Harawira pushing tupuna title ahead of policy

Taitokerau MP Hone Harawira is on the road gauging Maori opinion on replacing the Foreshore and Seabed Act, despite there being no clear alternative on the table.

A technical working group chosen by the Iwi Leaders Forum is working with a small group of Crown officials on a proposal for Attorney General Chris Finlayson to take to Cabinet.

Fellow Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell has backed the process, and said the party believes an effective solution can only come out of meaningful engagement between the Crown and iwi and hapu.

But Mr Harawira says he’s not waiting, and he’s looking for support for his idea of replacing Crown ownership with Maori or tupuna title.

“They’re not clearly Maori Party policies but unless you go out with a basic set of information, you’re out there floundering, so we’re not floundering, we’ve got some basic ideas – Maori title, no sale and access for all, see what our people think,” he says.

Last Friday’s hui at Dargaville was only the first of what he expects will be 40 nationwide.

JUDGE PRAISES QUALITY OF LAWYERS BUT NOTES GAPS

The new deputy chief judge of the Maori Land Court is praising the depth of Maori legal talent.

Between 10 to 20 Maori are admitted to the bar each year, and there are now a few hundred Maori lawyers.

Caren Fox says it's great to see Maori doing commercial, regulatory and environmental law, but there aren't enough lawyers in other fields with a high Maori need.

“The criminal courts and the family courts could do with a good smattering of Maori lawyers but they don’t tend to go into those fields and stay very long,” Judge Fox says.

DENTAL DECAY LEADING TO OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS

The head of the Maori dental association, Pauline Koopu, wants Maori and mainstream health organisations to give priority to Maori oral health.

Te Ao Marama held its annual hui at Rotorua over the weekend.

Dr Koopu says many Maori never go near a dentist once they turn 18 and stop getting free treatment.

That creates other health problems.

“There are underlying diseases such as diabetes, cardio-vascular. Pre-term low birth-weight babies have also been linked to having poor oral health so there’s a huge link there between oral health and general health that isn’t well known,” Dr Koopu says.

Te Ao Marama is trying to make iwi realise the importance of oral health.

THREE STRIKES LAW WILL INCREASAE STREET VIOLENCE

South Auckland youth worker Haami Chapman says ACT’s three strikes bill being pushed through Parliament is likely to lead to more serious offending.

Mr Chapman, who was named local hero in this year’s New Zealander of the Year awards for his work with gangs, says by trying to look tough, the Government is ignoring effective community-driven responses to crime.

He says increased prison terms don’t act as a deterrent for rangatahi caught up in violence.

“If you know you ain’t got no other option for you, if you know you’re going away for a long time, what’s to prevent you from doing whatever you want to do. Let’s just make a good job of it. If you know you are going to be locked away the next 30 years, I may as well go the whole hog. See, it has that opposite effect,” Mr Chapman says.

What is working in south Auckland is whanau-based programmes, which are turning lives around.

SHAPLES DISAPPOINTED AT HEATLEY DEPARTURE

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says former housing and fisheries minister Phil Heatley did a lot for Maori.

The Whangarei MP stood down on Friday over his use of a ministerial credit card.

Dr Sharples says Mr Heatley brought together Housing New Zealand and Kiwibank to allow people building on ancestral land to get loans.

He also pushed to get agreements between those managing customary fisheries, recreational fishers and quota holders, so it’s a disappointment to lose him from Cabinet.

“I don’t know whether there’s something behind it or not but I do know he’s a genuine guy and to be down the road for a couple of bottles of wine seems to me really silly when you look at what company executives do ore even employees with their privileges and so on,” Dr Sharples says.

WOMEN THE FACE OF MOKO REVIVAL

One of the country's top ta moko artists is crediting women with keeping the ancient art alive.

Mark Kopua from Tologa Bay has been demonstrating tattooing at the Face Value Exhibition of moko at Waikato Museum and Art Gallery.

He says in the same way wahine Maori led the way in language initiatives like kohanga reo or Aataarangi, they are also embracing the moko kauae, the chin moko and other designs that reflect their tribal identity.

“Our women are the strongest carriers of moko. Throughout the country the women outnumber the males and it’s very obvious to us the women are the strongest carriers of that type of kaupapa,” Mr Kopua says.

PM queries Maori phone investment

Prime Minister John Key says he can understand why Maori groups were reluctant to invest more money in new mobile phone company 2Degrees.

