Rugby Union stance gets prop Bush wild

Former All Black prop and Maori All Black captain Bill Bush says it may be time for Maori rugby to sever its ties with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and go it alone.

Mr Bush says the union's refusal to respond to a call to apologise for excluding Maori from touring teams to South Africa for half a century is part of a pattern of prejudice against Maori.

He says it still comes up in team selections.

“Every time a player gets dropped out of the All Blacks, it has to be a Maori. Three were dropped out when we went to the World Cup in 2007, Piri Weepu, Rico Gear and (Troy) Flavell. Now we’ve got young Isaac Ross being dumped for no reason at all. It just annoys me and they favour the Samoans and Tongans more so than us,” Mr Bush says.

He says it now appears the NZRFU isn't going to organise a game for the Maori All Blacks next year, which would have been a consolation for Maori players who miss out on the World Cup squad.

GARDENING SKILLS SHARED WITH SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROJECT

A push by Maori men on the East Coast to improve their horticultural and hunting skills is providing a bonus for tamariki at Tikitiki's Rahui Marae.

Rob Thompson says a new mana tane roopu is allowing men in the region to share their skills, and they've gone on to establish community gardens in Rangitukia, Tikitiki and Te Puia Springs.

He says as part of a school holiday programme, today the roopu shared their knowledge of mahinga kai with tamariki.

Today the tamariki learn the basics of fishing and respect for Tangaroa, and on Thursday they'll be taken into the ngahere to learn bushcraft.

FOUR WAY BATTLE FOR REMAINING SHEARING SPOT

In a late season burst, Hawkes Bay Maori shearer Jonny Kirkpatrick took the open class honours at the Auckland Easter Show.

Commentator Koro Mullins says the win sets up a four-way battle at this weekend's New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti for a spot in the New Zealand World Cup team between Kirkpatrick, shearing icon David Fagan, Paul Avery and Dion King.

Kirkpatrick's Auckland win was his first since early February, but the King Country event has been good to him, as he won the previous two years.

Another Maori shearer, Cam Ferguson, already has his ticket to the World Cup in Wales booked because of his Golden Shears win.

M-FACTOR GIVES KAITAIA BEAUTY MISS WORLD NZ CROWN

Former Miss New Zealand Maureen Waaka is thrilled at Cody Yerkovich's Miss World New Zealand title win at the weekend.

The former Maureen Kingi last year called for beauty contest judges to look beyond skinny blondes when choosing contestants to represent Aotearoa on the international stage.

She says the Kaitaia 18-year-old of Maori and Croatian descent has that special M-factor.

“The way that Cody presents herself is typically the refinement and elegance of M women and even in the performances and kapa haka, our woman, no matter what their build they were always dainty always elegant in their style and they brought a lot of refinement in their personages and that’s what I’ve been looking for in the beauty pageants,” Mrs Waaka says.

As a judge it was great to see Cody was not the only Maori among the 14 finalists.

TOHU LOOKING AT EXCEPTIONAL YEAR

It's looking like a good harvest for Maori-owned wine company Tohu Wines.

James Wheeler, a board member of 50 percent shareholder Wakatu Incorporation, says the company expects to produce up to 90 thousand cases of wine this year to meet solid customer demand in New Zealand and overseas.

He says picking started this week of 700 tonnes of sauvignon blanc grapes from its Waihopai vineyard.

“It's looking very good. I was on the vineyard the other day and we’ve got very little botrytis, in fact I couldn’t see and the bunches are good so I think we’re going to have an exceptional year,” Mr Wheeler says.

TRIBAL STORIES AS GOOD AS COULE BE ASKED

Ngati Rangiwewehi elder Trevor Maxwell says Te Arawa values Don Stafford's recording of its stories.

The historian, who died on Monday in Rotorua, is to be honoured by lying in state in the house Tamatekaua before his funeral at St Faith's Church on Friday.

Mr Maxwell says Mr Stafford became a walking encyclopedia on tribal history, drawing on stories told to him as a young man in his father's Rotorua shop for his 23 books.

He says no tribal history can be definitive, and Te Arawa has to take responsibility for its own record.

“He really only printed what he was told and perhaps some might have bent the story a little but he wrote it down and if he didn’t, who would we be listening to in the present day. He’s been our district’s official historian and a man who bridged Maori and European worlds,” Mr Maxwell says.

UN view of treaty status flawed

A Maori constitutional lawyer says Justice Minister Simon Power must resist calls to incorporate the Treaty of Waitangi into a New Zealand constitution when he speaks today at the UN Human Rights Committee.

