Urban authorities make play for whanau ora

The head of west Auckland-based Waipareira Trust says urban Maori authorities are likely to be major providers of services under Whanau Ora.

John Tamihere is holding a hui tonight at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere to inform the community how the new integrated health and welfare service will be rolled out in south Auckland.

He says it's not a job that iwi groups should assume they have a monopoly on.

“We have always respected and supported mana whenua’s rights to look after their preferential beneficiary base. I’m not part of that. Tens of thousands of Maori in Auckland are not part of Ngati Whatua or part of Waikato. We have forged a new way of protecting our interests in town and good on the mana whenua people, but we have never given up our mana tangata and never will,” Mr Tamihere says.

A joint whanau ora bid by the National Urban Maori Authority will bring together groups like Waipareira, Te Runanga o Kirikiriroa in Hamilton, Te Runanga Awhina ki Porirua and Maata Waka in Christchurch, which already deliver services to more than 300,000 Maori,

GREENS SEEK VOTES IN BRINY DEEPS

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei wants the courts to determine whether Maori have customary title to seabed in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone beyond the 12 mile limit.

Ms Turei says the Government shouldn't be issuing permits to explore or exploit offshore oil and gas until the question is decided.

She says there are many iwi which would want to be party to such a case.

“There are no laws, New Zealand laws, that apply to seabed beyond the 12 mile limit. The Resource Management Act doesn’t apply. So the question becomes, was that ever extinguished? If customary title as determined under tikanga Maori before 1840 extended beyond the 12 mile limit, arguably those areas beyond the 12 mile limit have never been extinguished by an act of law, and therefore customary title exists,” Ms Turei says.

MARAE FOOD SAFETY TICKET TO JOB

A south Auckland marae has become the first to get its kitchen certified as a commercial kitchen.

Manurewa Marae has been taking part in the New Zealand Food Safety Authority's Kai Manawa Ora project, which aims to prevent food-borne illnesses coming out of hui.

Project coordinator Raniera Basset says ringa wera are given training in food handling which can give them a basis for further accreditation.

“A lot of our people when they get this ticket, there’s an opportunity for them to work on their marae but also to go the local cafeteria or restaurant and say ‘are there any jobs going,’” Mr Basset says.

The Manurewa Marae kitchen has also earned an A rating from the Manukau City Council's food safety team.

ENGLISH DEFENDS NATIONAL STANDARDS PUSH

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says Maori teachers need to give national standards more time to work.

The annual hui of the NZEI Te Rau Roa's Maori arm called for the government to pull back on the new testing regime and run pilots to determine whether they will achieve the desired outcomes.

But Mr English says measuring every child against a national standard will ensure they get the teaching they need.

“Everyone has a common objective which is to raise the achievement of children. That’s particularly important for Maori children and there is I think basic agreement about the method which is find out what the child knows and doesn’t know and teach them what they don’t know and it’s just a matter of implementing that system and it’s going to be bit testing because some schools haven’t done this and it’s difficult for them,” he says.

Mr English says national standards will give parents the information they need to get more involved in their child's education,

BODY LANGUAGE INCLUDED IN CROSS CULTURAL STUDY

Canterbury University researchers believe their work on Maori body language can help break down cultural barriers.

Project leader Jeanette King from the New Zealand Institute of Language says the project is looking at differences in the way Maori and Pakeha communicate, including not only oral language but facial expression, posture and body language.

She says the differences come through in both English and Maori.
“(That) te reo Maori is a language which uses this aspect of communication so richly is a wonderful source and inspiration for us because it’s full of all these gestural aspects,” Dr King says.

Her research will build on the Joan Metge and Patricia Kinloch's 1978 book Talking Past Each Other, which identified the cross-cultural difference.

FUNDING CONFIRMED FOR HAWKES BAY MUSEUM OVERHAUL

The director of the Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery says an $18 million dollar redevelopment will allow the institution to better display its nationally-significant collection of taonga Maori.

The government has announced it's putting $6 million into the project through the regional museums policy, with the rest of the money coming from Napier City Council and public donations.

Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins says the museum was founded in the 1850s by pioneer missionary and printer William Colenso, and was also associated with scholar Augustus Hamilton and premier Donald McLean, who between them laid the foundations for the largest Maori collection outside the main centres.

Among the treasures include 120 cloaks, including rare dogskin examples, which illustrate the depth and complexity of the collection.

The Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery will close at the end of the month and reopen in 2013, with 15 new galleries.

National standards’ shock hits home

The NZEI's Maori vice president says Maori parents are being told their children aren't meeting the government's new national standards, but they're not told what to do about it.

The annual hui of the union's Te Reo Areare Maori council yesterday condemned the way the standards had been imposed, and called for trials to assess their impact on Maori pupils.

Laures Park says many of the 200 teachers at the hui are also parents, and they are getting the first reports under the new system.

“The schools have said their children are not meeting the standard or are at risk and that I think is when it hit home for them. In talking to the teachers, they are uncertain what they are doing as well and the difficulty is no one has had that conversation with the teachers and with the whanau to support their tamariki through this whole exercise,” Ms Park says.

She says the Maori Party, which supports the national standards policy, needs to understand that measuring under-achievement isn't the same a doing something about it.

MARAE MAPS TO LEAD PEOPLE HOME

Veteran broadcaster Rereata Makiha says new technology will help people track down historical marae and pa sites.

Te Potiki National Trust, which was formed by Mr Makiha and former Auckland Museum Maori curator Paul Tapsell, has been given $44,000 by the ASB Community Trust to map all marae present and past in Auckland and Northland.

