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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

High Court knocks back forest case

The Federation of Maori Authorities is considering whether to appeal a High Court judgment that it can't stand in the way of the proposed Te Arawa land settlement.

The Federation and the Maori Council argued the Crown is breaching its trust towards Maori in the way it intends to sell 50 thousand hectares of Kaingaroa Forest to a Te Arawa group, while pocketing more than 60 million dollars in accumulated rentals.

Justice Gendall said while the Crown has a duty to act in good faith and not benefit itself at the expense of its Waitangi Treaty partners, the courts cannot stop intended legislation.

Federation deputy chairperson Paul Morgan says while the case failed, the Government should now think twice about changing the way it deals with Crown forestry assets.

“We entered into an arrangement in 1989. It was a simple arrangement. Essentially they’ve been disloyal. They’ve acted in bad faith. It’s quite dishonest, their approach, and it lacks any integrity,” Mr Morgan says.

He says the Crown demands claimants accept settlements as final, but considers it can come back later and change the rules to suit itself.

SPORT AND ARTS VIABLE ALTERNAITVES TO GANG CRIME

Kapa haka and sport may be the way to divert young Maori from the gang lifestyle.

Ken Laban, who has spent many years working with gangs in the Wellington region, says performing arts and sports are useful tools to help give youth a sense of community.

He says team sports have given many young men a sense of purpose and belonging, an a framework to learn other aspects of culture and tikanga.

“Even more powerful than sport is the performing arts, because one of the issues we have with sport is girls come from those whanau as well, and a lot of them are not into the contact sports, but what they can all do together as a whanau and a community is the performing arts,” Mr Laban says.

He says after today's tangi for two year old Jhia Te Tua who was killed in a gang-related shooting in Wanganui at the weekend, a real effort needs to be made to improve relationships betwen gangs and the communities they live in.

MARSH GOES FOR STRUM ALONG SOUND

Maori country artist Dennis Marsh says the criteria for songs on the latest album is the Maori strum.

The former Golden Guitar winner has just completed his 18th album, featuring songs made famous by Elvis Presley, Mickey Gilley and the George Baker Selection.

He says they all have one thing in common.

“Well the song has to be played by the average Maori with the guitar, ka-ching, ka-chik, and Baby Blue is one of those songs. It’s alost like a Ten Guitars song. It’s a favourite we can’t get away from,” Marsh says.

CROWN LAW CONCEDES DOCUMENT OVERSIGHT FLAWED

The Office of Treaty Settlements is taking another look in its files for documents which could be relevant to the Waitangi Tribunal's investigation of Ngati Whatua's Auckland land claim settlement.

The tribunal has expressed its displeasure at the way key documents only surfaced a month after hearings on the Tamaki Makaurau Settlement Process hearing ended.

Last Friday Crown lawyers told the tribunal there was nothing else to disclose, and they were satisfied the Office of Treaty Settlements had acted properly.

That earned another rebuke from tribunal deputy chairperson Carrie Wainwright, who suggested Crown Law was playing games with the disclosure process.

In another memorandum filed yesterday, Crown Law treaty team leader Virginia Hardy admitted there was an error in judgment in assessing the relevance of the documents, but there was no intention to mislead the tribunal.

Ms Hardy asked for another two weeks to re-examine the files at the Office of Treaty Settlements.

And she endorsed Judge Wainwright's decision to review the way documents are made available for urgent inquiries.

TE REO PRIORITY NOW FOR KAHUNGUNU

Kahungunu chairperson Ngahiwi Tomoana says a priority for his fourth term will be revitalising te reo Maori within the iwi.

Mr Tomoana says the highlight of his previous term was completing the fisheries settlement and setting up sound corporate structures for the iwi, which stretches from Wairoa to Palliser Bay.

He says the pressure is now on to strengthen the cultural domain.

“The only thing that differentiates us from any other people in the world is our reo. And in order to fulfill our expectations of ourselves, we’ve got to reintroduce the reo, and we see in 20 years time we want every Kahungunu person to be speaking our reo. I mean it’s te reo rangatira,” Mr Tomoana says.

He says the Kahungunu rohe needs more kura kaupapa, more Maori resources in mainstream schools, and more Kahungunu and Takitimu history taught in schools.

REED ROLE IN RACE RELATIONS WRITTEN

The author of a centenary history of Reed Books says the iconic New Zealand company has provided a vital bridge between Maori and Pakeha.

Gavin McClean says almost a quarter of the 6000 items published by the company in its first hundred years has included Maori content.

Mr McClean says that proved valuable in the 1940s and 50s, when there was little direct contact between the predominantly rural based Maori and urban Pakeha.

“It was things like the tourist brochures, Kiwi Records, which they also produced with Maori songs and language, and these books on Maori language which went into the secondary schools, and then of course the pictorial books that gave Pakeha New Zealanders in the cities some contact with Maori culture and history,” he says.

Mr McClean says the amount of Maori material Reed published helped fuel the Maori renaissance.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re: MARSH GOES FOR STRUM ALONG SOUND
Dennis Marsh has never won a Golden Guitar, which is the name of the trophy awarded in the CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia since 1973. He may have won a Gold Guitar which is a New Zealand event, but not a Golden Guitar.

11:05 am  

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