Mr Power is presenting New Zealand's Fifth Periodic Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and it's expected he will be quizzed on the status of the treaty, Maori imprisonment rates and the anti-terror raids in Ruatoki two years ago.

Moana Jackson says the UN committee has been calling for the Treaty to be incorporated into a constitution to protect Maori human rights, but that is no solution.

“You run the risk of the ultimate cooption really that the treaty then becomes subservient legislatively and legally to the Crown so the issue for me is never how can the treaty say fit within a new New Zealand constitution but how can a constitution be based on the treaty,” Mr Jackson says.

PAPAKAINGA MONEY SPARKS INTEREST IN HOUSING CONFERENCE

The house full signs are out for the national Maori housing conference at Te Papaiouru Marae in Rotorua next week.

Organiser Kaye Maree Dunn from Community Housing Aotearoa says it's a chance for Maori architects, engineers and people working in iwi social service agencies to compare notes on what sort of homes Maori want and how they can get them.

She says the economic climate and new government programmes means delegates will come with lots of questions.

“Where is housing for our people right now. Who are some of the greatest movers and shakers for housing on the ground. What are some great examples of papakainga development architecture projects out there that are working and how can we get that information to our whanau,” Ms Dunn says.

A hot topic will be the deal between Housing New Zealand and Kiwibank which is supposed to clear some of the obstacles to building on Maori land.

BATTALION VETERAN AN INNOVTOR IN CULTURE, BUSINESS

Maori Battalion veteran Takamoana Delamere will be remembered not only for his war time service but as an innovator in business and culture.

Mr Delamere died at his Kawerau home on Sunday, a week after returning from the 28 Maori Battalion reunion in Auckland.

His son Larry Delamere says when his father returned from the war he set up a dry cleaning busines in Kawerau with two cousins, which was considered unusual for the times.

He helped establish the first non-tribal marae, Nga Hau e Wha in Kawerau, and a credit union to encourage Maori economic development.

He was also involved in kapa haka and started the Delamere Cup primary school competition, which has helped Te Whanau a Apanui maintain a high standard of kapa haka.

Many veterans are expected at Whitianga Marae for Takamoana Delamere's funeral on Wednesday.

JAMIE JOSEPH LOOKS TO HISTORY OF MAORI ALL BLACKS

Jamie Joseph has been named the new coach to guide the Maori All Blacks through their centennial year.

The 44 year old from Ngati Maniapoto and Rangitane takes the reins after successful stints by Donny Stevenson and Matt Te Pou.

The 20-test All Black veteran played for the Maori squad in the early 90's, following in the footsteps of his father Jim Joseph.

He says Maori rugby is a unique mix of sport, culture and history.

“When you play as a Maori player in this team, we’re responsible to the people who have gone before us and making sure we leave a legacy for those that follow us. I know my father played for the Maori All Blacks in the late 60s, early 70s, very proud moment for me to then put the jersey on myself, so I feel pretty responsible and very proud to be able to lead the team as a coach,” Mr Joseph says.

TAURANGA IWI FIGHT SHIP CHANNEL DREDGING

Taurangamoana iwi have united against a plan to dredge 15 million cubic metres from Tauranga harbour.

The three iwi told commissioners considering a Bay of Plenty Harbour Board resource consent application that deepening shipping channels for the next generation of super sized container ships will cause major damage.

Spokesperson Hauata Palmer says pipi and mussel beds are already under pressure.

“When we have visitors to our marae we say we give them the best of our marine larder and that is part of the debate as well, because we can’t perform those traditional things because we don’t have the resources,” Mr Palmer says.

He says past reclamation for the container terminal destroyed a large area of shell-fish beds.

THE PLAYER YOU GET

Hawkes Bay Maori families fighting methamphetamine have won support from an American musician who started his own recovery from addiction in Aotearoa.

Community activist Dennis O'Reilly says the guitarist Joe Walsh hero fronted up to his own demons when he came to this country in 1989 to play with reggae band Herbs.

Now he's bankrolling a monthly event at Otatara.

“Joe Walsh sponsored our Sundays. He sent us over US$5000 because the first Sunday of every month we have this sort of celebration for families who are beating meth, so rather than just going on about all the terrible thing, there’s a chance to have a bit of a pick me up,” Mr O'Reilly says.

And for those in party mode, the third annual St Patrick's Day hui and hoolie, celebrating all things Irish and Maori, is on again tomorrow at the Waiohiki Community Arts Center in the Hawkes Bay.

