Sustainable memorial for Hawea Vercoe

The whanau of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Rotoiti will today unveil a memorial garden for the school’s former principal, Hawea Vercoe.

The 36-year-old was hit and killed a year ago by an Opotiki man, who is currently serving a prison term for manslaughter.

Acting principal Tammy Gardiner says the memorial, which includes a wetland beside Lake Rotoiti, shows the love the community still feels.

WI PERE BOOK IMPORTANT FOR MANA OF IWI

Maori Affairs minister Pita Sharples says a new biography of Poverty Bay leader Wi Pere is the sort of history that needs to be available in the nation's schools.

Wi Pere, from Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga a Mahaki, represented Eastern Maori for four terms between 1884 and 1905, and spent a further five years on the legislative council.

As well as fighting to preserve Maori culture and customs, he created a sound foundation for his hapu, which is now one of the largest Maori land-based businesses.

Dr Sharples says the book by Wi Pere’s great grandson, Joseph Anaru Hetekia Te Kani Pere, is an impressive work of scholarship.

“It's very important for the mana of our iwi and we’ve got to do this with all our leaders, bring this stuff out, so when we talk about the early settlers, we’re not just talking about the Pakeha ones that came out here and did stuff but our own history which is absent from our schools,” Dr Sharples

TE KANAWA GOLDIE SETS RECORD PRICE

A growing interest in artworks with Maori subjects is being credited for the record price for a painting at auction in Auckland on Friday night.

A South Island buyer paid $573,000 for a Charles Frederick Goldie portrait of Rutene Te Uamairangi , popularly known as Forty Winks, out of the collection of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Richard Thomson, the director of the International Art Centre, says there is no recession when it comes to such works.

Another work in the auction, an 1865 painting by an unknown artist of a Maori selling crayfish on the Auckland waterfront, sold for $18,000.

KEY KEEN ON WHANAU ORA CHANGE

The Prime Minister, John Key, says the launch of the first Whanau Ora centres is a pointer to the way health and social service delivery will change.

Centres were opened in Hamilton and Taumarunui last week by Toiora, a Waikato-based public health organisation funded by the Ministry of Health.

Mr Key says the focus needs to shift from treating people as isolated individuals.

“The aim is to reorient things back in the family. It’s a combination of personal responsibility, but also trying to recognise that within families it’s a complex unit and just the Crown coming in or the government coming in and dealing with one issue won’t fix all the issues that family faces,” Mr Key says.

TAURANGA MOKO SHOP A WHANAU TRADITION

Visitors to Tauranga’s Historic Village will now have the opportunity to get a traditional tattoo.

Moana Moko opened its Te Rua Moko studio on Friday, providing a permanent home for Pohe and Rikirau Luttenberger and their cousin Stu Wararahi McDonald.

Pohe Luttenberger says there are eight active ta moko artists in the whanau, and they see it as being a family tradition, with their whakapapa including many not only tohunga ta moko but tohunga whakairo or carvers.

Moana Moko expects to be inundated with work in its new home, especially in the run up to Christmas.

MILKY BAR KID A KURA KID

A Rotorua kura kaupapa student says she feels overwhelmed at being chosen the new Milky Bar Kid.

Eight year old Hinetaapora Short got more the 11,000 votes to get on the shortlist.

She’s looking forward to coming to Auckland today to film a television advertisement … and to get paid so she can go shopping.

Hinetaapora Short, who is at Te Kura o te Koutu, is fluent in Maori and she is also studying Spanish.

Urban authorities make play for whanau ora

The head of west Auckland-based Waipareira Trust says urban Maori authorities are likely to be major providers of services under Whanau Ora.

John Tamihere is holding a hui tonight at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere to inform the community how the new integrated health and welfare service will be rolled out in south Auckland.

He says it's not a job that iwi groups should assume they have a monopoly on.

“We have always respected and supported mana whenua’s rights to look after their preferential beneficiary base. I’m not part of that. Tens of thousands of Maori in Auckland are not part of Ngati Whatua or part of Waikato. We have forged a new way of protecting our interests in town and good on the mana whenua people, but we have never given up our mana tangata and never will,” Mr Tamihere says.

A joint whanau ora bid by the National Urban Maori Authority will bring together groups like Waipareira, Te Runanga o Kirikiriroa in Hamilton, Te Runanga Awhina ki Porirua and Maata Waka in Christchurch, which already deliver services to more than 300,000 Maori,

GREENS SEEK VOTES IN BRINY DEEPS

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei wants the courts to determine whether Maori have customary title to seabed in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone beyond the 12 mile limit.

Ms Turei says the Government shouldn't be issuing permits to explore or exploit offshore oil and gas until the question is decided.

She says there are many iwi which would want to be party to such a case.

