Taumarunui reserved land gets catch-up

The Crown has paid $250,000 to a Taumaranui land trust to compensate it for being forced to charge peppercorn rents.

Rakai Taiaroa from the Karanga Te Kere Whanua Trust says the trust was overlooked when the Maori Reserved Land Act was amended in 1997.

That means it was denied fair value for its land.

“With this added resource we are able to plan things a little better and hopefully provide a good development platform for the trust,” Mr Tairoa says.

The settlement was one his late father Sir Atawhai Taiaroa had fought for.

FREE TRADE DEAL WITH INDIA COULD LIFT ALL BOATS

Labour leader Phil Goff says Maori businesses stand to win big winners if New Zealand can negotiate a free trade agreement with India.

Prime minister John Key is in Delhi trying to nail down the agreement Mr Goff set in train as Labour’s trade minister.

He says tariff barriers are keeping New Zealand exports out of what could be a huge market.

“You’re paying a huge amount to sell your wine, to sell your dairy product, to sell your land into India and if we can negotiate an FTE to reduce those barriers that creates and tremendous opportunity including for Maori working in those sectors,” Mr Goff says.

Maori tourism ventures could also gain from any increase in Indian visitors.

TARANAKI MAORI TAKING UP BOXING

Taranaki-based boxer Sam Rapira says young Maori are flocking to the ring.

The Ngapuhi slugger is the number two amateur light heavyweight behind Reece Papuni of Ngati Porou and Nga Rauru.

He says their success is inspiring rangatahi to join his Bell Block Box Office club, and probably half its members are Maori.

Sam Rapira fights Australian number two Jake Carr in New Plymouth on Saturday.
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VOTE FOR MMP ADVANCES MAORI INTERESTS

A Victoria university politics lecturer says Maori need to vote for MMP to continue in November’s referendum.

Maria Bargh from Te Arawa says MMP has meant more Maori in parliament.

She says a return to a first past the post system could slash the political representation of Maori.

“The issue of the Maori seats isn’t on the table with this referendum but it seems to me it’s a slippery slope once you start going down options that are worse for Maori and looking at those who are against MMP suggests to me MMP definitely needs to be retained,” Dr Bargh says.

She says there is room to improve MMP without destroying its essence of giving minorities a say.

MOMENTUM FOR NOVEMBER WITH DAVIS IN NORTH

Labour leader Phil Goff is confident Kelvin Davis will topple Hone Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau in November.

He says contrary to Mr Harawira’s claims Labour spent up big trying to oust him, Mr Davis’s campaign was financially modest but high energy.

He says the 86 percent reduction in the Mana leader’s election night majority shows the momentum is with Mr Davis.

“Hone took that from being the safest Maori Party seat in the country to being the most marginal and Kelvin on the other hand lifter his vote from 29 percent of the vote to 41 percent. That is a great effort and we’ll build on that,” Mr Goff says.

ANCIENT MISTAKES AFFECTING MODERN SCHOLARSHIP

Maori academic Rawiri Taonui says students are getting Maori history wrong because they rely in early Pakeha accounts rather than Maori oral traditions.

Mr Taonui says early Pakeha writers often got what they were hearing wrong, but because they wrote it down it is now accepted uncritically as being correct.

He says a classic example is the way creation whakapapa is tought at university level.

“The usual order in pre-European whakapapa was Te Po te Kore te Ao and what happened was when some Europeans translated the terms around 1900 their translations suggested to them the order should be different so they changes it and they published it in books and when Maori started coming through the university system they were taught from those books. Mr Taounui says.

He will present his findings at a UNESCO conference on oral history in Portugal next week.