He says the resulting publication will include GPS coordinates, so people can find the sites, even if like many they are on the back of farms and hidden from view.

“The idea of mapping the marae was first of all as a road map to get young people home, whether it’s to do repairs, whether it’s to plant Maori trees around the marae for Matariki, all those activities the marae can decide on, so basically it’s to get our young people back to the marae,” Mr Makiha says.

He has already identified more than 100 marae sites north of Hokianga, and believes there are more than 1400 nationwide.

WEKA CAMPAIGN PICKING UP MOMENTUM

A campaign to stop the Department of Conservation culling weka on Open Bay Island off South Westland is picking up momentum.

The Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, says the colony of 100 weka are killing lizards and raiding penguin nests.

But Ngai Tahu man Rawa Karetai, whose family has traditionally harvested kai from the Open Bay and Mutton Bird islands, says the birds should be relocated, not killed.

He says a Facebook Page opposing the Open Island weka cull has already attracted more than 400 members.

WHANAU ORA PLAN FOR CITY ROLL-OUT

Auckland's urban Maori authorities will reveal today how it intends to roll out whanau ora services in south Auckland.

Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere says while the government is yet to approve a collective bid by the National Urban Maori Authority to be a provider under the new integrated social service delivery model, it's a kaupapa the authorities have been pursuing for years.

He says this evening's hui at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere will hear how collaboration and cooperation is the key to whanau ora.

“If people don't want to collaboration and cooperate, then they have to account for the dollars they get for the services they provide to our community and that’s everything from schools to health providers to welfare providers, education providers, justice providers, government as well as non-government. We want people to be accountable for the dollar values they achieve in our name but do not perform or account to us for the expenditure of those dollars,” Mr Tamihere says.

The hui starts at 6.

BOER WAR RIFLES SYMBOL OF BICULTURAL HAURAKI

A Thames based Maori health trust has bought a set of 15 Boer War rifles for its art gallery.

Hugh Kinninmonth, the chief executive of Te Korowai Hauora O Hauraki, says the purchase was a way to encourage respect for the bicultural history of the region.

The Thames rifles are the only known complete set from the 600 rifles sent back from South Africa in 1904 to be displayed in public buildings around the land.

Mr Kinninmonth says the display at the trust's complex in the former Brian Boru Hotel draws attention to the achievements of Wata Te Huihana, who enlisted in the Boer War under the name Walter Callaway and became the first Maori to earn commission as an officer.

He says it’s a taonga for the whole community and a bridge between the Maori and European history of Hauraki.

ARCHIVES SEEK TREASURES FOR CONSERVATION

The Film Archive's Maori project developer wants whanau to send in footage to ensure historical recordings are not lost.

Dianne Pivac says many film formats decompose over time, but the archive has the necessary temperature controlled storage to protect them.

She says whanau can avoid the heartbreak that comes with finding precious old footage has corroded.

“We're always very interested to hear from people who have film and we are also just at the beginning of a great big project called saving frames where the government has given us to some money to help us iun the urgent task of repairing and storing films properly, so the conservation side of our work is full steam ahead, Ms Pivac says.

A classic from the New Zealand Film Archive, the 1929 feature Under the Southern Cross, will get a run at this month's film festivals.

Rino Tirikatene seeks Labour nod

The grandson of the first Ratana MP is seeking the Labour Party nomination for the southern Maori seat held for 35 years by his grandfather Eruera Tirikatene and 29 years by his aunt Whetu Tirikatene Sullivan.

Rino Tirikatene will battle Christchurch trade union organiser Jo McLean for the right to take on incumbent Rahui Katene in Te Tai Tonga.

Labour leader Phil Goff says both are strong canditates.

“Rino is a guy I’ve known for some time. He’s got a law degree. He’s very well qualified. He’s been working on consultancy work up in Papua New Guiinea recently but he’s also worked very closely with Ngai Tahu on the fisheires issues. Jo works for the Engineers Union as an organiser for them,” Mr Goff says.

Labour is keen to win Te Tai Tonga back from the Maori Party.

MAORI SMOKING IN THE CLOSET AS MANAAKITANGA OUT

The head of Te Hotu Manawa Maori says smokers need support, not censure.

Moana Tane says in the wake of the select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry, organisations are increasingly asking the Maori heart foundation for help to provide training around smoking cessation programmes.

She says pressure is coming on Maori smokers to quit, but treating smokers like outcasts ignores the value of manaakitanga in helping people get through a difficult addiction.

“All the smokers are socially stigmatized. They’re in the closets. They’re under the tables. Nobody is owning up to it. Why? Because we have made it so uncomfortable for them. Is this how we treat our people? I don’t think so. Not is we’re serious about improving the mortality rates of our people. We’ve got be a little bit more compassionate here,” Ms Tane says.

She says Maori need to have the process of quitting put to them in a simple, non-judgmental way.

THEATRE CHALLENGE CELEBRATION OF CRAFT

The producer of a 24 hour drama challenge says the weekend event was a testament to what Maori playwrights and actors can achieve with limited resources.

Five playwrights were given 12 hours to write a 15 minute script, which was then rehearsed and performed over the next 12 hours.

Claire Noble says the challenge, which capped off the Taonga Whakaari Maori Playwrights Festival at the Hawkins Theatre in Papakura, was an amazing feat.

“The writers not only stayed up all night, they actually stayed for the entire day. They worked with their groups. Again the actors not only had this amazing task of remembering lines and doing costumes and so on, and they put their hearts and souls into it. Nobody was getting paid, It was just about celebrating Maori playwrights,” Ms Noble says.

