Phone message tells Solomon Ngai Tahu CEO gone
The head of the Ngai Tahu Runanga says the resignation of the tribe's chief executive came as a shock.
Mark Solomon says he heard of Tahu Potiki's departure on a phone message, and he had no idea it was coming.
Tensions between the two men was seen by outsiders as a major factor in the the disunity which has wracked the runanga over the past two years, leading two at least two attempts to unseat Mr Solomon as kaiwhakahaere.
But Mr Solomon says they had a working relationship, and he never heard Mr Potiki put him down publicly.
He accepts the reason for the departure.
“Tahu's rationale is that he’s been offered a job back home and he wants to go back home to Dunedin where he’s from with his family, and I can’t dispute a rationale like that. In some ways I’m a bit jealous that I can’t go back and work full time at my area,” Solomon says.
Mark Solomon says the challenge for an incoming chief executive is likely to be finding ways the benefits of the Ngai Tahu settlement reach all its members.
The resignation comes on the eve of the Ngai Tahu's annual meeting at Moeraki on Saturday, at which the runanga will try to explain the reasons it made an $11 million loss over the past year.
CROWN DEAFNESS IRKS CLAIMANTS
Treaty lawyer Darrell Naden says the government has refused to listen to concerns Maori have with the Treaty of Waitangi claims process.
Mr Naden from Tamaki Legal was one of the large number of lawyers attending today's Waitangi Tribunal judicial conference at Pipitea Marae in Wellington.
Mr Naden says claimants have a right to a fair and transparent process towards settlement, but they're not getting it.
“The issues with the claims process grow in number, grow in seriousness and grow in complexity. The government seems to be playing with the claims process a little too much,” Naden says.
Darrell Naden says the government's deadline of 2008 for filing of historical treaty claims is diabolical and unjust.
CULTURE IN ADDICTION CULTURE
The director of the National Addiction Centre says there could be cultural reasons for the Maori rate of drug addiction being twice that of the general population.
Professor Doug Sellman says his analysis of Ministry of Health research into mental health disorders among Maori points to a mix of cultural, socio economic and cultural factors in addictive behaviour.
“One of the things we know causes addiction is proneness to novelty seeking, curiosity, and proneness to risk taking, which is bravery, and when you think about Maori extroversion, sociability, generosity, athletic ability, some of those cultural differences, which I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t turn out to be linked to people’s proneness to addiction,” Sellman says.
SOCIAL DECLINE FACTOR IN DRUG STATS
A Dunedin mental health worker says research findings that Maori are twice as likely to become addicted to drugs come as no surprise to people working in the field.
Claire Aitken - from Moana House - says it reflects a weakening in Maori social institutions over the years.
“As a result of the historical factors and lots of losses and lots of disconnection, and policies that were really not designed to uplift Maori but were designed to assimilate, then it’s in those sorts of environments that multiple other problems occur, because already some of those traditional systems have been lost and broken down,” Aitken says.
SEAT SLASH WILL PRESSURE SURVIVORS
Environment Bay of Plenty councillor Tipene Marr says cutting the number of Maori seats will put undue pressure on remaining councillors.
Objections close on Friday to a plan to cut the number of councillors from 14 to 10, with the Maori reps slashed from three to two.
Mr Marr, who holds the Mataatua seat, says it means less representation for Maori.
“You're going to have two now doing the job of three, and you’re just going to have to get round more. We’ll do it of course, but it’s never going to be as good as three. We should all be asking for another couple of Maori seats really, because 25 percent of the region is Maori,” Marr says.
Tipene Marr says the cut down council may make decisions more quickly, but he doubts it will lead to better outcomes.
HELP SOUGHT ON MAORI GOOGLE
The Maori Internet Society is calling on Maori language speakers to help finish a Maori version of the Google search engine.
Chairperson Karaitiana Taiuru says 75 percent of the project has been completed over the past two years, and the society is encouraging anyone with the time and the skill in te reo to help finish it.
They just need to go to the Language Tools section of Google.
Mr Karaitiana says it's time Maori have a chance to search the Internet in their own language.
“I see it as an evolution that Maori speakers are using the Internet. Maori have more access to the Internet now than we ever have, so it’s another way of promoting the language and showing the world that we are on the internet,” Taiuru says.
He says the Maori Language Commission wasn't asked to contribute, because the Internet model is for users to take ownership of problems rather than government agencies.
