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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, November 29, 2010

Weaver and heritage advocate Te Aue Davis dies

Ngati Uekaha and Maniapoto are mourning the loss of weaver, historian and advocate Te Aue Davis, who died yesterday at the age of 85.

Former Creative New Zealand deputy chair Cliff Whiting says she made significant contributions to the Historic Places Trust in its understanding of waahi tapu, to the New Zealand Geographic Board, to various treaty claims, and to the development of Maori arts organisations like Nga Puna Waihanga and Te Waka Toi.

He says they first worked together in the 1980s developing the meeting house Maru Kaitatea at Takahanga Marae in Kaikoura for the Ngati Kuri hapu of Ngai Tahu.

“We were approaching it from very much a community-oriented project, not a tohunga project. We set ourselves the task of developing carving processes that ordinary folk could move in to, weaving processes which Te Aue got very much involved in that that ordinary folk could get into which at the same time developing enough skill that their work could be used in a display in their meeting house,” Mr Whiting says.

Te Aue Davis is at her ancestral marae Tokikapu in Waitomo.

MUDDLED BILL VEXING LABOUR MPS

A member of the select committee considering the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill says Labour may be hard pressed to support the bill in its current form.

Shane Jones says Labour is willing to consider reform of the Foreshore and Seabed Act, but what comes out needs to be an improvement.

He says the bill drafted by attorney general Chris Finlayson is muddled, and leaves Maori Pary MPs unhappy but felling obliged to support it.

“It's difficult to see where the support is actually coming from. We said okay, let it go to select committee and we’ll base our eventual decision on the nature and the quality of the submissions etc. I guess if John Key can get the numbers he’ll just ram it through but to me it’s increasingly looking like a bugger’s muddle,” Mr Jones says.

He says the longer the debate about the foreshore and seabed goes on, the more bizarre the responses to it get.

MICHAEL CAMPBELL FIRST OFF TEE IN GOLF HALL OF FAME

Michael Campbell has been inducted into the New Zealand Golf Hall of Fame alongside the only other kiwi to win a major, Sir Bob Charles.

Commentator Ken Laban says the inaugural inductions are a reminder of how high the Te Atiawa golfer rose after his first international win as a member of New Zealand's 1992 Eisenhower Cup team.

He says while Campbell has failed to recapture the form that won him 15 professional victories including the 2005 U.S Open, he can come back.

MAORI PARTY BACKING FOR FIRE AT WILL BILL UPSETS MCCARTEN

Unite Union head Matt McCarten says the Maori Party's support for a bill allowing all bosses to sack workers at will in the first 90 days is a disgrace.

He says the existing bill covering smaller workplaces has already had a disproportionate impact on Maori workers, because they change jobs more often and are more likely to be in blue collar and service type jobs where there are more bad employers.

Mr McCarten says if iwi leaders are really concerned about rank and file Maori, they would have spoken against the bill, which was pushed through under urgency last week.

“Maori are always the best fighters in the unions, do the heavy lifting but in this instance I don’t think we did and what we’re going to do with our children now, as they come into the workforce, our legacy will be teaching them the boss is the man and you just do whatever you’re told and you never ask and you never stand up and you keep your head down,” he says.

Mr McCarten says there is no evidence to back claims that allowing employers to hire and fire without redress will create job openings for young Maori.

JOHN MCLEOD SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED

Five outstanding Maori studying and working in the health sector have been acknowledged for their mahi.

Auckland University medical student Phillip Tane from Ngapuhi and Ngati Maniapoto and Hori Barsdell from Ngati Awa, who is at Otago, received $10,000 scholarships in memory of public health pioneer John McLeod from Ngapuhi, who died in 1994.

Community health workers Matui Julia from New Plymouth, Pirihira Roberts from Whanganui and Harata Te Amo-Simeon from Whakatane received Te Apa Mareikura awards, also of $10,000.

Associate health minister Tariana Turia says they will do honour to the community leaders the awards commemorate, Rongo WiRepa, Anne Delamare, Denis Simpson and Bill Katene.

TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTS TOURNEY STRENGTHENS WHANAU

The son of Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell says traditional Maori martial arts have brought him closer to his father.

18- year-old Whatanui is one of the organisers of a Matarua Federation open mau rakau tournament tonight in Rotorua, where 60 competitors from as far away Invercargill will pit their skills with taiaha and other weapons.

He says his father introduced him to the sport as a way to bring together mind, body and soul in a physical exercise.

Whatanui Flavell says learning Maori martial arts is a good way to understand other Maori traditions and ways.

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