“There are no laws, New Zealand laws, that apply to seabed beyond the 12 mile limit. The Resource Management Act doesn’t apply. So the question becomes, was that ever extinguished? If customary title as determined under tikanga Maori before 1840 extended beyond the 12 mile limit, arguably those areas beyond the 12 mile limit have never been extinguished by an act of law, and therefore customary title exists,” Ms Turei says.

MARAE FOOD SAFETY TICKET TO JOB

A south Auckland marae has become the first to get its kitchen certified as a commercial kitchen.

Manurewa Marae has been taking part in the New Zealand Food Safety Authority's Kai Manawa Ora project, which aims to prevent food-borne illnesses coming out of hui.

Project coordinator Raniera Basset says ringa wera are given training in food handling which can give them a basis for further accreditation.

“A lot of our people when they get this ticket, there’s an opportunity for them to work on their marae but also to go the local cafeteria or restaurant and say ‘are there any jobs going,’” Mr Basset says.

The Manurewa Marae kitchen has also earned an A rating from the Manukau City Council's food safety team.

ENGLISH DEFENDS NATIONAL STANDARDS PUSH

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says Maori teachers need to give national standards more time to work.

The annual hui of the NZEI Te Rau Roa's Maori arm called for the government to pull back on the new testing regime and run pilots to determine whether they will achieve the desired outcomes.

But Mr English says measuring every child against a national standard will ensure they get the teaching they need.

“Everyone has a common objective which is to raise the achievement of children. That’s particularly important for Maori children and there is I think basic agreement about the method which is find out what the child knows and doesn’t know and teach them what they don’t know and it’s just a matter of implementing that system and it’s going to be bit testing because some schools haven’t done this and it’s difficult for them,” he says.

Mr English says national standards will give parents the information they need to get more involved in their child's education,

BODY LANGUAGE INCLUDED IN CROSS CULTURAL STUDY

Canterbury University researchers believe their work on Maori body language can help break down cultural barriers.

Project leader Jeanette King from the New Zealand Institute of Language says the project is looking at differences in the way Maori and Pakeha communicate, including not only oral language but facial expression, posture and body language.

She says the differences come through in both English and Maori.
“(That) te reo Maori is a language which uses this aspect of communication so richly is a wonderful source and inspiration for us because it’s full of all these gestural aspects,” Dr King says.

Her research will build on the Joan Metge and Patricia Kinloch's 1978 book Talking Past Each Other, which identified the cross-cultural difference.

FUNDING CONFIRMED FOR HAWKES BAY MUSEUM OVERHAUL

The director of the Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery says an $18 million dollar redevelopment will allow the institution to better display its nationally-significant collection of taonga Maori.

The government has announced it's putting $6 million into the project through the regional museums policy, with the rest of the money coming from Napier City Council and public donations.

Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins says the museum was founded in the 1850s by pioneer missionary and printer William Colenso, and was also associated with scholar Augustus Hamilton and premier Donald McLean, who between them laid the foundations for the largest Maori collection outside the main centres.

Among the treasures include 120 cloaks, including rare dogskin examples, which illustrate the depth and complexity of the collection.

The Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery will close at the end of the month and reopen in 2013, with 15 new galleries.

National standards’ shock hits home

The NZEI's Maori vice president says Maori parents are being told their children aren't meeting the government's new national standards, but they're not told what to do about it.

The annual hui of the union's Te Reo Areare Maori council yesterday condemned the way the standards had been imposed, and called for trials to assess their impact on Maori pupils.

Laures Park says many of the 200 teachers at the hui are also parents, and they are getting the first reports under the new system.

“The schools have said their children are not meeting the standard or are at risk and that I think is when it hit home for them. In talking to the teachers, they are uncertain what they are doing as well and the difficulty is no one has had that conversation with the teachers and with the whanau to support their tamariki through this whole exercise,” Ms Park says.

She says the Maori Party, which supports the national standards policy, needs to understand that measuring under-achievement isn't the same a doing something about it.

MARAE MAPS TO LEAD PEOPLE HOME

Veteran broadcaster Rereata Makiha says new technology will help people track down historical marae and pa sites.

Te Potiki National Trust, which was formed by Mr Makiha and former Auckland Museum Maori curator Paul Tapsell, has been given $44,000 by the ASB Community Trust to map all marae present and past in Auckland and Northland.

He says the resulting publication will include GPS coordinates, so people can find the sites, even if like many they are on the back of farms and hidden from view.

“The idea of mapping the marae was first of all as a road map to get young people home, whether it’s to do repairs, whether it’s to plant Maori trees around the marae for Matariki, all those activities the marae can decide on, so basically it’s to get our young people back to the marae,” Mr Makiha says.

He has already identified more than 100 marae sites north of Hokianga, and believes there are more than 1400 nationwide.

WEKA CAMPAIGN PICKING UP MOMENTUM

A campaign to stop the Department of Conservation culling weka on Open Bay Island off South Westland is picking up momentum.

The Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, says the colony of 100 weka are killing lizards and raiding penguin nests.

