Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Friday, May 14, 2010

Rugby Union 20 years behind times

Anti racism campaigner John Minto says the New Zealand Rugby Football Union is playing true to form with its failure to apologise for excluding Maori from tours to South Africa.

The former Halt All Racist Tours president says the New Zealand union only started including Maori after the New Zealand Government refused to allow a 1967 All Black tour to go ahead without Maori players.

He says the union's stance is shown up by last week's official apology by South Africa's sports minister, Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile, to Maori players excluded from All Blacks tours in 1928, 1949 and 1960.

“They're typically 20 years behind the times and it’s really sad that the initiative for an apology has had to come from South Africa. It should have come from within New Zealand, from our Rugby Union,” Mr Minto says.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the departure of the 1960 whites only All Blacks on their tour of the Republic.

CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIMS BOLSTERED BY UN DECLARATION

Ngapuhi elder Titewhai Harawira says the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples reinforces the Northland iwi's constitutional claims.

The Waitangi Tribunal is in Waitangi this week hearing how Ngapuhi interprets the 1835 Declaration of Indendence and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi as confirming rather than ceding their sovereignty.

Mrs Harawira says it doesn't matter that the Government seems to be trying to play down the significance of the three documents.

“One cannot be taken on board without the other two. They are interwoven, and it is up to Ngapuhi to push that kaupapa, to say to them our tupuna were far from being done. They knew and they left for us a framework for a constitution for this country," Mrs Harawira says.

A highlight of the hearing has been the distribution of a translation of the UN declaration into Maori by language expert Merimeri Penfold from Te Aupouri.

PATEA BASKS IN SONG’S RESURGENCE

South Taranaki people are thrilled about the return of Patea Maori Club's Poi E to the pop charts on the back of its use in the film Boy.

Deputy mayor Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says it's reminder of the 22 weeks in 1984 when the song spent 22 weeks on the charts and brought pride to the region in a time of economic hardship.

She says a Facebook page for Patea and the Patea Maori Club is thriving, and the council has had to put staff on to cope with interest in the area.

Paatea Maori Club is being flooded with invitations to perform around the country.

HAURAKI KAUMATUA REJECT MINING OPTION

Hauraki Maori have given the Government a strong message they don't want mining on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee learned of the opposition at a meeting with the iwi in Thames yesterday.

Kaumatua Jim Nichols says the iwi hasn't forgotten that their rohe's mineral wealth was the reason they lost large tracts of land, so they are skeptical about claims mining will bring benefits.

“The Crown actually took title over the land. They said we will only do this so that we can mine and when the mining finishes, we’ll give the land back. History tells us that when the mining finished they used other methods to retain the land,” Mr Nichols says.

Many Hauraki kaumatua also remember the damage past mining did to the the environment around the Coromandel.

PRESBYTERIANS BACK TUHOE OWNERSHIP OF TE UREWERA

The Presbyterian Church is backing Ngai Tuhoe's claim for 100 percent ownership of Te Uruwera National Park.

Rejection of the claim by Prime Minister John Key means tomorrow's signing of a deed of settlement can't go ahead.

Reverend Wayne Te Kaawa from the Maori Presbyterian synod, Te Aka Puaho, says the church has had a close relationship with the iwi since prophet Rua Kenana gifted his children to the church.

He says Maori and non-Maori in the eastern Bay of Plenty had been looking forward to a deal.

“We've had reports that the Deerstalkers’ Association and Lions Club and all these other groups that use Te Urewera National Park were supporting it because their access and use of the park was being guaranteed by Tuhoe so nothing was going to change,” Reverend Te Kaawa says.

He says the Prime Minister has demonstrated a lack of courage by taking ownership of the park off the table after 18 months of negotiation.

DEADLINE FOR SIX-MONTH WRITERS’ SCHOLARSHIPS

Tomorrow's the deadline for budding Maori authors to get sample manuscripts in to win six months of time to write.

The Maori Literature Trust's Te Papa Tupu scholarships offer six writers training, mentoring and a basic living allowance.

Trust administrator Dominika White says the quality of entries so far has been high.

Dominika White says while submissions are welcome in either English or Maori the entries so far have been largely in English

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