The 24 hour challenge was won by Kath Akuhata Brown whose play Toroa was acted by Rob Williams, Veronica Brady and Amber Cureen.

MAORI TEACHERS UNIMPRESSED WITH STANDARDS PUSH

A hui of Maori teachers working in mainstream schools says the government's national standards policy will damage the learning of tamariki Maori.

Laures Park, the Matua Takawaenga for primary school union NZEI Te Riu Roa, says the 200 teachers at the annual hui of the union's Te Reo Areare Maori council voted unanimously for the standards to be trialed rather than imposed unilaterally.

She says the teachers query the government's claim that the standards will address Maori underachievement.

“If they are concerned about Maori underachievement at the moment, we actually know that’s a fact so why not actually do something about that. What else are we going to find out but ‘yes we are underachieving,’” Ms Parkes says.

She says Maori parents are already getting school reports saying their tamariki had failed to meet the national standards, but there has been no advice or support on how to deal with that judgment.

FLAVELL WANTS TOUGH STANCE ON WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell is calling for people charged with white collar crimes to be treated the same as Maori gang members.

The Waiariki MP says if it's OK for police to freeze the assets of his constituent, Maketu Mongrel Mob leader Pop Barclay, while they try to seize them under the proceeds of crime law, it should be okay to target business people facing criminal charges such as Bridgecorp executives Rod Petricevic and Rob Roest ... who the Serious Fraud Office has charged with using investors money to buy and maintain a luxury yacht while the company was sinking.

“If we are going to do it for some, let’s do it for everyone and follow that procedure through because I think a number of people that have been hurt by some of the white collar crimes, especially in terms of the investment companies we have heard about, so there is an issue there,” Mr Flavell says.

HINDU COUNCIL CELEBRATES MATARIKI WITH KAUMATUA

The Auckland-based Hindu Council has celebrated the Maori new year with a Matariki event bringing together more than 100 Indian elders and kaumatua Maori.

Organiser Pravin Patel says there is much to be gained from what has become an annual meeting of cultures.

It included karakia in both te reo and sanskrit, workshops on yoga and gardening, and a documentary on the stars of Matariki.

He says creating small changes can promote awareness and understanding of other cultures.

SILENT MOVIE DUSTED OFF FOR FESTIVAL FUN

Film festival audiences will get the chance to see what Hollywood thought of Maori back in 1929.

Under the Southern Cross will play at Sky City Theatre in Auckland on Saturday, with a new soundtrack composed by Warren Maxwell, Maaka McGregor and Himiona Grace.

Dianne Pivac from the New Zealand Film Archive says the 57-minute long feature was thought lost until a copy turned up in London in 1980.

The tale of tribal conflict was shot on location at White Island, Rotorua and the Waitomo Caves, and starred an all-Maori cast.

“You get a very strong sense that these people are completely in charge of what they are doing and they are having a great time. I like to think about that because you could think ‘Here was this exploitative Hollywood director looking for exoticism and photogenic natives and all that carry on’ which is definitely true but you can also look at it and say ‘These guys know what they are doing and they are having a good time doing it,” Ms Pivac says.

Under the Southern Cross starred Whitarina Mitchell, who half a century later became the kuia for the Film Archive.

Marae role seen for sober environment

A south Auckland Maori leader has challenged marae in Manukau to provide a safe and sober environment for rangatahi.

Dame June Jackson was part of a delegation of high-profile New Zealanders who lobbied parliament last month to toughen up the liquor laws.

She says many Maori families are affected by alcohol abuse, so it's important the Maori community as a whole takes responsibility for showing rangatahi some alternatives.

“We need to be utilising everyone that has a presence to make a difference and I think that all of use who have marae in south Auckland should be encouraging our young people to come there and to have hui, to sleep over, just so that we can perhaps present another image of what being Maori is all about and it’s not about being drunks,” Dame June says.

Organisations like the Maori Women's Welfare League and the Maori Wardens had a historical role in tackling the booze culture, and have a role to play today.

MAORI YOUTH COUNCIL CAN’T JUST BE A TALK SHOP

Maori party co-leader Tariana Turia says it's important a proposed Maori youth council doesn't just become a talk shop.

Te Puni Kokiri is seeking rangatahi with strong leadership skills and active engagement in Maori communities to serve on the 15-strong council, which will advise Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples.

Mrs Turia says it will be up to MPs to make the council feel it is contributing to policy formation.

“Rangatahi do get kind of hoha with those of us who are members of Parliament when we seek their advice and then we actually are not able to take it anyway,” Mrs Turia says.

GORSE REMOVAL TO FREE LAKE OF NITROGEN BUILD UP

Environment Bay of Plenty paying Maori landowners to convert gorse-covered hills around Lake Rotorua into pines.

John Paterson, the council's sustainable farming advisor, says the 860 hectares of mature gorse in the catchment pumps about 40 tonnes of nitrogen a year into the lake.

He says the $145,000 pilot project on an 18 hectare block behind the airport will include a study on the best ways of converting land which is polluting the lake.

“It would be great to eliminate it. We’ve started some initiatives with private landowners to come up with win-win solutions where they get rid of their unproductive land which is covered with gorse and causing issues for the lake and we convert it to something productive which is a low-leaching land use which pines trees is,” Mr Paterson says.

If the conversion is successful the council will approach other farmers with gorse-covered land.