But Ngai Tahu man Rawa Karetai, whose family has traditionally harvested kai from the Open Bay and Mutton Bird islands, says the birds should be relocated, not killed.

He says a Facebook Page opposing the Open Island weka cull has already attracted more than 400 members.

WHANAU ORA PLAN FOR CITY ROLL-OUT

Auckland's urban Maori authorities will reveal today how it intends to roll out whanau ora services in south Auckland.

Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere says while the government is yet to approve a collective bid by the National Urban Maori Authority to be a provider under the new integrated social service delivery model, it's a kaupapa the authorities have been pursuing for years.

He says this evening's hui at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere will hear how collaboration and cooperation is the key to whanau ora.

“If people don't want to collaboration and cooperate, then they have to account for the dollars they get for the services they provide to our community and that’s everything from schools to health providers to welfare providers, education providers, justice providers, government as well as non-government. We want people to be accountable for the dollar values they achieve in our name but do not perform or account to us for the expenditure of those dollars,” Mr Tamihere says.

The hui starts at 6.

BOER WAR RIFLES SYMBOL OF BICULTURAL HAURAKI

A Thames based Maori health trust has bought a set of 15 Boer War rifles for its art gallery.

Hugh Kinninmonth, the chief executive of Te Korowai Hauora O Hauraki, says the purchase was a way to encourage respect for the bicultural history of the region.

The Thames rifles are the only known complete set from the 600 rifles sent back from South Africa in 1904 to be displayed in public buildings around the land.

Mr Kinninmonth says the display at the trust's complex in the former Brian Boru Hotel draws attention to the achievements of Wata Te Huihana, who enlisted in the Boer War under the name Walter Callaway and became the first Maori to earn commission as an officer.

He says it’s a taonga for the whole community and a bridge between the Maori and European history of Hauraki.

ARCHIVES SEEK TREASURES FOR CONSERVATION

The Film Archive's Maori project developer wants whanau to send in footage to ensure historical recordings are not lost.

Dianne Pivac says many film formats decompose over time, but the archive has the necessary temperature controlled storage to protect them.

She says whanau can avoid the heartbreak that comes with finding precious old footage has corroded.

“We're always very interested to hear from people who have film and we are also just at the beginning of a great big project called saving frames where the government has given us to some money to help us iun the urgent task of repairing and storing films properly, so the conservation side of our work is full steam ahead, Ms Pivac says.

A classic from the New Zealand Film Archive, the 1929 feature Under the Southern Cross, will get a run at this month's film festivals.

Whanau ora regional leaders sought

Nominations have opened for people willing to serve on regional leadership groups for the new Whanau Ora service delivery programme.

Rob Cooper, the chair of the Whanau Ora Governance Group, says Te Puni Kokiri will be looking for people who are well known in their communities and are able to give clear advice about the sort of issues those communites are facing.

The groups will also include representatives from the ministries of Health and Social Development and Te Puni Kokiri.

He says their first task will be to assist in the selection of the whanau ora providers in their regions.

“There will be an important ongoing role in advising us about how the resources that are already funded for are being better applied basically. We see this as a way of enhancing the performance of everyone engaged in the whanau ora strategy,” Mr Cooper says.

He says as the government gains more confidence in Whanau Ora, the regional leadership groups may be called on to suggest new areas it can move into.

URBAN MAORI STILL HAVE TO BATTLE FOR RESOURCES

The country's newest dame says the battle between urban Maori groups and traditional iwi is continuing.

Dame June Jackson was knighted for her work in a range of fields, including running the Manukau Urban Maori Authority for two decades and for her long service on the Probation Board.

She says while the divide isn't as sharp as it was during the fisheries settlement allocation debate when MUMA had to go as far as the Privy Council to get the interests of urban Maori acknowledged, there is still competition for resources.

“It hasn't been easy for us. We have to fight for everything we do. We are just not included because the tribes say ‘you should go back to your people.’ That’s all well and good, but a lot of Maori migrated to the cities after the war, so you have this new group of Maori established away from the wa kainga,” Dame June says.

NORTH AMERICA BECKONS FOR MAORI ARTISTS

Rotorua artist June Grant is on her way to Canada to show work inspired by native American philosophies.

She is teaming up with pounamu carver Lewis Tamehana Gardiner and Tim Paul from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation of Vancouver Island for an exhibition on the Moon Mothers who care for the earth.

Mrs Grant, who was this week made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Maori art and tourism, has been showing at the Spirit Wrestler Gallery since the early 1990s.

She says gallery co founder Nigel Reading has a strong connection to New Zealand through his Christchurch-born father.

TREATY TITLE OPTION TO PROTECT FORESHORE AND SEABED

A leading constitutional scholar has endorsed a proposal for joint ownership of the foreshore and seabed put up by the iwi leaders group.

Alex Frame, who headed the Treaty of Waitangi Policy Unit, the predecessor of the Office of Treaty Settlements, says the idea is similar to the notion of a treaty title, which he put in a submission to select committee hearing the original Foreshore and Seabed Act.

