s health provider, Hora Te Pai, and asked for $590,000 to be returned, but stopped short of making a police complaint. However, a letter from the board, leaked to The Dominion Post, warned the runanga…

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Maori challenge themselves

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United Nations declarations on human rights are easy prey for cheap-shot columns because they come from a committee that is bound to contain member states with a sorry record on the subject. But seriously, the principles they declare are powerful reference points for public policy in liberal democracies and can be influential in judicial decisions without being formally incorporated in domestic law. Previous New Zealand governments have taken them very seriously, which is the reason they have given for repeatedly refusing to support the declaration on the rights of indigenous people. Fellow former British colonies, Australia, Canada and the United States, have taken the same view. It seems the four of us have been almost alone at the UN in…

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