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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ngati Maniapoto kaumatua Tui Adams dies

Monday 24 August

The passing of Tainui kaumatua Tui Adams yesterday has been described as a huge loss to the Kingitanga, Maoridom and New Zealand.

Professor Jim Ritchie, who worked for more than 35 years with the chief spokesperson for first the late Maori queen Te Atairangikaahu and then her successor King Tuheitia, says Dr Adams is one of the last of a generation who learned their Maoritangi orally and kept alive the continuity of the old masters.

“Within Kingitangi he was so close an advisor that you couldn’t really separate the opinion of the tribe from him nor he from the opinion of the tribe. He was a great reader of people and then a great, very wise spokesperson for them,” Professor Ritchie says.

Dr Adams was a great friend and personal advisor.

LAWYER KEEN ON INTERNATIONAL MAORI BRAND

Maori lawyer and negotiator Willie Te Aho wants the biggest Maori owned farm in Te Whanau a Apanui to seriously consider the potential benefits of marketing internationally under a Maori brand.

A director of Awaroa farms, Mr Te Aho met with trustees Friday afternoon to discuss their views on a Maori collective marketing strategy.

He agrees with Ngati Kahungunu chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana, who wants Maori primary producers to band together to market their products offshore.

CUTUREFEST WEEK IN CHRISTCHURCH

Over 3000 students will be performing at the Christchurch town hall this week for the 28th annual Christchurch Primary Schools Kapahaka and Cultural Festival.

Event Manager Ali Nauman says it’s a wonderful way for the children to celebrate their cultural heritage.

The week-long celebration is expecting over 8000 spectators, with about 60 school groups from the wider Canterbury areas participating..

TRADITIONS NEED TO BE PRIOR ART IN PATENT WORLD

Maori lawyers are calling on the government to give patent protection to sources of traditional knowledge.

This would make pharmaceutical companies that want to use traditionally plants acknowledge their source and gain
Maori permission.
Co- president of the Maori Law Society Damien Stone says they gained a reasonably positive reception last week when they made submissions to the parliamentary select committee looking at patent law reform.

“Kawakawa is a traditional Maori source of medicine and there is nothing at the moment in patent law to prevent someone from developing a product based on that traditional knowledge and seeking a patent, and in doing so they wouldn’t have to disclose they learned the underlying information from traditional knowledge basis,” Mr Stone says

The issue goes wider than patent law however internationally other countries are incorporating disclosure of origin and informed consent of the patent holder part of their laws.

TRUBUTES FLOW FOR KINGITANGA SPOKESPERSON

Tributes to Tainui kaumatua Tui Adams who passed away yesterday have been flooding in.

Among them is that from friend, fellow Tainui advisor and self-described student Professor Jim Ritchie.

Professor Ritchie says with the passing of the chief spokesperson for the Kingitanga movement, the tribe, Maoridom and New Zealand have lost a person of great wisdom and guidance.

He says Dr Adams passing represents the end of a generation of people saturated in things Maori being replaced by a new generation who have their own attributes but not the old knowledge.

“He was a man of the greatest stature and his presence will be missed. He had a wonderful way of saying in very few sentences what needed to be said and he always struck a note that was appropriate for the occasion,” Professor Ritchie says.

He says in the nearly 40 years he worked and walked with Dr Adams he found himself in the presence of a person of great wisdom who bridged the generations.

WHAKATANE LOOKING AT OPEN ACCES COMUTER ROOM

A project to get Maori involved in technology is being launched in Whakatane next today.

With $2.8 million of government funding Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, Te Runanga o Ngati Awa and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic have built a technology centre at the wananga they are calling Tech Pa.

Project leader Mark Laws says Tech Pa will give the community fast access to the internet and other multi-media computing activities such audio and video production.

He says it’s a way to get the community and gives children a place to come after school to learn how technology can further their education and careers.

The centre will be open from 9 to 9 each day.

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