The government wants to replace Crown ownership of the foreshore with a concept of public domain, and is resisting iwi pressure to acknowledge the Maori interest.

Dr Frame says it's possible to vest the foreshore in seabed in the Treaty of Waitangi in a way which locks in all three articles of the treaty.

“Article one is the government’s regulatory function. Government still has power to exclude nuclear ships or whatever. Article two as to protected Maori rights, so that customary rights have a field in which they can be demonstrated, and article three, as to the legal equality of all citizens,” Dr Frame says.

He says a treaty council consisting of members appointed by the Crown and Maori could oversee the law and sort out any local disputes.

MANAWATU IWI SEEKING RIVER CO-MANAGEMENT

Manuwatu iwi are not giving up on getting a co-management deal for their awa similar to the Waikato River settlement.

Chris Finlayson, the Minister for Treaty Negotiations, has indicated he doesn't want to repeat of the multi-party Waikato deal because if its complexity.

But Danielle Harris, the principal negotiator for Rangitaane o Manuwatu, says the iwi's priority is finding the most effective way to clean up the Manawatu River.

“Well I can't pre-empt the outcome of a negotiation process. All I can say is iut is part of our discussions with the Crown,” she says.

Rangitane is also part of an iwi forum negotiating with Horizons Regional Council on river management issues.

TOBACCO PRICE HIKE UPS STRESS FOR SMOKERS

A Maori health researcher and general practitioner says the rise in tax on tobacco could actually increase the amount Maori smoke.

Papers released to Radio New Zealand revealed Treasury opposed the April excise tax increase promoted by the Maori Party because it

Matire Harwood, who edits the Maori health review, says a recent United States study of smoking cessation efforts among Latino, African-American and Caucasian groups found people are less likely to stop smoking when they are under financial strain.

“When people are smoking, when they are addicted to tobacco, they’re going to find the money from somewhere in order to meet their addiction so put increased strain on the family which will create a cycle of ongoing smoking to reduce their stress,” Dr Harwood says.

The Government should research what smoking cessation programmes work with different groups and resource those.

Three strikes law undermines feel good politics

Green co-leader Meteria Turei says Maori are missing out from the National-led government in areas where it really matters.

She says in spite of feel good policies like Whanau Ora and Maori flags, it's actions like the rise in GST and the three strikes policy which will really hit Maori families hard.

Ms Turei says the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, which is being pushed through Parliament today by National with ACT's support, will further embed discrimination in the justice system against Maori.

“This Government is not interested in what is fair or what is just. They’re not genuinely interested in Maori issues as we saw with what John Key did to Tuhoe. They’re trying to present a nice face but it’s crumbling and we’re starting to see the real National Party, their real attitudes to Maori in particular come through,” Ms Turei says.

Maori already are more likely to be arrested and face longer sentences than non-Maori for similar crimes, so they are likely to run out of strikes much faster.

NGAPUHI LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE

Ngapuhi has launched a web site to bring its members together during the treaty settlement process.

Sonny Tau, the chair of Te Runanga o Ngaphui, says only 13 percent of the tribe's 120,000 members live in Northland.

He says the tuhoronuku.com site is a way to generate contributions from people outside the rohe.

“The ideas should some from the grass roots people and we have constant dialogue with our people but there are those who for whatever reason are locked away from getting involved with iwi but this is a real initiative that takes Ngapuhi into the homes, into the bedrooms of every Ngapuhi,” Mr Tau says.

Interest round the Waitangi Tribunal hearings, which started last week, is driving traffic to the site.

TARANAKI WARS STILL RELEVANT IN MODERN ERA

The editor of a new book on the Taranaki Wars believes the conflict is relevant to those living in the modern era.

Contested Ground - Te Whenua i Tohea covers the two decades from the first shots fired in 1860 at Wiremu Kingi's pa in Waitara, Te Kohia, through to the invasion of Parihaka in 1881.

It includes essays by 11 academics and historians including Hazel Riseborough, Danny Keenan, Peter Adds and John and Hilary Mitchell, and is illustrated by images and taonga held by New Plymouth's Puke Ariki Museum.

Kelvin Day says although the Taranaki Wars started 150 years ago, they resonate today

“Unless we do understand what happened back then, how can we understand the healing process for today and understand why the Waitangi Tribunal claims are happening and why we get the headlines in the paper we do. The origin for a lot of those rests in that 1860s to 1880s period,” Mr Day says.

Contested Ground is published by Huia Publishers in association with Puke Ariki.

TAURANGA STRIPS PROTECTION FROM WAAHI TAPU

Ngai Terangi is shocked at Tauranga City Council's moves to cut more than half of the sites designated as significant Maori areas from the district plan.

Iwi resource manager Dee Samuel says the final draft removes 74 of the 126 significant Maori areas, so they can be developed without any consideration of their historic value.

