Whakatu gripe aired at UN

A Nelson-Motueka Maori land trust has taken its bid to negotiate its land claim to the United Nations.

James Wheeler from Whakatu Incorporation says Te Kahui Ngahuru Trust was used as a case study by the Aotearoa Indigenous Rights Trust during the New Zealand Government's four yearly report to the United Nations human Rights Committee.

The trust lodged the first Waitangi Tribunal claim in the South Island, but the Crown insists it will only talk with iwi.

At issue is the 45,000 hectares of reserves Maori owners were supposed to get when they sold land to the New Zealand in 1841.

“The land was dissipated and mismanaged by the Native Trustee and the Maori Trustee over a long period of time and the miniscule amount we got back was 9293 acres that we have managed since 1977 but it’s all still perpetually leased. It’s still breaking our human rights,” Mr Wheeler says.

He's written to the minister for treaty negotiation seeking direct talks on the WAI 56 claims.

TAINUI TOURISM THINK TANK EYES KINGITANGI BRAND

Tainui is eying tourism as a future money-spinner.

The Waikato iwi has put together a development group chaired by former tribal executive head Kingi Porima to coordinate development from Port Waikato to Atiamuri.

Member Willie te Aho says the initial focus is developing a brand and getting operators ready to take advantage of the World Rowing championships at Karapiro in October.

“We will have packages for on site tours, off site tours, we will have arts and crafts, we will have living performing arts. We’ve got something in this region that no one else can duplicate and that’s the Kingitanga and that’s taking a leading role in basically looking at how we can brand ourselves going forward and the Kingitanga is central to that,” Mr te Aho says.

Tainui Group Holdings is also looking to build a hotel and a hospitality and tourism training centre at The Base in Hamilton.

TAMATI KEEN TO SEE MAORI IN WORLD CUP FOR OTHER CODE

The chair of Maori Rugby league is endorsing Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples' call for a Maori team in next year's Rugby World Cup.

Howie Tamati says a similar push in the 13-man code was based on the inclusion in the League world cup of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom.

The Kiwis also get to play an Australian indigenous squad, and both teams are pushing for regular Pacific Cup spots and beyond.

“Quite rightly the indigenous side of Australia should be included in that competition along with us from there, should our performance warrant it. Inclusion in the world cup should then apply,” Mr Tamati says.

NZRFU head Jock Hobbs has dismissed fielding a separate Maori team.

WESTERN SPRINGS TOP AT POLYFEST

Organisers of the Auckland secondary schools cultural festival are pushing to have the huge event included in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement.

Organiser Tania Karauria says Polyfest is working with key sponsor Massey University to prepare a paper for government on how such a qualification could work.

She says the standard of performance is getting better each year, and the skill level required needs recognition.

“Within the performing arts area you’ve got all sorts of things like filming, choreography, costume design, graphic design, all sorts of things that can just open up so many doors,” Ms Karauria says.

This year's kapa haka first division winner was Western Springs College. Second was Auckland Girls Grammar, which won in 2008 and nine, with Kura Kaupapa o Hoani Waititi third.

TAINUI HOLDINGS STYMIED ON AMBITIOUS BASE PLANS

Tainui Group Holdings is considering adding a hotel, offices and a health facility to The Base at the northern edge of Hamilton.

Chief executive Mike Pohio says the tribe had always intended the former air force base become a regional centre and town centre with a mix of uses.

A hospitality and tourism training centre was also on the list.

“We’ve also considered that their might be a business case here for some training in hospitality, and given the amount of retail that’s on site, that their might be a complement to that with some training in retail. It might extend to tourism. What we’ve been going through is a conceptual assessment of a wider development for the whole of the 75 hectares that The Base is,” Mr Pohio says.

He says the future of the base depends on the outcome of Tainui’s High Court challenge to Hamilton City Council’s Variation 21, which bars all large developments outside the Hamilton CBD.

MAORI FILL CRITERIA FOR NATION IN NATION

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples' call for Maori to field a national team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup has won support from an expert in treaty and constitutional law.

Dr Sharples says Maori should be treated like Scotland, Wales and England, as nations within nations.

Auckland University law professor David Williams says Maori meet the test for nationhood.

“In so far as they identify distinctively for cultural and ethnic reason and offer each other support and embrace the identity of being Maori and have the usual arguments that one has within one’s national identity they deserve the term nation to apply to them. It’s not necessarily separatist at all but it’s an identity that is recognised in our law in many ways,” Dr Williams says.

