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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

High expectations bring down Harawira

The man who will be challenging Hone Harawira in Te Taitokerau next election says the Maori Party MP is the victim of the unrealistic expectations he set.

Labour list MP Kelvin Davis says Mr Harawira's had given himself little option than to vote against the Marine and Coastal Area Bill, which had its first reading yesterday.

Labour voted to send the bill to the select committee.

Mr Davis says it's clear the Maori Party, and especially Mr Harawira, misplayed their hand.

“It's easy to be the rebel in everything and to come out and oppose everything and to grandstand like that but the reality is he’s part of a party that had an opportunity to make a real difference, and they’ve gone around in circles and come back to the same starting point and Maori are really no better off than before this whole look at the foreshore and seabed legislation,” Mr Davis says.

NGATI HUARERE SEEKS TO PROTECT NEW CHUMS

Coromandel hapu Ngati Huarere says one of the last undeveloped beaches on the peninsula needs to be protected.

Spokesperson Graeme Christian says the hapu is among the thousand plus objectors to the plan by a Queenstown company to develop 20 sections along New Chums Beach north of Matarangi.

He says the time for such destruction of pristine natural environments should be over.

“We want to say enough is enough. We’ve ha to subdivide for economic reasons but this is an iconic area where we still go back and gather our kaimoana and it still looks much as it would have been in 1700s when Captain James Cook called into the area,” Mr Christian says.

EDUCATIN SHOWING UP IN WOMEN’S EARNINGS

The head of the Ministry of Women's Affairs says increased participation in education by Maori women is starting to pay off.

In recent years figures for Maori in tertiary education have been skewed towards older women coming back for second chance study.

Rowena Phair says that means the minority of wahine Maori who get to university now achieving at a faster rate that other women.

“We are seeing that gap in qualifications reduce between Maori women and other women and now that is just starting to translate into earnings where the rate of earnings for Maori women in emplyment is increasing at a faster rate than other women,” Ms Phair says.

She says education is leading to Maori women into higher skilled and better paid jobs.

RONGOWHAKAATA BURIES DARCY RIA

Poverty Bay iwi Rongowhakaata today buries its leader Darcy Ria, who died on Sunday aged 89.

Mr Ria served in C Company of the Maori Battalion, arriving in Italy towards the end of the Battle of Monte Cassino and going through to Trieste.

On his return he joined the Department of Maori Affairs, and worked in the Gisborne office and the Maori Land Court until retirement, when he devoted himself to tribal affairs.

Rongowhakaata spokesperson Lewis Moeau says Mr Ria was also the source of much of the traditional evidence for environmental and treaty claims and for the tribe's challenge to the national museum.

“Like our whare Te Hau ki Turanga there in Te Papa, Darcy has been one of our kaumatua leaders in giving Te Papa permission to shift it from the old museum to Te Papa museum. We’ve established it was stolen from us. Darcy sort of led all that evidence. He led all our negotiations that are still taking place now with Te Papa, still unfinished as to whether we bring the marae back to Manutuke or leave it there for a certain time,” Mr Moeau says.

The funeral service for Darcy Ria starts this morning at 11 at Manutuke marae.

NEW BILL ONLY GOOD FOR PIPI PICKERS SAYS PIRIPI

The chair of far north iwi Te Rarawa says the Marine and Coast Area Bill could be worse for Maori than the Foreshore and Seabed Act it will replace.

Haami Piripi says many Maori in the north will back the decision of their local MP, Hone Harawira, to break ranks with the Maori Party and vote against the bill.

He says the bill will extinguish Maori customary rights and replace them with a pale imitation.

“The regime that’s going to be constructed out of this legislation is really going to result in small groups of pipi pickers exercising an ancient customary right that has nothing to do with our contemporary situation and certainly fails to reflect our contemporary understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” Mr Piripi says.

Te Rarawa wants customary rights claims to be considered by the Maori Land Court, rather than the High Court.

FLAMMABLE REWI’S LAST STAND TO BE RESTORED

One of New Zealand's first feature films, Rewi's Last Stand, is first in line for a $2 million restoration project at the national film archive.

Archive chief executive Frank Stark says the extra funding announced this week will allow the archive to restore or digitise as many as 2500 films and newsreels over the next four years.

He says the film produced by Rudall Hayward and staring his future wife Ramai te Miha includes a recreation of the 1864 battle of Orakau.

“They got the local community really involved and they were making uniforms and mock up muskets and taiaha and so on to reenact the battle scenes and they had a huge turn our of local experts as well to take those roles so the whole community got behind it and looked to give it that feel. They used the real battle field as location,” Mr Stark says.

Rewi's Last Stand is the last unpreserved New Zealand feature shot on nitrate film.

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