He says while the sites are not registered under the Historic Places Act, they were designated as significant by elders when previous plans were drawn up and should not be set aside at the stroke of a planner's pen.

He says it was like a kick in the guts to the iwi and indicated some deep seated problem in council.

Mr Samuel says any site should be thoroughly examined before a decision is made to remove them from the plan.

HOROMIA AMAZED AT KEY’S CANDIDNESS

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson expects short rations for Maori in tomorrow's Budget.

Parekura Horomia says the biggest item is likely to be the $34 million a year spent setting up Whanau Ora - and that's less than the Prime Minister is intending to spend on a national cycleway.

He says adding insult to injury is John Key's comment that other New Zealanders should not be jealous if the rich get more from tomorrow's Budget tax package.

PLASTIC POWHIRI FOR A PLASTIC MOUSE

MP Shane Jones has slammed a powhiri in Auckland for Mickey Mouse as a welcome too far.

The billion dollar rodent was welcomed to Vector Arena by kapa haka group Te Puru o Tamaki in advance of the Disney on Ice show which opens tomorrow.

The Northland-based Labour list MP says such dial-a-powhiri put the credibility of the ceremony and Maori culture at risk.

“If we want Maori ceremony and Maori culture to be taken seriously and to be respected, then we don’t drop our cultural trou and do a powhiri for Mickey and Minnie Mouse,” Mr Jones says.

He says kapa haka is becoming more a sport and less an expression of traditional culture.

Bad faith act threatens treaty policy

The Maori Party is asking whether Prime Minister John Key has broken the treaty settlement process.

Co-leader Tariana Turia says Mr Key's vetoing of a proposal to return Te Urewera National Park to Tuhoe showed bad faith.

The Prime Minister has denied there was agreement the park land would be included in the final settlement package, but Mrs Turia says all the signs are it was.

“Tuhoe clearly believed from a hui that they held just the day before that they had an agreement in principle and who have that withdrawn in the way that it was has created a feeling that anybody’s settlement can be withdrawn at whim,” Mrs Turia says.

She says John Key's action was clearly driven by the National Party's polling and by pressure from party members attending a regional conference the previous weekend.

GEOTHERMAL PROFITS TO FUEL HAPU DEVELOPMENT

A Taupo Maori trust intends to use profits from a new geothermal power station for development of the whole hapu rather than paying individual dividends to beneficiaries.

Tauhara North Number 2 has a 25 percent stake in Mighty River Power's 140 megawatt Nga Awa Purua plant at Rotokawa, which opened at the weekend.
Trust chief executive Aroha Campbell says the 785 Ngati Tahu owners agreed to forego annual dividends.

“The challenge for the trustis to come up with new ideas round sponsorships, scholarships, education and well being,” Ms Campbell says.

She says the trust is also working closely with the Ngatu Tahu Ngati Whaua Runanga in Reporoa on ways to benefit the hapu as a whole.

Construction on the second of three power stations the trust is building with Mighty River Power will start later this year.

VETERAN DANCERS SHOW OFF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MOVES

Contemporary dancer Taane Mete says tonight's performance at the Hawkes Bay Opera House will give his whanau to see how his career developed after he left his Napier home more than two decades ago.

Mr Mete, from Ngati Koroki, developed Tama Maa with fellow dancer Tai Royal for the Tempo Dance Festival in Auckland in 2008.

He says it's an autobiographical work, showing the transition from boyhood to manhood, and allows them to show off the skills they've mastered.

They have taken parts of the piece to a dance festival in the United States, and they will tour it to Australia later this year.

BULK UP MESSAGE FOR WHANAU ORA

The minister in charge of the new Whanau Ora programme wants social service providers to team up to deliver services.

Tariana Turia says there is huge interest in the policy, with hui to explain the new funding model attracting between 300 and 600 people.

She says delivering a wrap-around health and welfare service to families will stretch the capacity of many existing organisations, and they may need to reconfigure themselves or merge to realise the programme's potential.

“This is not another opportunity to industrialise our whanaus’ misery. We’re saying to people, ‘do not see this as a programme, do not see it as an opportunity to get a lot more money.’ We want this money to be as close as possible to the whanau, hence whanau ora,” Mrs Turia says.

There will only be 20 accredited Whanau Ora providers, so the size of those providers will be an important factor in who gets the contracts.

HAURAKI SHARE SENSE OF BETRAYAL WITH TUHOE

The chair of Hauraki's kaumatua council says the Government's refusal to return Te Urewera National Park to Ngai Tuhoe is mirrored by his iwi's experience.

Jim Nichols says in both cases the Crown acquired land unjustly, and it's refusing to give it back.

He says like Tuhoe, Hauraki is still waiting for the government to honour commitments made in the late 19th century.

“In Hauraki they said ‘we promise to give you your land back, we only want it to mine the gold.’ When the gold mining ceased, they did not give the land back. And that is the basis our treaty claims are in front of the Crown right now,” Mr Nicholls says.

