Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, December 04, 2006

Key wanting clean slate for Maori policy

National Party leader John Key says he's looking for a different tone in the way his party approaches Maori issues.

Mr Key says he wants to leave behind the policies of his predecessor Don Brash and start with a clean slate.

The new National line-up includes two Maori spokespeople, Georgina te Heuheu and Tau Henare.

Mr Key says both enjoy huge support in Maoridom, and they should complement each other.

“I see both of them having different strengths. Georgina we’re asking to concentrate on Maori development and on culture. In Tau’s case, it will be economic issues and also TPK and education,” Mr Key says.

He says the line up should help National work towards a coalition with the Maori Party.

WAIKATO HEAD OF CLASS FOR MAORI GRADS

The head of Waikato University's school of Maori and Pacific development says the university is consistently outperforming its competitors in turning out Maori graduates.

Professor Tamati Reedy says while it is based in a region with a high Maori population, the university also works at being the first choice for Maori students.

He says the graduates are coming from a range of academic disciplines, not just Maori studies.

“Waikato University was producing about 450 Maori graduates out of here, nearly three times as much as any other two universities put together,” Reedy says.

Tamati Reedy says Waikato University also has a close relationship with Tainui and the Kingitanga, which was acknowledged last Friday during a visit to the campus by King Tuheitia.

TV LANGUAGE HAS MAHUIKA STUMPED

Ngati Porou chairperson Apirana Mahuika wants the Waitangi Tribunal hearing the WAI 262 intellectual property rights claim to give special consideration to the way iwi dialects are treated.

Mr Mahuika says the sort of guidance being given to people learning te reo Maori by the Maori language commission is creating an alien tongue.

He says that language gets spread by broadcasters.

“When we sit down and listen to Karere or Kaea broadcasters, we do not understand 40 percent of what they are saying, because they tend to be speaking a language that is alien to us and alien to the language we were brought up in,” Mr Mahuika says.

He says Ngati Porou believes native speakers from all over the country need to set down their language so it can be preserved and passed on in their home areas.

FIJI, AOTEAROA INTERESTS INEXTRICABLY LINKED

One of the architects of the Fijian constitution says Aotearoa-New Zealand and Fijian interests are now inextricably linked.

Former Governor General, Sir Paul Reeves, who chaired the 1997 Fijian constitutional review committee, says New Zealand has no choice but to involve itself in the current standoff between the Fijian army chief, and the Fijian Government.

He says both countries have significant influence on the way other Pacific nations act, and it is important that they maintain lines of communication.

“I've been very impressed by the way in which Helen Clark has managed to put herself between warring competing factions there and seemingly be a cause of moderation, and hopefully some compromise, though at the moment that’s far from clear,” Sir Paul says.

Sir Paul Reeves says concerns about Indian dominance which were a feature of earlier coups are absent this time, and it is clearly a Fijian versus Fijian conflict.

FISHERS SLIPPING THROUGH OHIWA RAHUI NET

Bay of Plenty regional councillor Tipene Marr says commercial fishers are undermining a rahui on Ohiwa Harbour.

Ngati Awa, Tuhoe and Whakatohea have imposed a three year ban on taking kaimoana from the harbour, to allow shellfish beds time to recover.

Mr Marr says Environment Bay of Plenty, Opotiki and Whakatane District Councils back the Ohiwa strategy, but some fishers have slipped through the net.

Mr Marr says while Maori are adhering to the rahui, commercial fishermen aren't.

“There is a couple of fishermen there that have got quota, and one’s to fish in there and get flounder, and the other’s allowed to go in and get pipis and kukus and commercially sell them. We’re all not going in there and replenishing the pipi beds and cockles and mussels, and this guy’s allowed to go in there and get a quota,” Mr Marr says.

KUMARA PRESERVATION METHODS SOUGHT

A Ngati Porou scientist is looking at ways of curing kumara to keep small farmers from loosing crops to disease and spoilage.

Massey University student Neola Whalley was won a Crop and Food Maori research scholarship giving her paid work over the summer.

Ms Whalley says she's heading back to Ruatoria to record traditional Maori methods of kumara preservation.

“A lot of them aren’t well known in Crop and Food, so trying to get those methods written down, and trying to integrate those two different communities together, the Maori version and the scientific version,” Ms Whalley says.

She will also look into what is needed to transform Maori agricultural land into horticultural land.

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