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31st
MAY

He Aitua: Merata Mita

Posted by karere under Maori News

Merata Mita, one of the co-producers of the hit New Zealand film Boy, has died after collapsing outside an Auckland TV station today. Maori TV spokeswoman Sonya Haggie said that at approximately 1.15pm today, Mita collapsed outside its Newmarket studios. Efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful. Staff at Maori TV have expressed their wishes to send condolences to Ms Mita’s whanau. Ms Mita, who received the New Zealand Order of Merit during the 2010 new year’s honours, appeared in Geoff Murphy’s Utu as an actress but was better known as a producer and director. She wrote and directed 1988’s Mauri, a tale of a 1950s rural Maori community’s struggle to cope with its loss of land and the big-city dreams…

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31st

Banks plans new Maori liaison role if he’s mayor

Posted by karere under Maori News

John Banks has said he would include a Maori liaison in his mayoral office if he was elected to run the Super City. But the proposal has been described as a “potential dancing monkey”. The new structure provides only for a Maori advisory board. However, under Mr Banks’ plan, an adviser would have a voice in the budget process, which sets the council direction. “Even if two Maori were elected separately it wouldn’t guarantee them influence in policy making - they could be easily sidelined,” Mr Banks said. “When you’ve got someone working in your office, they can’t be sidelined. “They will be inside the loop as opposed to outside offering advice.” Iwi would recommend a person before they were…

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31st

PM tells of meeting Waitangi attackers

Posted by karere under Maori News

Prime Minister John Key yesterday told a National Party regional conference about meeting the two men who assaulted him at Waitangi in 2009. He said Maori Party MP Hone Harawira had brought the brothers, John and Wikatana Popata, to a hui in Auckland - where the PM was speaking - to apologise for their actions. At Waitangi, they had set upon Mr Key just after he got out of the car to go on to Te Tii Marae, his first visit as Prime Minister after forming a Government including the Maori Party. In Auckland, Mr Key talked to them about the incident and whether it had been planned.

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30th
MAY

Tuhoe threatens to abandon Treaty talks

Posted by karere under Maori News

Tuhoe’s Treaty of Waitangi negotiations with the Government are on a knife edge after the iwi’s leader said the talks could be scrapped unless ownership of Te Urewera National Park is put back on the table. Tuhoe chief negotiator Tamati Kruger said if the Government did not map out a clear path for the iwi to take ownership of the park it was likely his team would walk away. “We are looking for an idea that will eventually lead to the return of Te Urewera to Tuhoe. If the proposal the Crown has bears no resemblance to that, then it is most likely that we would have to withdraw from negotiations. “We have made it clear right from the start…

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30th

Beginnings of move to protect wild eel fishery

Posted by karere under Maori News

Maori and commercial eeling interests say they will work together to protect threatened long-finned and short-finned eels. Iwi, industry and scientists came together for the first time at a hui on Friday at Awanuiarangi campus in Whakatane. Ngati Awa Fisheries chair John Hohapata-Oke says Maori own more than 50% of the eel quota, so there is a commitment across the industry to kaitiakitanga. He told Waatea News that the wild eel fishery is not in a good state. “Not only is the species in trouble, but we have issues round habitat through reclamations, through discharges, diversions, culverts, structures, the whole lot that is really causing havoc for those species,” he says. Mr Hohapata-Oke says there was unanimous support for setting…

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29th
MAY

Heart of the Tuhoe Nation

Posted by karere under Maori News

For the people who live among the rugged bush-clad hills of Te Urewera, it is not just somewhere to live, but a place that defines them. Tuhoe residents talk about their love of the land, and how they are prepared to wait for as long as it takes to have it returned to them. You don’t have to be Tuhoe to realise that you’re entering Tuhoe country. Just across the fertile Rangitaiki River flats past Murupara, where the paddocks give way to bush and the road abruptly hits the edge of the Ikawhenua Range, cellphone reception dies almost instantly and a bright yellow sign on the side of State Highway 38 warns: 95km of winding, unsealed road. It’s not a…

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29th

Township doomed as locals given boot

Posted by karere under Maori News

A community in an idyllic coastal spot has been told it must leave within a year, abandoning baches which have stood on the site for 65 years. At least 29 homeowners in Little Waihi, to the east of Tauranga near Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, have had their yearly lease terminated by the commercial arm of the Arawa iwi, which owns the land. More than 120 people will be affected.

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28th
MAY

Tuhoe considers approaching UN on treaty issue

Posted by karere under Maori News

The Tuhoe chief negotiator says the iwi may have to consider abandoning Treaty talks with the Government after it decided not to return Te Urewera National Park. Tamati Kruger says the Prime Minister’s personal veto on the issue of confiscated land has humiliated those involved in the settlement process and embarrassed the Cabinet. Mr Kruger says the return of the confiscated land has always been Tuhoe’s bottom line in negotiations, and the correct forum for a fair hearing may end up being the United Nations. He says that, after two years of talks, he wants to know whether agreements can be preserved or whether the only option is to involve a third party.

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27th
MAY

Maori Council obtains approval to join Supreme Court hearing

Posted by karere under Maori News

The Maori Council has won permission to join a Supreme Court appeal on whether milk processor Synlait or Central Plains Water should have priority to draw water from the Rakaia River. Waatea News reports Lake Waikaremoana claimant Vern Winitana and Trustpower have also been granted intervenor status in the case, which also involves the Ashburton Community Water Trust and Canterbury Regional Council. The Maori Council deputy chair Jim Nichols says the Rakaia case raises the same issues as a case last year between Central Plains Water and Ngai Tahu Properties, which was abandoned after the parties reached a deal.

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27th

Private prison supporters naive – Turei

Posted by karere under Maori News

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei is accusing iwi groups of naivete in their support for private management of prisons. Waatea News reports iwi including Tainui, Ngati Whatua and Nga Puhi have investigated possible joint ventures with private prison operators in line with a Government move to open the sector to competition. Ms Turei says the multi-national companies likely to win such contracts are driven solely by profit, and it’s foolish to think they share the Maori interest in rehabilitation. “These corporations don’t care for us. They just want to make a buck,” she said.

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27th

Maori threat to privatisation plans

Posted by karere under Maori News

Former Alliance president Matt McCarten says the government doesn’t want Maori on the Auckland Super city council was because it knows iwi reps would oppose privatisation. The third Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill as reported back to parliament this week will allow council controlled organisations to sell assets without needing the approval of the full council. Mr McCarten says Maori see themselves as custodians for future generations, and would find it hard to sell community assets. “That’s why they cant have us at the table. Because we won’t sell. And so that’s why Rodney Hide threatened to resigned if they had Maori councilors on the council, because if you have three Maori on the council, it’s robably enough to…

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27th

Maori wardens call for base

Posted by karere under Maori News

Maori warden volunteers want a regional base at Highbury, Palmerston North, to make it easier for people to approach them. The wardens work alongside police to prevent trouble on the streets. Night-shift warden Libby Winterburn said a regional base, estimated to cost about $70,000 a year to run, would make a huge difference. The wardens came into contact with children on the streets but, if there was an office, the children would know there was a place they could approach, she said. Diana Kawana, employed by Te Puni Kokiri as Maori wardens regional co-ordinator, said a regional base would also be used for recruiting and training volunteers. “We believe it’s time for the community, and councils especially, to support the…

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