Maori leaders must lead in te reo

Maori language commissioner Patu Hohepa has endorsed the views of his chief executive Haami Piripi that all Maori leaders must be able to speak Maori.

Mr Piripi's comments for Maori Language Week incensed many elected Maori leaders who don't have the reo but are still called on by their people to represent them.

But Dr Hohepa says they will find it hard to communicate effectively with more 100 thousand young Maori now fluent in the language through kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Maori.

“You cannot be a Maori leader if you cannot speak Maori. That is the plain fact of the matter. Marae protocol demands that there be interactions in Maori,” Hohepa said.

Patu Hohepa says existing leaders who can't speak Maori need to start learning now.

TREATY BILL SLIPPERY SLOPE

Taitokerau MP Hone Harawira says New Zealand's First's Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill should be seen as the first step to deleting the treaty itself.

Mr Harawira says that'swhy the Maori Party voteg against even letting the Bill go to a select committee.

He says he feels sorry for the Labour Maori caucus who were compelled to vote for the bill on its first reading last night.

“We won't be supporting the bill because they say the principles aren’t what the treaty is all about, but they are doing nothing to give validity to the treaty as well, so taking out the principles is just the first step towards taking out the rest of the treaty from legislation,” Harawira said.

MUTTONBIRDERS GO AFTER RATS

The Maori community at the bottom of the South Island are uniting to rid four small islands of rats.

Robert Coote from the group Ka Mate Nga Kiore, or death to the rats, is part of a team of 30 helping to drop poison drops on the islands where mutton-birds breed.

Mr Coote says since they got onto the islands near Rakiura or Stewart Island in the 1960s, rats have killed off of at least 15 bird species, including the New Zealand rail, and the bush wren, as well as bats and insects.

He says rats kill more than 20 percent of the muttonbird chicks every season.
“At night during the muttonbird season there are rats swinging through the trees, jumping round the ground like rabbits, quite a sight to see if you like rats. A lot of us can remember what those islands were like before the rats arrived, and many of us have experience of islands where the rats haven’t been, and the difference is marked,” Coote said.

MAORI LACK NO BAR TO LEADERSHIP ROLES

Leadership is about more than language.

That's the response of Te Atiawa leader and former secretary of Maori Affairs Kara Puketapu to claims by leading figures in the Maori Language Commission that Maori leaders must be able to speak the language.

Both Maori Language Commissioner Patu Hohepa and chief executive Haami Piripi say the increasing number of younger Maori fluent in te reo means having the language is a vital attribute of leadership.

But Mr Puketapu says that sounds like rhetoric for Maori language Week, and isn't back by experience on the ground.

“Many Maori leaders don’t say much but in behind the scenes they are strategically developing things that will benefiot not just New Zealand but of course Maori people. But to say to young people that unless you speak Maori you cannot be a Maori leader, well sorry, it does not quite work like that mate,” Puketapu said,

GG MOVED TO TEARS BY WAITANGI

The Governor General has fulfilled her last engagement in her role as chair of the Waitangi National Trust Board, opening the extensions to the visitors centre below the Treaty Grounds.

Trust communications manager Michael Hooper says it was a poignant and moving day, as Dame Sylvia Cartwright demonstrated that her affection for Waitangi goes beyond her role as Governor General.

“She said it was her turangawaewae, she will be keeping a very close eye on and returning to her home here at Waitangi, and in fact today she was moved to tears during the speeches, and she confessed it was the first time her staff have seen her in tears, and it took Waitangi to do it,” Hooper said.

Michael Hooper says the number of visitors to Waitangi has more than tripled since the centre was built in the 1970s, so the extension was needed to cope with the larger number of guides, staff and cultural performers.

MINISTER SAYS PRINCIPLES NOT SACRFICED FOR BILL

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia has dismissed Maori Party claims that Labour's Maori MPs were compromised by their support for the introduction of the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill.

Mr Horomia says last night's first reading vote was the price of New Zealand's support for Labour to lead the government.

He says Labour's Maori MPs are committed to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and don't want to see the bill go through.

“We're not supporting it it’s as clear as that. We supported it to select committee because that was in our coalition agreement with New Zealand First who put the bill up, you have to be honorable about that, that is an aspect of MMP that people have to get used to, but we’re very clear in the Maori caucus and in our party that we’re not supporting the continuation of the bill getting through,” Horomia said.