The Hauraki Kaumatua Kaunihera delivered a firm message last week to Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee that the iwi will oppose his plans to reopen the Coromandel for mining.

MAORI ARTISTS FLY FLAG FOR AOTEAROA IN WORLD MUSIC

Despite it being New Zealand Music Month, Maori musicians say they're doing better on the world market than at home.

Ngahiwi Apanui, the chair of Puatatangi Contemporary Maori Music, says lack of airplay outside of iwi stations means Maori acts aren't picking up the local sales they merit.

That's forcing many to look for opportunities offshore.

“Talking to people who have been going overseas, groups they talk about are not ones you hear about through the mainstream press like OpShop. They’re talking abut groups like Wai, Moana and Pacific Curls, they’re the people that are distinctive for New Zealand on the world music scene,” Mr Apanui says.

This year's Pao Pao Pao symposium and concert at Pipitea Marae on Friday and Saturday could uncover the next Maori world music star.

Coastal rights way a dangerous path

Labour list MP Shane Jones says Attorney General Chris Finlayson is treading a dangerous path with his suggestion Maori should negotiate with him for customary rights rather than go through the courts.

The Maori Party has criticised Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act for stopping the courts looking at foreshore claims.

Mr Finlayson told TV3 on the weekend that while his suggested reform of the Act reinstates access to the courts, he'd encourage iwi to talk to him instead.

He also agreed iwi who got customary title could lease the coast to outsiders for resort development.

Mr Jones says that's an alarming prospect.

“I just think it's really unwise before the public hui are over the minister is gaily announcing he doesn’t know what seabed customary title is but he’s more than keen for all and sundry to traipse up to his office and they’ll make it up in some sort of patchwork nature around the coastline. I fear the coastline will end up with this quilt of uneven, half baked, hotchpotch deals,” he says.

Chris Finlayson is holding a consultation meeting in south Auckland this evening, and he'll be in Gisborne for hui and public meetings tomorrow.

EDEN PARK DRESSING ROOM SHAME RECALLED

An Anglican Bishop has described the Maori rugby team's shame at being told to throw a game against South Africa.

Muru Walters was the 22-year-old fullback for the New Zealand Maori team against the touring 1956 Springboks.

He says before the game in Auckland, Maori affairs minister Ernest Corbett told the team if it won, New Zealand would never be invited to tour South Africa again.
Bishop Walters says the message contributed to the Maori team's 37-nil trouncing.

“That was a pretty destructive message to deliver before a game and a crowd of about 61,000 and it ripped the guts out of the spirits of our team. I was only a young person then but I saw my experienced friends just throw in the towel. It was an amazing transformation. Senior leaders capitulated to government direct interference,” Bishop Walters says.

He says in the centenary of Maori rugby, Maori deserve an apology for the way they were treated during the apartheid era.

MAORI BUSINESS URGED TO NETWORK

The Ministry of Maori development is encouraging Maori businesses to find ways to work more closely together.

Te Puni Kokiri hosted a Maori business network dinner bringing together a range of business owners working in community development, security, animation and wine companies.

Martin Mariassouce, TPK's commercial development manager says as Maori business expands beyond fishing, farming and forestry, business owners often find themselves isolated from other Maori.

He says Maori businesses should make an effort to find other Maori suppliers for the goods and services they need.

WHANAU ORA WILL CREATE STAFF DEMAND

The chief executive of Hawkes Bay's largest Maori heath provider says Whanau Ora scheme will opens up opportunities for trained Maori health workers.

Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga already employs more than 150 people, and it's holding seminars to encourage other Maori to consider health careers.

Alayna Watene says the new method of integrated service delivery to Maori families will create a demand for professional health and welfare workers with cultural competence.

“There's going to be a huge workforce required that is culturally and professionally safe in their practice. It’s no longer the days when you can send well meaning nannies and aunties and uncles out to advise and give counsel to whanau with multiple complex,” Ms Watene says.

CAPTAIN CONFIRMS BISHOP’S TEAM NOBBLING STORY

The captain of the 1956 Maori All Blacks has confirmed the team was told to lose its game against the touring Springboks.

Some rugby journalists have questioned a claim by fullback Muru Walters that the minister of Maori affairs told the team to throw the match for the good of rugby.

But Hapi Potae from Ngati Porou and Tainui remembers the team manager, Ralph Love, confirming the minister's message.

He says its effect was seen on the field, where the Maori's woeful tackling and lack of attack saw them go down 37-nil.

“That game in Eden Park was a disgrace. I actually felt so embarrassed that I went over and crossed from Eden Park over to the railway line and it was embarrassing.

Mr Potae says the reasons for the defeat were not something team members liked to talk about, and certainly not to Pakeha.

NEW POLICY COULD DRAIN FUNDS FROM OLD PROGRAMMES

Labour leader Phil Goff says good social service providers will be axed to provide money for Whanau Ora.