MARAE PROJECTS BENEFIT FROM BANK’S PROFITS

Recreating a 17th century kainga and replacing wharenui and wharekai destroyed by fire are among the $1.3 million in marae improvement projects approved by the ASB Community Trust.

A trust at Te Hana got the largest grant, just over half a million dollars to complete a contemporary marae and traditional complex so visitors can see both the old and the new world of Maori.

Another $44,000 is going to Te Potiki National Trust to map all marae in Auckland and Te Tai Tokerau.

Grants advisor Cyril Howard from Ngapuhi says the ASB Trust recognises the special role of marae both as the heart of communities and for the social cohesion of the wider community.

STATE POLICY LEADS TO HISTORIC LACK OF EQUITY

The author of a report showing high levels of infectious diseases among Maori says historical factors are at play.

Phillipa Howden-Chapman, the deputy head of Otago University's department of public health, says the rate of respiratory diseases like rheumatic fever is growing among Maori and Islanders, while almost disappearing in European populations.

She says overcrowding is a major factor, and that is in part due to restrictions on Maori access to housing finance in the decades after World War 2.

“The grand-children of those people who didn’t own houses, who rented, never inherited any money from their grandparents. They inherited a lot of cultural richness but not a lump sum of money and because we don’t have a capital gains tax in new Zealand, we are getting a lot of convergence between those who have a lump sum to buy a house and those who that don't,” Professor Howden-Chapman says.

High rents are forcing Maori into over-crowded housing, and the reduction in state housing stock means the problem is likely to persist.

KAPA HAKA HELPING SOCIAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

A young tutor from West Auckland based Te Manuhuia says the whanau nature of the kapa haka roopu has helped members overcome difficulties in their lives.

Tuirina Wehi says the team has an open door policy, taking in anyone prepared to put in the work ... so members have included former street people or those in vulnerable situations at home.

It's a philosophy she inherited from grandparents Bub and Nan Wehi, the founders of Te Manuhuia's parent group Te Waka Huia.

“My koro would say that ‘he Maori ano’, inside of every Maori person is another Maori waiting to come out and so my job to help my koro and to give back to him and my nana is to feed this inside Maori person with the right kai, and that’s te reo, nga tikanga, te ihi, te wehi and all of that,” Ms Wehi says.

Te Manuhuia and Te Waka Huia are among the six groups chosen to represent Tamaki Makaurau at next year's Te Matatini festival in Gisborne.

Quinn keen to strip inmates of vote

National list MP Paul Quinn from Ngati Awa admits his private members bill to take the vote away from people in prison will disproportionately affect Maori.

Currently only prisoners serving a three year sentence or longer are barred from voting.

Mr Quinn's "Electoral Disqualification of Convicted Prisoners" bill would take away the vote from all people in prison on election day.

He says the fact one in two male and almost two thirds of female prisoners are Maori didn't affect his thinking.

“The issue of how they got into prison is quite a separate issue. My bill is not discriminatory on the basis if law and order. My blll sadly proportionately affects Maori simply because of what they have done,” Mr Quinn says.

Before offenders get their first prison sentence, statistics show 80 percent will have been convicted at least 10 times.

The bill is now before the law and order select committee.

SHARPLES HOPING FOR KOTAHITANGA THROUGH YOUTH ADVICE

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says his proposed Maori youth council could be a source of advice for all Maori MPs.

Te Puni Kokiri is seeking nominations for up to 15 rangatahi who are active in their communities, interested in Maori affairs and have strong leadership skills.

Dr Sharples says with a high proportion of Maori 25, it's important their voices are heard by all MPs interested in Maori development

“I know the Maori members of parliament do want to work together. The parliamentary system is adversary and that’s why we are always scrapping in the House but the reality is we all have the same goal in mind, I know that, so I am hopeful this group can advice not only me, it can advise all Maori in parliament,” Dr Sharples says.

BROWN RUNS AWAY WTH 24-HOUR CHALLENGE TROPHY

The winner of the first 24 hour Maori playwright's challenge says it was an amazing event to be involved with.

Kath Akuhata Brown had 12 hours to pen a script which was rehearsed and performed as the finale of the Taonga Whakaari Maori Playwright's festival -in Papakura.

She admits to feeling nervous when she was given the task of coming up with a 15-minute fairy tale, but she’s pleased with the result and what her team of director Jason Te Mete and actors did with it.

She says the audience enjoyed the five new short plays, and the contest deserves to be repeated.

HARAWIRA EYEING MORE WORK FOR SELECT COMMITTEE

The Maori Party representative on the Maori affairs select committee says the inquiry into the tobacco industry is under pressure to investigate other social harms.

The committee completed hearings last week and is now preparing its report for Parliament.

Hone Harawira says it has raised the profile of the committee, and it’s seen to be outside the normal loop.

He’d like the committee to look at alcohol next.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES TO FORE AT KAPA HAKA FEST

The chair of Tamaki Makaurau Kapahaka says the weekend's festival shows Maori performing arts remain powerful way to bring contemporary issues to the fore.

21 teams took to the stage of the Aotea Centre over the two days, with their compositions canvassing issues such as the lack of Maori seats on the Auckland super city and the risks of drilling oil off the East Cape.

Ope Maxwell says waiata and haka have long been used to draw attention to issues of concern to Maori.

The first four places were taken by west Auckland teams, Te Waka Huia, Tumanako, Te Roopu Manutake and Te Manuhuia, with Ngapuhi group Te Taha Tu and Te Tai Tonga from Manurewa also winning their tickets to Te Matatini national finals in Gisborne next year.

