Tribunal winds up Tamaki investigation

Hauraki's treaty claim manager says this week's Waitangi Tribunal hearing on the Tamaki Makaurau Settlement showed the Office of Treaty Settlements is making up the process as it goes along.

Tribunal members and lawyers from cross claimant iwi spent yesterday cross examining the head of the OTS team which negotiated a settlement with Ngati Whatua o Orakei.

John McInteer says it became clear the government has seriously under-reported the value of the settlement, because it put a zero value on Ngati Whatua's right to buy surplus Crown land in central Auckland for the next 100 years.

He says the Office of Treaty Settlements was also unable to show it received expert advice on Maori customary issues, such as which iwi have interests in the city's volcanic cones.

“They've come up well short of what we would expect from a professional public servant. And I think all they’re doing is making ad hoc, political judgments and they get it wrong. They got it wrong in Hauraki on Whenuakite and they got it wrong here again. They're just plain dopey,” Mr McEnteer says.

Waitangi Tribunal acting chairperson Carrie Wainwright says a report should be ready in about a month.

ANTI TOBACCO TROOPS GET JUSTICE MESSAGE

Tobacco is stunting Maori development.

That's the message anti-smoking campaigner Shane Bradbrook will be taking to an auhi kore hui at Palmerston North today and tomorrow.

Mr Bradbook says the hui, run in collaboration with the Maori heart foundation Te Hotu Manawa Maori, aims to give workers on the ground to learn some of the tools and techniques they need to encourage Maori to kick the habit.

He says it's also a chance to look at some of the wider issues.

“We need to put that into people’s minds and getting them to think about it within a social justice framework, self determination framework, to say ‘hey look, tobacco and the industry are exploiting our people, Does this help our development as Maori?’” Mr Bradbrook says.

WOMAD SHOULD OPEN EYES

The World of Music and Dance festival or Womad starts in Taranaki today, and Tuhoe musician Warren Maxwell says he hopes it opens the eyes of rangatahi to some of the possibilities out there.

Maxwell's new band Little Bushman is shortlisted for next year's festival, but this year Maori music will be represented on the stage at the Bowl of Brookland by Wai and Whirimako Black.

He says music from other cultures has been a big influence on his earlier work in Fat Freddy's Drop and Trinity Roots, and he hopes young Maori will take some risks with their listening.

“For young rangatahi to really think outside the square, think outside your town. I know when I was growing up in Whangarei, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even bother thinking ‘I really want to go to Marrakesh some time, sample come Moroccan kai.’ It’s a big world, but it’s getting smaller eh,” Maxwell says.

GOVERNMENT AIMING FOR ONE IWI TOWN

An elder from Auckland's Ngati Te Ata iwi says the proposed settlement of Ngati Whatua o Orakei claims seems designed to purge other tribes from the city in advance of the Rugby World Cup.

The Waitangi Tribunal has been in Auckland hearing evidence from claimants and the Crown about the process followed by the Office of Treaty Settlements to arrive at the settlement, and has now retired to write its report.

Nganeko Minhinnick says Ngati Te Ata is still waiting for its own settlement, despite putting its story before the Waitangi Tribunal in the Manukau Claim 24 years ago.

Mrs Minhinnick says the Crown is treating everyone but the Orakei hapu as if they don't exist.

“We've been purged. I suppose it’s a cleansing thing. Cleansing for the Crown, ‘let’s just get rid of these people, this is how we’ll do it. We’ll only deal with one. It doesn’t matter about whanaungatanga, It doesn’t matter about history and tradition. What matters is we must have one Auckland, so that all the roads can come straight form the airport, straight to the grounds,” Mrs Minhinnick says.

She says there is no way other Auckland iwi will allow Ngati Whatua to have exclusive ownership of the city's volcanic cones, as the settlement proposes.

POLICE DIGGING IN TO COMMUNITIES

The man who oversees the work of the Maori police liaison officers says it's important they learn from both inside and outside the police.

Wally Haumaha, the new manager of Maori, Pacific Island and ethnic services, says liaison officers need to get to get tight into the communities they serve to be effective.

“I'm encouraging our kaitakawaenga to make sure that they’re well supported, that they’re talking to the right people, getting the right training not only from within police but from our kaumatua, our kuia, and that they’re doing the right thing,” Mr Haumaha says.

LITTLE BUSHMAN ENCOURAGES RANGATAHI TO STICK TO SCHOOLBOOKS

Musician Warren Maxwell has a new project, encouraging young Maori to do well at school.

Maxwell, of Fat Freddy's Drop, Trinity Roots and now Little Bushman fame, is one of five role models recruited for the Te Mana Maori initiative.

The others are former Black Fern captain Farah Palmer, broadcasters Mike McRoberts and Stacey Morrison, and golfer Michael Campbell.

Maxwell says when he was asked to also write the music for the television advertisement, he responded immediately to the campaign's theme of honouring the past and preparing for the future.

“I thought oh that's awesome. You know just the whole kaupapa of young Maori, young rangatahi, taking pride in themselves because of where they come from, where we come from,” Maxwell says.