A capital raising last year by Te Huarahi Tika Maori spectrum trust failed to find new investors, resulting in a dilution of the Maori stake in the company, which uses frequences gained through Treaty claims.

Mr Key says Telecom's problems with its new XT network highlights the risk of investing in telecommunications.

“I guess the challenge is, and maybe that’s why the iwi leaders and those with a bit of cash were reluctant, is that new telecom networks are very capital intensive and what you’ve seen in the case of XT is Telecom’s thrown a lot of money at this things and yet it’s still not working. That’s your big risk, isn’t it?

“I think the challenge always was can New Zealand support three mobile networks. Now, the answer is we don’t know. Other countries have three, they have a bigger population than us but other countries do have three and support three so I expect that’s what we’ll find out in the next few years,” Mr Key says.

He says 2Degrees appears to be doing well with international investors who have deep pockets and know what they are doing.

The Government is currently considering its response to a Commerce Commission report that highlighted major barriers to new entrants in the mobile phone market.

PAY RATES NOT CAUSE OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

Greens co-leader Meteria Turei says the huge rise in young Maori without jobs is caused by the recession rather than lack of youth rates.

A private bill in the name of ACT's Sir Roger Douglas to bring back youth rates was drawn from the ballot yesterday.

Ms Turei says getting rid of youth rates was a big win for the Green Party, and it will fight their reintroduction.

“If we want our rangatahi to be proud about their work, to feel that they are contributors to their society, to act responsibly and as adults, then we have to treat them that way, and one of the ways it to pay them the minimum adult wage,” she says.

Ms Turei says many young Maori are doing adult jobs and accepting adult responsibilities.

ENGLISH PICKING UP WORDS FROM MAORI

An expert in New Zealand English says the language is picking up more reo Maori.

Jeanette King, the head of linguistics at Canterbury University, says Pakeha are using Maori words more often because of what they learn from school and the wider society.

She says that means specific words are crossing over like hui, kaupapa and tangi.

Professor King says most of the country's print media no longer put English meanings in brackets next to common Maori words, which shows most New Zealanders know what those words mean.

JUDGE LOOKS TO INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES

The new deputy chief judge of the Maori Land Court says New Zealand can learn from international experience to find local solutions for Maori problems.

Judge Caren Fox from Ngati Porou and Rongowhakaata has studied international law as it relates to indigenous peoples, and has worked with Native American and Pacific groups.

She says lessons can be learned in areas such as natural resource management and economic development, without forgetting what is unique to Maori.

“It's important that we recognise however solutions to the issues that impact on Maoridom are to be found ultimately here and only here,” Judge Fox says.

MAORI LEFT OUT OF THREE STRIKES SUBMISSION PROCESS

A Maori prison reformer says Maori are being excluded from the debate around ACT's three strikes sentencing law, despite the effect it will have on Maori prisoners.

Kim Workman from Rethinking Crime and Punishment says the Government is limiting submissions on the Sentencing and Parole Bill to people who spoke up when it was first introduced.

That excludes most Maori organisations.

“They were all agin it but when you ask them ‘Why didn’t you make a submission?’ the response was ‘because we never thought the National Government would take this bill seriously.’ They honestly believed it was such an outrageous piece of legislation it was simply not possible for the National Government to support it to the extent they have,” Mr Workman says.

He says the government is ignoring advice from the Ministry of Justice about the effect of the bill on Maori and the chance people could be locked up for up to 10 times longer than they would be under current legislation.

FAMILY TALES CAST NEW LIGHT ON PARIHAKA STORY

The author of a new book about Parihaka says it reveals a previously untold story about Maori urbanisation.

The Parihaka Album, Lest We Forget by LaTrobe University journalism lecturer Rachael Buchanan is being launched about now at the Wellington Railway station.

It draws on stories from her own whanau, many of whom ended up in Wellington after their ancestral lands in Taranaki were confiscated.

That challenges the widely accepted narrative that urbanisation was mainly a 1950s and 60s phenomenon.

“Maori also were urban people and they stayed in cities and tried as best they could to preserve what was left but it was pretty difficult for like my grandmother and great grandmother when there weren’t any marae left for them to connect with and I think there was probably a bit of a feeling of shame or they were whakamaa about going back to Taranaki,” Ms Buchanan says.

Parihaka Album is published by Huia