NOELINE TAURUA SHOWS HER METTLE

Sports broadcaster Ken Laban says Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic coach Noelene Taurua is getting the last laugh on her critics.

The former Silver Fern came under fire for her team's lackluster performances in regular season play in the Trans Tasman Championship ... including a media story slating her for dressing up in a bumblebee costume to motivate her team.

Mr Laban says yesterday's 54-49 semifinal win over the New South Wales Swifts in Newcastle shows the Ngapuhi wahine is far from a spent force.

The Magic face the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the final next Sunday.

Sharples calls for advice from youth

The Minster of Maori Affairs is looking to rangatahi to come up with fresh ideas.

Pita Sharples says he’s concerned the views of under-25-year-olds who make up a large proportion of the Maori population aren’t being heard.

He’s called for nominations for a 15-member council to reflect the views of young Maori.

“We're being guided by iwi leaders. We’re being guided by urban needs, by our National Government policy, and wherever the Maori Party can work hard and get some gains it’s fine but at the end of the day we’ve got to be working for the future and I think it’s time I was informed by the youth,” Dr Sharples says.

He says irrespective of political allegiance, all Maori MPs will value feedback from a Maori youth council.

FUNDER LACK FORCES SUICIDE PREVENTION COURSE CLOSURE

The Mental Health Foundation has been forced to close a programme it believes cut Maori suicide rates

Chief executive Judy Clements says the foundation was unable to find an alternate funder after Te Puni Kokiri and the Ministry of Youth Development withdrew.

She says Manawa Ora o Nga Taiohi used cultural activities like marae visits, taiaha and kapa haka training to build confidence and cultural identity among rangatahi.

An evaluation by Te Rau Matatini, the mental health workforce development centre, said it was having a positive effect on the lives of young Maori men and women.

Canterbury and the West Coast have some of the highest suicide statistics in New Zealand, particularly for young Maori.

KAI NGAHERE SUBJECT OF ROYAL BOOK

Fern fronds and tree fungus may get a burst of culinary popularity when a new cookbook hits the shelves later this year.

Chef Charles Royal from Te Arawa has just completed the manuscript for his book on how to source and prepare traditional Maori kai, to be published by Huia in October.

He’s collected the recipes over the years from kaumatua and from family.

Charles Royal says now is a good time to gather pikopiko fern tips from the bush.

RHEUMATIC FEVER RAMPANT IN DAMP OVERCROWDED HOUSES

Otago University researchers say infectious diseases caused by overcrowded living conditions, such as rheumatic fever, have reached extraordinarily high levels among Maori.

Phillipa Howden-Chapman, the deputy head of the university’s department of health, says while the rate of infection is falling among people of European descent, it is climbing at an alarming rate among Maori and Pacific island populations.

It has resulted in a 26 percent increase in acute hospitalisations for respiratory and infectious diseases over the past two decades.

She says the rate of rheumatic fever for Maori is 13 times that of European.

Professor Howden Chapman says the answer lies in improving the number and quality of houses.

MATARIKI APPEARANCE AUGERS WELL FOR NEW YEAR

Tuhoe scholar Rangi Mataamua says the way Matariki or the seven stars of the Pleiades constellation appeared in the dawn sky indicated a good year ahead.

Dr Mataamua, from Ruatahuna, is giving a public lecture on Maori astronomy at Massey University's Albany campus on Wednesday night.

He says while the European scientific worldview placed astronomy over astrology, for Maori the physical and metaphysical worlds are one.

If the stars were seen as spread apart and bright on first appearance, ra whitiwhiti, it would denote a good year. A hazy appearance would be he tau tupuhi, a lean year.

Dr Mataamua says Matariki was spread out this year, which he hopes augers well for the All Blacks in the World Cup.

TAMAKI MAKAURAU PICKS KAPA HAKA CONTENDERS

Two new roopu are among the large contingent who will represent Tamaki Makarau at the national Te Matatini Maori performing arts festival in Gisborne next February.

Auckland’s Aotea Centre was packed over the weekend as 21 teams competed in the regional championships.

Four times national champion Te Waka Hui came out on top, followed by Nga Tumanako made up of former Hoani Waititi Kura Kaupapa schoolmates.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples led Te Roopu Manutake to third, followed by Te Manuhuia.

The final two spots to Te Matatini were taken by, Te Taha Tu, which has only been together for sixz months, and Te Tai Tonga, one of four Manurewa roopu competing.

Tainui signs up cinema chain for Base

Tainui's chairperson is concerned ongoing resistance from Hamilton City Council could hamper the development of a cinema complex on The Base at Te Rapa.

The tribe has signed a deal with Hoyts to build the country's first purpose-built, fully digitalised movie venue with more than 1300 seats, six digital screens, and an auditorium for shows, conferences, and other functions.

Tukoroirangi Morgan says while the council lost the court battle over a variation to its district plan which would have stymied any large developments at The Base, there is still a pattern of obstruction.

“We're two weeks away from opening stage one of the mall and we’re still having to dilly dally with the council over major consent applications and it doesn’t help nor does it provoke some degree of confidence and certainty when issues like traffic volumes are still unresolved and have been in the resource framework for more than a year,” Mr Morgan says.

UXORIOUS SHARPLES DEFENDS PERK

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples is defending the right of MPs to take their spouses on official travel.

A new review of politicians' expenses led by by former Speaker Sir Doug Kidd says MPs should be stripped of their right to discounted international travel for their holidays, but recommended a 10 per cent salary hike to make up for losing the perk.

Dr Sharples says he'd be alarmed if the perk-busting extended to domestic travel.

