Hold sought until seabed sorted

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says it makes sense to put plans for a tidal power station in the Kaipara Harbour on hold until the review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act is complete.

Te Uri o Hau told a consultation hui last week it wanted a stay of Crest Energy's resource consent application.

Dr Sharples says it’s a issue he will take up with his government colleagues this week.

“I think it’s a wise call to complete the foreshore and seabed issues before we do major things. We’re holding back issues like aquaculture until we complete the foreshore and seabed,” he says.

A spokesperson for attorney-general Chris Finlayson says he is looking into the moratorium request.

YOUNGER CHILDREN NEED SAFE SEX MESSAGE

A Maori sexual health worker says even intermediate age children need to about safe sex.

Harley Kaihe-Katterns works for Te Kaha o te Rangatahi, Auckland's only Maori sexual health provider, covering schools from Franklin to Rodney.

He says at the intermediate level the main issue is teaching children about puberty, but they could do more, if schools and parents agree.

“We actually need to come in and talk to them about STIs and contraception because a lot of them are sexually active and they’re only 11, 12. Yet again we do encounter a lot of Maori whanau that, their parents don’t want us to teach their kids, they don’t want us to talk to them about it,” Mr Kaihe-Katterns says.

Te Kaha o te Rangatahi’s programmes are developing a greater emphasis on the importance of healthy relationships.

MOA CONSIDERS WAIATA REMAKE

Anika Moa is considering branching out into waiata Maori.

The Ngapuhi singer songwriter releases her fourth album this week, Love in Motion.

She says the Maori side of her work hasn’t been apparent so far, but that could change.

“But I do want to start branching out into writing Maori waiata and writing albums so al the local iwi statinos can start playing my songs ... in Maori,” she says.

NGAITERANGI TAKES GLOVES OFF ON TATTOOS

Tauranga iwi Ngai te Rangi is offering people a chance to remove gang or prison tattoos.

Manager Paul Stanley says the Ungloved initiative is part of the Peaceful Warrior programme aimed at helping people move on with their lives after deciding to step away from gangs or crime.

He says a dozen people started the laser process yesterday with tattoo removal specialists Invisible Ink.

The first session is free, and Ngai Te Rangi will support those going through the process.

NUFFIELD SHOWS VALUE OF MAORI INCORPORATIONS

A Nuffield scholarship winner will be a featured speaker at a conference the farm training organisation is holding in Gisborne next month.

Gregg Pardoe, the operations manager for Arai Matawai Incorporation, is only the second Maori to win a Nuffield scholarship in the 60 years the scheme has been going.

He looked at indigenous farming in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia, and returned convinced of the value of the Maori incorporation model of farming on behalf of large groups of owners.

Gregg Pardoe will encourage other Maori to apply for the scholarship.

The Nuffield conference will be held at Manutuke marae between 13 and 16 May.

HUIA AND KIA UNVEIL QBOOK TO WORLD

Kiwa Media and Huia Publishers are at the London book fair this week to unveil their revolutionary digital picture book.

Kiwa Media has adapted two of huia’s most popular children’s books, Barnaby Bennett and Oh Hogwash Sweet Pea!, to its new QBook format.

Business development vice president David Shakes says the QBook can be read on Apple’s iPad, IPod or iPhone … and in English, Spanish and Maori.

“To have a leading edge digit tech app like the Qbook for the iPad and have it in te reo Maori is a real first. There’s nothing like it in the world. There’s no one offering anything even remotely close to what we’re doing and in that sense it’s just putting Maori on the map, it’s giving them a place and a stake at the table of digital publishing,” Mr Shakes 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