NZRU chair Jock Hobbs rejected out of hand the idea of letting a Maori team play in the world cup.

Te Atiawa and Taranaki sign negotiation terms

The last two Taranaki iwi to complete their settlements, Te Atiawa and Taranaki, will today sign terms to start negotiations ... 14 years after the Waitangi Tribunal reported on their claims.

The signings, at Owae Marae in Waitara and Puniho Marae southwest of New Plymouth, are on the 150th anniversary of the first shots being fired in the Taranaki Wars.

Te Atiawa negotiator Grant Knuckey says Prime Minister John Key and Treaty minister Chris Finlayson will sign the document at Owae under a statue of Sir Maui Pomare, who first put the issue of confiscation on the table in 1923.

And at the front of the meeting house is Wiremu Kingi, whose refusal to allow the sale of the Pekapeka Block at Waitara was used by the Crown as an excuse to attack.

“Not only Wiremu Kingi but the doors to the meeting house will be open and the other tupuna will be able to peer out the door, Titokowaru at the back, one of the main pou of the house, he will be able to see the table as well,” Mr Knuckey says.

Te Atiawa expects negotiations to take up to two years.

HAWKES BAY CELEBRATES MAORI-IRISH LINKS

The relationship between Maori and Irish immigrants will be celebrated today in the Hawkes Bay at the annual hui and hooli.

Organiser Dennis O'Reilly says the event has become a must do for the community, who gather at Waiohiki Community Arts Center to see and hear musicians, dancers and storytellers from both cultures reflect on a shared history.

He says the cross cultural approach to St Patrick's day is going down a treat, to be sure.

“It's good fun. It’s about celebrating our differences as kiwis but our unity as a nation, so we’ve got three flags, the New Zealand flag, the Irish flag and the Maori flag,” Mr O’Reilly says.

This year’s St Patricks Day address will be by radio presenter Noelle McCarthy.

CANADIAN EXPERIENCE TO HELP WORLD CUP BROADCASTS

Maori Television will tap into the experience of Canadian indigenous broadcasters to cover next year's Rugby World Cup.

Presenter Julian Wilcox says at the Second World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network in Taiwan last week, Canada's Aboriginal People's Televison Network reported on its experience covering the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 10 languages.

Maori Television is sending programmer Haunui Royal to Canada to learn what he can from the Aboriginal People's Televison experience.

VOICE FOR TIKANGA IN SCIENCE DROWNED

Green Party Maori spokesperson Bevan Tipene Matua has drowned while collecting kaimoana near his home at Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay.

Party co-leader Metiria Turei says Mr Matua from Ngati Kahungunu and Ngai Tahu was a pou of the party and a strong Maori voice in the conservation movement.

She says his work as a scientist and policy analyst means he was able to make his arguments persuasive.

“He was right on the forefront of working on issues like genetic engineering, those kinds of issues that are really technical and often which the scientific and the Pakeha scientific community dismiss Maori views, dismiss the tikanga and don’t respect the fact that Maori have a strong tikanga analysis that is as strong and as legitimate as any other cultural analysis, like western science,” Ms Turei says.

E te tama purotu o Ngati Kere, moe mai ra.

TARANAKI MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF LAND WARS

It's the 150th anniversary of the start of the Taranaki Wars, and the province is marking the day by making and showing history.

Te Atiawa and Taranaki iwi are signing terms of negotiation to finally settle their claims over the confiscations of the 1860s.

And Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth is turning over its galleries to show the effects of war and colonisation on the region.

Chief executive Bill McNaught says the show aims to challenge some of the understandings of the Taranaki War and show it was about more than land.

“Issues around cultural redress and the fact the language was almost wiped out, the general cultural disrespect, all those issues we’ve tried to explore and it’s only when you understand the complexity of that ht you realise why war broke out and why there is still an incredible challenge in resolving of the legacy of last 150 years,” Mr McNaught says.

Taranaki War, Our Legacy ... Our Challenge will be opened this morning by the Prime Minister

AUCKLAND POLYFEST BIGGEST EVER

The world's biggest secondary schools cultural festival gets under way in south Auckland this morning.

ASB Polyfest spokesperson Dean Wilson says over the next four days 208 culture groups from 65 schools will battle it out at the Manukau Sports Bowl.

That's a big jump from the first festival hosted at Hillary College in 1976, when four schools took part.

He says breaking kapa haka into three divisions means all schools will have a chance, and not just the traditional strong ones like Hato Petera, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi, Kahurangi from Auckland Girls Grammar, and Manurewa's James Cook High.