“Cos there's a lot of broken marriages in Parliament and I like to keep my wife close to me as much as I can. We talk about marriage and stuff and being together and each other’s strengths. That’s one of the good riles of Parliament, allowing us to have our wives nearby,” says Dr Sharples.

LINDAUR PAINTINGS GO ONLINE

Auckland City Art Gallery has created an online collection of 68 portraits of Maori done in the late nineteenth and early 20th century by Austrian-born artist Gottfried Lindauer.

More than 70 descendants of the portrait subjects, as well as descendants of the painter and his business partner Henry Partridge, were at Awataha Marae in Northcote today to launch the lindauer online dot co dot nz site.

George Parakowhai, a descendant of Pera Tutoko of Nga Potiki, Te Aitanga a Mahaki and Ngai Tuhoe, says having the collection on line will allow young generations to get a visual fix on their whakapapa and tribal histories.

As well as the portraits, the site includes the visitors book kept by Partridge when he exhibited the paintings between 1901 and 1918, and it will allow today's visitors to share stories of their ancestors.

OIL PROTEST EXPOSES FORESHORE CONSULTATION

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson says the treatment of East Coast iwi over the issue oil exploration has exposed the government's Foreshore and Seabed Act reform as a sham.

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee this week clashed with Ngati Porou over whether the government had made a proper effort to consult before an exploration licence was issued to Brazilian firm Petrobras.

Parekura Horomia says coming so soon after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the iwi could expect more.

“A ture, the forshore and seabed bille they said they were prepare to enact, and in thew throes of finalizing that they use other legislation just to gazump the local iwi and it really begs the question of fairness,” Mr Horomia.

PIKOPIKO BREAD FOR MATARIKI FEAST

Auckland War Memorial Museum is celebrating matariki tomorrow with a taste of traditional Maori kai.

As part of its kai to Pie exhibition, chef Charles Royal from Te Arawa will talk about foraging for food in the forest and how to prepare what he finds.

It's a far cry from what he used to cook up in the army ... although the special forces might approve.

“I’m doing a demonstration on how to make a pikopiko bread, which is a basic damper bread, pikopiko pesto which I will be demonstrating, horopito hummus and piripiri, and I will finish off with a kawakawa shortbread cookie and kawakawa tea as a traditional tea, tonic, medicine,” Mr Royal says.

PLAYWRIGHT LOOKING TO HALF DAY OF HELL

Kath Akuhata Brown admits to being nervous as she waits to hear the parameters for tonight's 24-hour Theatre Challenge.

As part of the Maori playwright's festival in Auckland, five playwrights have 12 hours to write a 15 minute play, which will be directed and rehearsed over the next 12 hours and staged at the Hawkins Theatre in Papakura tomorrow night.

The Ngati Porou Playwright, actor and kaikaranga says she may have underestimated what was involved when she agreed to take part.

Kath Akuhata-Brown will be wielding her pen against Michael Rewiri-Thorsen, Chris Malloy, Challen Wilson and Ariki Spooner.

Whale link to ancestors needs protection

Ikaroa - Rawhiti MP Parekura Horomia says his ancestors came here on a whale, and he is going to protect the mighty mammals.

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson says the Maori fisheries trust Te Ohu Kaimoana is doing Maori a disservice through its support of commercial whaling.

He says while many Maori would support the right of indigenous groups in Alaska, Greenland and even Japan to take whales for customary purposes, statements coming from Te Ohu Kaimoana leaders who attended last week's annual International Whaling Commission hui in Morocco indicate clear support for Japan's commercial harvest.

“I've seen weka disappear in my day. That used to be a real delicacy for us where there were thousands and thousands of them. Because of a whole host of reasons, people slaughtering them, they’re gone. I never saw the moa disappear, but our tupuna, my tupuna came here on a whale so it’s important we protect them,” Mr Horomia says.

ALCOHOL PROBLEMS IGNORED BY MAORI LEADERS FOR TOO LONG

The country’s newest dame says Maori leaders have ignored the problems alcohol is doing to Maori families for too long.

Dame June Jackson has joined group of high profile New Zealanders led by former governor general Sir Paul Reeves to back an overhaul of liquor licensing laws.

She says alcohol abuse is a scourge on the Maori world.

“We're up against it. We have Maori wardens who go round our hotel who do great work but it’s enough. I think there should be more mobilising of our people speaking against it, and doing things that could stop our people gravitating towards this rotten stuff,” Dame June says.

BIKE PLAN TARGETS HIGH MAORI ROLL SCHOOLS

Maori are being encouraged to get on their bikes.

Paul McCardle from Bike on New Zealand says after returning from living in the Netherlands, he and wife Meg Frater were struck by the lack of cycling in this country.

They're wheeling out a scheme to Hawkes Bay Schools with high Maori rolls, St Mary's in Hastings, Maraenui in Napier and Peterhead in Flaxmere, to build cycle tracks and provide bikes as part of the physical education programme.

He says the programme is building confidence and self esteem among pupils.

Once the schools’ programme is running smoothly the scheme could be extended to other schools and to marae.

CAMPAIGN FOR ABS SLOT FOR VIRTUOSO WINGER HOSEA GEAR

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson has joined the campaign for Hosea Gear to make the All Black squad for the tri nations tests beginning on July 10.

Parekura Horomia attended a rally for his Ngati Porou tribesman in Gisborne last night.

He says it beggar's belief that the winger won't be adding to his two All Black test caps after his hat trick of virtuoso tries in last week's New Zealand Maori defeat of England.

