Life length trend positive

The gap between Maori and non-Maori life expectancy is closing.

Professor Tony Blakely, an epidemiologist at Otago University, says all countries have experienced a big increase in life expectancy since 1945.

Maori are living on average at least fifteen years longer than they were immediately after World War Two, but the trend started going backwards during the economic restructuring of the 1980s and 90s.

He says that's turned around again after a lot of effort by government and grassroots groups.

“Heaps of Maori by Maori for Maori providers made a difference here. Upturn in the economy’s made a difference here. Various things that have been done successfully and partially successfully to reduce inequalities in income and unemployment have had an effect, and also the work by the mainstream health services,” Professor Blakely says.

He says governments need to be aware of the impact policies can have on life expectancy.

TAHU POTIKI DEFENDS NATIONAL TREATY EXPERT

An iwi leader has defended the man likely to become treaty negotiations minister in a future National government.

The Prime Minister, Helen Clark, says progress on treaty claims will slow under National because its justice spokesperson, Chris Finlayson, doesn't have enough experience in the field.

Tahu Potiki, a former Ngai Tahu chief executive and now chair of the Otakou Runaka, says the former Bell Gully lawyer represented the tribe in treaty litigation for the decade before he entered Parliament.

He says Mr Finlayson was more than a hired gun.

“Chris has really committed himself and his thinking to the bigger strategic issues on behalf of Ngai Tahu, and in doing so has been very effective in influencing the thinking of the leadership in Ngai Tahu and there’s been late night support for people like myself and of course Sir Tipene and Mark Solomon and others that have to address those big issues that iwi have to face now around the Treaty of Waitangi and treaty litigation,” Mr Potiki says.

He says it's inevitable it will take a new government 18 months or so to come up to speed.

MAORI LAND COURT WANTS TO HEAR IKAWHENUA CASE

The Maori Land Court has refused an injunction which would have stopped the Central North Island forestry settlement.

But it has agreed to investigate whether Ngai Moewhare ki Ngati Manawa has title to a large proportion of the Kaingaroa number one block, which is a key part of the proposed settlement.

Applicant Maanu Paul says it's a major win for his hapu, which has tried for years to be heard before the Waitangi tribunal.

“We had our evidence submitted to the tribunal back in 1994, and we wanted it put into the CNI hearings, they wouldn’t hear us there, they chucked us over the Urewera hearings. That hasn’t made a report. That hasn’t heard us. We went to the tribunal to try and be heard for our resumption orders. They refused to hear us on the grounds that we had run out of time,” Mr Paul says.

The case under section 131 of Te Ture Whenua Maori land Act should be heard before the Treelord settlement legislation goes through parliament.

TANIWHA TRAINING COULD IMPROVE WATER SAFETY RECORD

A water safety educator believes a revival of tikanga may be the way to reduce drownings in Taitokerau.

Brian Harris from the Northland District Health Board says too many locals are getting into trouble on the coast, particularly middle aged Maori men with a lifetime of diving and fishing.

He says kuia and koroua say the respect for tangaroa shown in the past is missing.

“For many of those older people, they spoke in terms of their uncles or aunties telling them where the limits were where the boundaries were, things that were tapu at times, sometimes where a taniwha might be, and some of what we would call today some of the checklists for good water safety practice.
Mr Harris and.

With his colleague, Taane Thomas, he has developed a water safety checklist using traditional Maori knowledge.

WAKA AMA GOOD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Waka ama is being hailed as a successful public health story.

Clayton Wikaira, a health educator for the Northland District Council, told the Public Health Association's conference in Waitangi that the sport has grown in the region from one outrigger canoe in one community eight years ago to 14 teams around Taitokerau.

Paddlers regularly compete at international level, and it's something the whole family can do together.

Mr Wikaira says once Maori communities are hooked on waka ama, they are more receptive to other health messages about smoke-free lifestyles and healthy eating.

RAHUI SOUGHT TO SAVE MARAETAI COCKLES

A Tamaki iwi says the Ministry of Fisheries is finally listening to its plea to protect a dwindling cockle population.

The ministry has called for public submissions on a rahui at Maraeai, on Auckland's southeast edge.

Laurie Beamish from Umupuia Marae says Ngai Tai Umupuia Te Waka Totara Trust has been pushing for a two year harvesting ban.

He says cockle numbers have dropped 90 percent over the past decade, and the current 50 shellfish a day limit is impossible to enforce.

“The only practical step at the moment is to put a rahuio on the beach for a two year period, monitor the population and reassess it. I believe a couple of year and then a rollover of a couple of years to rebuild the population of tuangi, the cockle,” Mr Beamish says.