Mr Goff says the lack of transparency around the new Maori-oriented health and welfare delivery programme indicates poor planning by the government.

He says it's becoming clear Whanau Ora is about politics and making the Maori Party look good rather than delivering real change to Maori families.

MOA AND MORE BONES BRING BLESSINGS TO DEVONPORT

Auckland iwi combined today to bless human remains found during foundation work for a new navy museum at Devonport's Torpedo Bay.

The Historic Places trust says last week's find of koiwi as well as moa bones, an adze head and other artifacts indicate Maori occupation of the site more than 500 years ago, making it one of the earliest sites found.

Eru Thompson from Tainui says kaumatua from Ngati Whatua, Ngati Paoa and Ngai Tai where joined by officers from the navy at the blessing ceremony.

He says the navy was happy to stop the excavation of an area which is near where the navigator Kupe is thought to have landed about 900 AD.

Whanau Ora whakapapa points to autonomy

Maori Party president Whatarangi Winiata says the Whanau Ora model for government service delivery is a belated expression of the reforms recommended in Puao Te Ata Tu.

He say the recommendations for Maori autonomy in the late John Rangihau's groundbreaking 1986 review of the Department of Social Welfare fell on deaf ears at the time.

But party co-leader Tariana Turia, who was a Maori Affairs community welfare officer at the time, has never forgotten the message.

“It's not going to go away, that is the aspirations to determine our own future, to have Maori management of matters Maori, to have those who know the culture prescribing for the culture, and that is what Whanau Ora is going to do,” Professor Winiata says.

KAHUNGUNU BOOSTING HEALTH WORKFORCE OPTION

Hawkes Bay Maori health and social service provider Te Taiwhenua O Heretaunga is holding seminars to encourage Maori into the health workforce.

Chief executive Alayna Watene says the Whakamahi Atu series is aimed at students and workers who may doubt they have the skills needed.

Some of Taiwhenua's 160 staff are sharing their experiences of career development.

“Many of the vocations or career opportunities available aren’t easy for them to aspire to because they think it’s unattainable. Having workers that can fit into any job setting around the country, as part of their commitment to the kaupapa was giving back to the whanau by sharing their personal stories,” Ms Watene says.

Whanau Ora will create opportunities for more Maori health workers.

NICHE SPECIALISATION AND AROHA WORKING FOR TIME

An award-winning tourism company says being small and specialised can work for Maori operators.

TIME Unlimited Tours in Auckland has won a global award for its website from eco-tourism magazine Planeta.com and the secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Director Ceillhe Sperath from Ngapuhi says the website is part of a company philosophy to give visitors the information they are looking for to make their stay in Aotearoa one to remember.

“They really want to meet the locals. They want to ask us the questions that they wouldn’t ask in a bigger group and you become friends. We keep getting told it’s like being shown around by a family friend. That’s probably one of the success elements, we don’t do large groups and we like to learn as much about them as they learn about us,” Ceillhe Sperath says.

Just over 48 percent of contributors to the Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award voted for the TIME Unlimited site, compared with just 21 percent for the second placegetter.

CLUB MED IWI FORESHORE TOO FAR FOR JONES

Labour's economic development spokesperson, Shane Jones, has slammed a suggestion by the Attorney General that customary title means Maori could partner with foreign companies to develop Club Med style resorts along the coast.

Chris Finlayson made the suggestion on TV3's The Nation show on the weekend.

Mr Jones says that's not what the public expects to come out of the consultation on a replacement for Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act.

“Well the implication of what Chris Finlayson was saying is that he envisages a situation where foreign interests will have substantial opportunities to create major enterprises along with some hapu or something like that in the seabed and foreshore. That’s a very new and almost sinister turn to this whole process,” Mr Jones says.

He says after criticising Labour for leaving it to the High Court to determine customary title, Mr Finlayson now says he will grant rights through negotiation with individual iwi.

Foreshore and Seabed consultation hui will be held today at Puatahi Marae on the Kaipara Harbour at noon and Butterfly Creek near Auckland Airport at six.

MERIDIAN GIVES WHY FOR NGATI WAEWAE PAY-OFF

Meridian Energy is welcoming Ngai Tahu support for its plans to build a giant hydro dam on the Mokihinui River north of Westport.

A weekend hui by the Ngati Waewae hapu endorsed a decision to withdraw opposition to the $300 million project, which has just got planning consent from the West Coast regional and Buller district councils.

Meridian spokesperson Alan Seay says it's undeniable the dam and its associated infrastructure will have an impact on the river, so it made sense to offer Te Runanaga o Ngati Waewae compensation to fund cultural initiatives.

“We obviously understand that the local iwi is going to have a very particular point of view, that this is a landscape that’s very important to them and we want top do the very best we can to take those interests into account and we’re very happy we’ve come to an agreement,” Mr Seay says.

Details of the mitigation agreement are confidential, but the money will only be paid if the project goes ahead.