“I know people might think it’s only a small thing but you really have to start asking the question abut our national selectors in relation to Maori participation when they turn a blind eye like that,” Mr Horomia says.

WAHINE PICKED FOR TRIBAL JOURNEYS

Toi Maori has chosen three young wahine kai hoe and one male paddler to represent Aotearoa in this year's Tribal Canoe Journeys in the Pacific northwest of the United States.

21-year-old Waimirirangi Conrad of Te Aupouri, Ngati Kuri and Te Rarawa says she and Francis Mamaku will join the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde from Portland, Oregon, while Bronwyn Hetaraka and Karen Kite will paddle with the Suquamish Tribe from Seattle.

Ms Conrad says they will join thousands of people from 60 American and Canadian nations on the 10-day hikoi.

“I got chosen because their women play a big role in their tradition and in their waka kaupapa so they wanted another women to go over just to relate to their women, to have a different view rather than tane always going,” Ms Conrad says.

She says the Tribal Journeys project shows young people there are alternatives to computer games or gangs.

WEAVING EXPERT MICK PENDERGRAST DIES

One of the foremost experts on Maori weaving, Mick Pendergrast, has died on the eve of his 78th birthday.

His book Maori basketry for Beginners, now known as Te Mahi Kete, was first published in 1975 and has never been out of print, and he published numerous other books on Maori and Pacific fibre arts.

He started his career as a teacher, but after a spell during the 1960s working for Volunteer Services Abroad in the Solomon Islands, he became an ethnology assistant at the Auckland museum.

His nephew Andrew Pendergrast says his uncle's interest in fibre started in the 1950s when he was working in Torere in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

“He enjoyed talking to the kuia and inevitably they would be weaving a kete and he just looked and learned and listened and once he developed an interest he learned to make kete himself and started recording different patterns and getting name for patterns so from day one he really looked at it from an academic perspective,” Andrew Pendergrast says.

Mick Pendergrast's funeral service is at the Manukau Memorial Gardens in south Auckland tomorrow.

More wealth from watching than eating whales

A former New Zealand delegate to the International Whaling Commission says Te Ohu Kaimoana is undermining Maori economic and political interests through its advocacy of commercial whaling.

A delegation from the Maori fisheries trust is heading back from the IWC meeting in Morocco, with chief executive Peter Douglas describing a call for immediate cessation of whaling by Japan and other countries as unreasonable and unacceptable.

Sandra Lee from Ngai Tahu, who attended commission meetings in her capacity as conservation minister in the Labour-Alliance government, say the era of whaling should be well and truly over.

“New Zealand amongst others including the British government have established both at the scientific committee and at the IWC itself for many years now that there’s much more money in watching them than eating them. Kaikoura is one example but there are others all round the world now including our cousins in Tonga in Vava’u, much more profitable to watch them than eat them,” she says.

Mrs Lee says Te Ohu Kaimoana has no mandate from Maori to support Japan's whaling.

COOLING DOWN PERIOD FOR DOMESTIC ATTACKS

A Whangarei Maori women's refuge is welcoming today's law change which allows police to impose a five day cooling down period on the perpetrators of domestic violence.

Sandra Laurence, the manager of Te Puna o te Aroha, says the new power needs to be backed up by counseling programmes and referrals.

She says men barred from their homes need to be made to face up to what they have done.

“Male against female violence doesn’t just affect women. It affects the children and affects the rest of the whanau, which includes the perpetrator and for me it’s that them men are still stewing and looking at shifting blame somewhere else and minimizing what happened,” Ms Laurence says,

The change will mean more work for women's refuges, but no additonal funding has been provided.

MORE AHI KAA OIL FIRES PLANNED FOR EAST COAST

The organiser of last weekend's protest against oil exploration off the East Cape is planning futher demonstrations of ahi kaa or fires of occupation.

Hicks Bay resident Ani Pahuru-Huriwai from Hicks Bay says Sunday's bonfires on the beaches around the East Coast fired people's imaginations.

They're now planning night fires in October to shine a light on public opposition to the licence granted to Brazilian company Petrobras.

BROADCAST CLAIMANTS TAKE BREATHER FOR 4G NEGOTIATIONS

Maori broadcasting claimants have completed a two-day hui updating iwi on progress with securing fourth generation spectrum.

Jim Nichols from the Maori Council says since being given a mandate at a previous hui in February, negotiators have worked with Crown officials on the case for Maori to share the frequencies that will be freed up by the shift from analogue to digital television.

He says the negotiators reiterated many of the arguments that allowed development of Maori radio and television and Maori participation in the mobile phone market through Two Degrees.

“What we are saying to the Crown is there are models that have been negotiated in the past that have been seen to be fair and equitable and we have been negotiating on the basis of existing models that have worked for the Crown and Maori in the past,” Mr Nichols says.

A paper is due to go to Cabinet over the next month.

HARAWIRA OPTIMISTIC NEW ZEALAND WILL GO SMOKE FREE

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira believes New Zealand is on the brink of becoming the first country in the world to go smoke free.

He says the Maori affairs select committee investigation of the tobacco industry, which has just wrapped up public hearings, exceeded his wildest expectations.

He says the level of political, media and public support for the kaupapa is overwhelming, and the committee will now prepare its report to parliament.

“I think it's going to be an historic report and if we do this right New Zealand will be a world leader in making this nation smoke free,” Mr Harawira says.

He says the Maori affairs select committee is potentially one of the most powerful in the parliamnentary system, and it was the right body to make the tobacco industry account for its actions.

