Gushing geyser of a settlement

A small but significant ceremony took place at Parliament last night.

Three reserve areas in Rotorua's Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley... including one which hosts the famous Pohutu Geyser... were returned to iwi... Ngati Whakaue, Tuhourangi and Ngati Wahiao

The Minister of Maori Affairs, Parekura Horomia says last night's ceremony is a further sign of the government's commitment to move forward on Maori grievances.

"I think the thing that Maori are really starting to tweak to is that if you don't move and you stay in grievance mode, everyone else takes off. So I think it's a wonderful day for these three. It's taken some intense negotiation," Mr Horomia says.

The signing sits outside the $400 million dollar Treelord settlement signed last month
 
PUMAUTANGA WELCOMES WHAKAREWARA DEAL

The vesting of the reserve areas with the trust for the three iwi has been welcomed by the head of Te Pumautanga, Eru George.

He says the tribal elders were determined to see the return of the culturally significant sites in their lifetime... and they'll now focus on divvying up the land.

"We've got a hive of interest and a hive of support for the process we've gone through. It's a long time happening, bt it's happened,. and I think that's the best outcome we could expect and wish for," Mr George says.

The chair of Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa says the fate of Te Puia... the old Maori Arts and Crafts Institute at Whakarewarewa... is still unresolved.
 
MAORI CONCERNS WILL FEATURE HIGHLY IN MENTAL HEALTH HUI

A two day hui looking into the reasons behind the higher incidence of mental illness among Maori than the general population is being held in Upper Hutt this week.

Northern Development Manager with the Mental Health Foundation, Cinnamon Whitlock says mental health workers from around the country will come together to not only find ways of helping sufferes but to stop others becoming mentally ill.

"Mental health promotion is about including local councils. It's about educating people. It's about making sure we've got adequate funding. It's about making sure the environment's well looked after and nurtured. For us as Maori that's key. It's also about making sure we have for Maori those linkages back home," Ms Wicks says.

She says Maori need to open up and speak more openly about Maori mental health.

Keynote speakers at the hui include Moana Jackson, Sue Bradford and Tairana Turia.

HIGH NUMBER OF MAORI AMONG AUCKLAND'S HOMELESS

Over half of the people sleeping rough in Auckland's CBD are Maori;

An annual survey of homeless sleeping in the open within 3km of Auckland's Sky Tower has seen the number jump since last year... from 65 to 91 this year.

Wilf Holt, from the Auckland City mission's crisis care team, says while they have got better at counting rough sleepers in the four years that they've been doing the survey, he believes the true figure is around 150 people... and that number is on the rise.

He says rough sleepers are the most marginalised of the marginalised... so it's not surprising to find Maori making up a huge proportion of those living on the streets.

"Maori on the streets support each other hugely. Not just Maori for that matter but that notion of whanau, street whanau, is a fairly strong one and at times I think we have to be careful it's not exerting that pull factor that keeps people on the streets sometimes. It's an indictment to all society where people will feel greater support amongst their peers on the street as opposed to with to their own family or whanau of origins," Mr Holt says.

He says the number of people having difficulty finding appropriate affordable accommodation has slowly increased with people not moving off the streets as quickly as they could and new people coming onto the streets all the time.
 
MAORI PARTY GLOATING OVER POLLS

The Maori Party is quietly confident that it'll take all seven seats in the upcoming election.

The latest Marae Digipolls show them ahead in six of the seven seats... only four points behind Nanaia Mahuta in Hauraki Waikato... and taking the PARTY vote in all seven seats.

Tariana Turia... the co-leader of the Maori Party... says if they sweep the Maori seats... and pick up 8 percent of the party vote... they could return to parliament with 10 MPs.

"There's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't get to 8 percent. I listened to Winston talking on Maori Television and he was saying that they polled at 1 percent one year and then ended up with 13 MPS," Mrs Turia says.

She says with four MPs the government only talks to them when it can't find the numbers anywhere else... 10 MPs would give them much more bargining power.
 
ENROLLMENT CENTRE PLANNING EXTRA PUSH FOR MORE VOTERS

The Electoral Enrolment Centre is confident that it will be successful in getting people from groups over -represented among non-enrolled voters onto rolls in time for the coming general election.

National Manager Murray Wicks says the percentage of Maori, Pacific Islanders, Asians and young people generally who have not yet enrolled is higher than average.

But  he says measures are being put in place to address this.

"We have a target of somewhere between 93.5 percent and 95.5 percent enrolled and we're hoping that our new initiative using the Bebo community to spread our message, particularly to the young, will help get us there," Mr Wicks says.

as well as being on social networking sites such as Bebo the centre has field workers at events and on the street getting electors enrolled.