Tolley testing patience of teaching profession

The matua takawaenga for the NZEI primary teachers' union, Laures Park, says the government should put its money into improving literacy and numeracy, not into testing against new standard in schools.

The controversial national standards policy comes into effect today.

Teacher unions say it's inevitable the data collected will become public, creating league tables which will hinder rather than help schools to lift student performance.

Ms Park says the data won't reveal anything new.

“What we would like is something to be done about raising those achievement levels rather than taking a test to tell us something that we already know,” she says.

Many parents are still in the dark about what the new national standards will mean for them.

GOFF BETTER LEADER THAN MEDIA PORTRAYS

Labour list MP Shane Jones has spoken out in support of current leader Phil Goff after a poll showed Maori support for Labour at an all time low.

The Te Karere Digipoll of 1000 voters in the Maori seats found only 18 percent approved of Mr Goff's performance, while 59 said he doesn't provide good leadership on Maori issues.

Even among Labour voters he could only muster 36 percent support.

Mr Jones says Mr Goff hasn't been able to overcome the way his speech last year attacking National's deal with the Maori Party on its emissions tradition scheme was interpreted.

“We just couldn't get a balanced coverage of that speech from the media. They immediately compared it to Don Brash. I mean it’s opposition politics, it’s a bugger of a job leading the opposition party after nine years in government and give the guy some credit. He’s trying to cover all the bases and there’s nothing prejudiced, nothing racist about that man whatsoever,” Mr Jones says.

WIDESPREAD INTEREST IN WAITANGI DAY COMMEMORATIONS

A Waitangi kaumatua is expecting record attendances at this year's treaty commemorations in the Bay of Islands.

The programme includes a major waka regatta as well as the usual sports, cultural and political events.

Kingi Taurua says there is interest not only from New Zealand but overseas, with groups coming from Switzerland, Australia and throughout the Pacific which has never happened before.

He says it’s important visitors realise Maori own Waitangi Day, not the government.

Mana whenua expect to be stretch looking after all the manuhiri, but everything is in place for a successful celebration.

NEGOTIATIONS SET OVER MAORI STAKE IN SPECTRUM

Broadcasting and telecommunications claimants are preparing to negotiate with the Crown about how Maori should share in a major reorganisation of spectrum.

Cabinet wanted to make decisions before Christmas about hundreds of millions of dollars worth of frequencies freed up by the shift to digital television, but was forced to backpedal after claimants went back to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Piripi Walker, the secretary of the Wellington Maori language board Nga Kaiwhakapumau i te Reo, says the Crown ignored tribunal findings on the issue in 1990 and 1999, but this time it may be forced to reach a settlement.

“The Crown assumes its right to ownership, rights to auction, rights to take payment from people over the last 20 years, left Maori out. The Crown’s coming back to the table, Maori would first of all want the Crown to bow its head a little bit and say maybe we weren’t on the right track to throw the tribunal reports in the rubbish tin,” Mr Walker says.

If negotiations break down the claimants can be back before the tribunal with three days notice.

SHARPLES’ STANDARDS’ SECOND THOUGHTS WAY TOO LATE

The Greens' education spokesperson Metiria Turei says Pita Sharples' opposition to national standards comes a year late.

The new testing regime for primary and intermediate schools starts today.

Ms Turei says the Maori Party backed the legislation allowing the standards, despite data from overseas showing students from disadvantaged communities suffer when such national literacy and standards are imposed.

She says it's the price the Maori Party is paying to be in government.

“This is the political reality when you are part of a government that has a radical programme that is bad for your own people, and it’s something the Maori Party is going to have to live with. And it’s really distressing for those of us who support what the Maori Party is trying to achieve but seeing them thwarted every time they try to make progress,” Ms Turei says.

She says Pita Sharples should push for a trial before the standards are rolled out nationally.

EURPOEAN TOUR FITTING END TO MAORI RUGBY CENTENARY

Rugby commentator Ken Laban says Maori rugby deserves a high calibre competition to mark its centenary year.

Players and fans are waiting for the New Zealand Rugby Football Union to confirm games for the Maori All Blacks against England, Ireland and Wales.
Mr Laban says a European tour would be a great opportunity to expose the world to Maori rugby.

“In terms of popularity, outside the All Blacks they would be the second most popular. They’re an integral part of New Zealand society and the national game of rugby, so it would be wonderful if they could pull off a tour of this magnitude at the end of the season,” Mr Laban says.

The lack of New Zealand A Games this year would suggest a Maori is tour is the cards.