BOOKS REVEAL WHANGANUI SCHOLARSHIP

Whanganui iwi opened its treasure trove today with the release of the latest version of its education strategy and the launch of three books of its language and culture.

Che Wilson from Ngati Rangi says the education plan, Nga kai o Te Puku Tupuna, goes until 2025, and builds on the work done over the past two decades.

The books include his own collection of tribal words and phrases, Kiwaha o Whanganui, Gerrard Albert's annotated version of the writings of 19th century elder Kerehoma Tuuwhaawhaki, and He Kohinga Korero by the late John Rangitihi Tahuparare, who was a river tohunga as well as parliament's first official kaumatua.

“Whanganui is quite well known as the proverb states, Whanganui kaipunu, a tribe that usually keeps our own korero to ourselves, but with the dreams of the past 20 years and even going back to 1981 with the likes of Sir Archie Taiaroa and the radical ones who held the first rangatahi hui to encourage our whare wananga to be open to more than just a select few in our tribe,” Mr Wilson says.

Save the whales, then eat them

Te Ohu Kaimoana says its support for Japanese commercial whaling is driven by a respect for tradition.

At last week's international Whaling Commission in Morocco, the Maori fisheries trust backed a compromise promoted by New Zealand commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer to allow Japan to take a commercial catch from its home waters in exchange for cutting back its scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean.

The meeting failed to agree.

Trust chief executive Peter Douglas says a solution will involve a combination of conservation, custom and commerce.

“If we want to take whales, then first of all we have to save the whales. And when we save the whales, we have to be prepared that one day we may have to take some or lose some of them to people who have some other idea about how they may be used. We are in the business of saving whales. We also as an objective want to see people who have those sorts of traditions, being able to dignify and maintain those traditions for themselves,” Mr Douglas says.

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says Te Ohu Kaimoana's stance is naive and undermines New Zealand's historic position.

FOMA READY TO REWRITE TEKAU PLUS SCHEME

The Federation of Maori Authorities says it's keen to salvage what it can from the Te Puni Kokiri-funded Tekau Plus scheme to promote Maori exports.

A review by State Services Commission deputy commissioner Tony Hartevelt and businessman Whaimutu Dewes recommended a shake up in the governance and management of the $3 million scheme, which was a joint project between FOMA, the Maori Trustee and Maori business development agency Poutama Trust.

Federation chair Traci Houpapa says Tekau Plus was entered into by FoMA's previous management team, and the new team has already taken steps to address the matters raised in the report.

“There is always room for improvement. The review report suggests ways we might do that and we’re looking forward to working with Te Puni Kokiri to address those areas and to see the contracts are delivered in a more robust and successful manner,” Ms Houpapa says.

NGAPUHI KAUMATUA TIKI TOUR TO TAMAKI

Ngapuhi is planning a reinvasion of Tamaki Makaurau.

The Ngapuhi Runanga runs an annual historical hikoi for kaumatua to places of significance to the northern iwi, and next week it's Auckland's turn.

Chief executive Teresa Tepania-Ashton says while the isthmus was divided between iwi with Ngati Whatua, Tainui and Hauraki connections at the time of European settlement, Ngapuhi also has ties it wants to acknowledge.

As well as visiting sites which the iwi has a link to, the group will view taonga held in storage at Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Teresa Tepania-Ashton says the hikoi is a way to thank the kaumatua for their support and especially for the work they have put into preparing Ngapuhi's historic treaty claims.

NO MANDATE FOR WHALE BASHING

A former conservation minister says Te Ohu Kaimoana has no mandate from Maori to act as an apologist for Japanese whalers.

Sandra Lee from Poutini Ngai Tahu says the Maori fisheries trust's delegation to the International Whaling Commission again tried to confuse indigenous whaling, which New Zealand has always supported, with Japanese commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean.

She says the trust should front up to beneficiaries and justify its covert agenda.

“The covert agenda for the so called pro-whaling scientific lobby in the case of Te Ohu Kaimoana and the Japanese is in my opinion more about resisting the proposition of sustainable protection and management of all of the species in the commons of the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean sanctuary so it’s not just about whales, it’s also about tuna,” Ms Lee says.

Te Ohu Kaimoana should lead by example and be the kaitiaki for endangered marine mammals.

SMOKING BAN FORM OF PUNISHMENT

The Green Party isn't buying the government's line that a ban on smoking in prisons is for health and safety.

Co-leader Metiria Turei says the poor record of the Corrections Service in offering treatment for drug or alcohol addiction doesn't inspire confidence it will have proper smoke cessation programmes when the ban takes effect in July 2011.

She says it's Maori who will again be hit.

“This is about punishing prisoners and given that so many of our people are in prison, it’s got to affect our people significantly. Smokefree is all good but these people don’t have much in the way of things that are remotely enjoyable and can’t just pop outside for a smoke when they want one,” Ms Turei says.

She says the government is risking a flare-up of violence in prisons if prisoners can't light up.

QUICK ACTION STEMS FIRE IN DORM

The quick actions of Hato Paora pupil Braydon Haimona-Young have won him a safety award from the Manawatu Fire Service.

When an electrical fire broke out in a dormitory at the Maori boarding school last month, the year 11 student got out of bed to investigate.

Principal Debra Marshal-Lobb says he averted what could have been a major disaster by spotting the explosion in a water cylinder and evacuating the dorm.

The school has signed up to pilot a new scheme of Kaitiaki Kaiarahi or fire marshalls the Fire Service wants to establish at schools and marae around the country.