Mark Solomon says he heard of Tahu Potiki's departure on a phone message, and he had no idea it was coming.
Tensions between the two men was seen by outsiders as a major factor in the the disunity which has wracked the runanga over the past two years, leading two at least two attempts to unseat Mr Solomon as kaiwhakahaere.
But Mr Solomon says they had a working relationship, and he never heard Mr Potiki put him down publicly.
He accepts the reason for the departure.
“Tahu's rationale is that he’s been offered a job back home and he wants to go back home to Dunedin where he’s from with his family, and I can’t dispute a rationale like that. In some ways I’m a bit jealous that I can’t go back and work full time at my area,” Solomon says.
Mark Solomon says the challenge for an incoming chief executive is likely to be finding ways the benefits of the Ngai Tahu settlement reach all its members.
The resignation comes on the eve of the Ngai Tahu's annual meeting at Moeraki on Saturday, at which the runanga will try to explain the reasons it made an $11 million loss over the past year.
CROWN DEAFNESS IRKS CLAIMANTS
Treaty lawyer Darrell Naden says the government has refused to listen to concerns Maori have with the Treaty of Waitangi claims process.
Mr Naden from Tamaki Legal was one of the large number of lawyers attending today's Waitangi Tribunal judicial conference at Pipitea Marae in Wellington.
Mr Naden says claimants have a right to a fair and transparent process towards settlement, but they're not getting it.
“The issues with the claims process grow in number, grow in seriousness and grow in complexity. The government seems to be playing with the claims process a little too much,” Naden says.
Darrell Naden says the government's deadline of 2008 for filing of historical treaty claims is diabolical and unjust.
CULTURE IN ADDICTION CULTURE
The director of the National Addiction Centre says there could be cultural reasons for the Maori rate of drug addiction being twice that of the general population.
Professor Doug Sellman says his analysis of Ministry of Health research into mental health disorders among Maori points to a mix of cultural, socio economic and cultural factors in addictive behaviour.
“One of the things we know causes addiction is proneness to novelty seeking, curiosity, and proneness to risk taking, which is bravery, and when you think about Maori extroversion, sociability, generosity, athletic ability, some of those cultural differences, which I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t turn out to be linked to people’s proneness to addiction,” Sellman says.
SOCIAL DECLINE FACTOR IN DRUG STATS
A Dunedin mental health worker says research findings that Maori are twice as likely to become addicted to drugs come as no surprise to people working in the field.
Claire Aitken - from Moana House - says it reflects a weakening in Maori social institutions over the years.
“As a result of the historical factors and lots of losses and lots of disconnection, and policies that were really not designed to uplift Maori but were designed to assimilate, then it’s in those sorts of environments that multiple other problems occur, because already some of those traditional systems have been lost and broken down,” Aitken says.
SEAT SLASH WILL PRESSURE SURVIVORS
Environment Bay of Plenty councillor Tipene Marr says cutting the number of Maori seats will put undue pressure on remaining councillors.
Objections close on Friday to a plan to cut the number of councillors from 14 to 10, with the Maori reps slashed from three to two.
Mr Marr, who holds the Mataatua seat, says it means less representation for Maori.
“You're going to have two now doing the job of three, and you’re just going to have to get round more. We’ll do it of course, but it’s never going to be as good as three. We should all be asking for another couple of Maori seats really, because 25 percent of the region is Maori,” Marr says.
Tipene Marr says the cut down council may make decisions more quickly, but he doubts it will lead to better outcomes.
HELP SOUGHT ON MAORI GOOGLE
The Maori Internet Society is calling on Maori language speakers to help finish a Maori version of the Google search engine.
Chairperson Karaitiana Taiuru says 75 percent of the project has been completed over the past two years, and the society is encouraging anyone with the time and the skill in te reo to help finish it.
They just need to go to the Language Tools section of Google.
Mr Karaitiana says it's time Maori have a chance to search the Internet in their own language.
“I see it as an evolution that Maori speakers are using the Internet. Maori have more access to the Internet now than we ever have, so it’s another way of promoting the language and showing the world that we are on the internet,” Taiuru says.
He says the Maori Language Commission wasn't asked to contribute, because the Internet model is for users to take ownership of problems rather than government agencies.
posted by Adam | 10:32 pm
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