BISHOP DEMANDS APOLOGY BEFORE FORGIVENESS

One of the greats of Maori rugby says New Zealand government should apologise for its past complicity in Maori being excluded from teams touring South Africa.

Muru Walters, who probably missed selection from the 1960 All Blacks because of the ban, says the Rugby Union had the full backing of the government of the time.

That extended to the minister of Maori affairs, Ernest Corbett, visiting the dressing room before the Maori game on the 1956 Springbok tour of New Zealand and telling the team that for the good of rugby it must not win.

“We had never had an apology from the South African government, neither have we had one from the New Zealand government, both of whom took a strong measure of direct political interference not to include Maori,” Bishop Walters says.

He will ask Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples to seek a joint apology to Maori Rugby from both governments.

Whanau Ora needs to heed lesson of Puao Te Ata Tu

A former Maori Affairs deputy secretary the Government could be setting up its Whanau Ora service delivery model to fail.

Neville Baker says the problems identified by the Whanau Ora taskforce are the same as those in the 1986 Puao Te Ata Tu report on social welfare.

Mr Baker, who chairs Waiwhetu Marae-based Maori service provider Te Runanganui o Taranaki Whanui, says an opportunity was missed then because government officials pushed back against recommendations to devolve service delivery to the Maori community.

“I’m reminded of the fact that it became part of the government’s planning to deliver to Maori rather than the ability of the Crown to say to Maori you lead this and we will resource you to make it all happen,” Mr Baker says.

He says Whanau Ora leaves too much control with the central government agencies.

NEW PHDS CELEBRATED AT TURANGAWAEWAE

The latest crop of Maori PhDs have been celebrated at Te Amorangi National Maori Academic Excellence Awards hosted by Waikato University.

The 25 graduates gained doctorates over the past year in disciplines ranging from biochemistry and computer science to tourism and entrepreneurship.

Maori affairs minister Pita Sharples, who as at Turangawaewae Marae for the ceremony, says when he graduated only five Maori had doctorates, but now there are more than 500 Maori PhDs.

“Now every second person I run into is a doctor and that has to be good. Doctors in science and marine biology and all sorts of things, it’s very exciting,” Dr Sharples says.

HOME MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES RAW MATERIAL FOR ART

Ngati Porou artist Rangituhia Hollis is using home movies, 3D animation and video games to question mainstream media depictions of Maori.

Hollis’s Kapua 1.0 show is on now at the artist-run Enjoy gallery in Wellington.

The name is drawn from the fictional East Coast town in the 1987 film Ngati, which Hollis sees as a counter to much of what is shown about Maori.

“I was looking to draw something positive and also give form to that negative media so that it could be seen so that perhaps it could be something to be dealt with and I think the answer lies with hapu and whanau and iwi being resistant to forms of colonisation,” Mr Hollis says.

His next art project is a Maori video game that can be accessed over the Internet.

WHANAU ORA NEEDS MAORI BACKING TO SUCCEED

The chair of a Lower Hutt Maori service provider says the whanau ora won’t work unless Maori people are able to embrace it as their own.

Neville Baker says the new government service delivery programme is similar to the Tamaiti Whangai scheme Te Runanganui o Taranaki Whanui is running out of Waiwhetu Marae, where advocates work with families to improve their health, education and employment opportunities.

But the former Maori Affairs deputy secretary says the report of the Whanau Ora taskforce released last week isn’t written in language that will appeal the ordinary Maori, and government agencies retain too much control of the programme.

“Historically we have been involved in trade training and kohanga reo and a whole lot of initiatives where Maori people have actually been the drivers. What’s going to happen here in my view is that you need to recreate that sort of situation so people really do get behind this and make it work for themselves. I don’t see righty now that there is clarity about how this might occur,” Mr Baker says.

SOUTHERN WAIKATO TRIBES MOVING TOWARDS CLAIM TALKS

Waikato iwi Ngati Haua and Ngati Koroki Kahukura are completing mandating to allow them to enter treaty settlement talks.

Consultant Willie Te Aho says Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson has written to the iwi indicating a start date of late June.

The iwi with 8000 registered members between them own less than five percent their original tribal domain east of the Waikato River from Mangakino to Karapiro, taking in Matamata and Morrinsville.

“We’re looking at the return of significant areas like Maungatautere to the ownership of the iwi. We’re looking for the same for sites like Karapiro and also ensuring that our voice on the river like the Maori Affairs select committee is also heard with respect to our tupuna awa,” Mr Te Aho says.

The iwi are keen on co-management arrangements with local authorities.

MOA BONES UNEARTHED BELOW DEVONPORT BASE

Maori bones and Maori artifacts have been found at a place linked to the great Polynesian navigator Kupe.

Historic Places Trust regional archaeologist Bev Parslow says the bones, adze head and other items were found during work to convert buildings at the Devonport Naval Base at Torpedo Bay in to a navy museum.

She says it shows Maori occupied the site as early as the 1500s.

“We’re thinking it’s an early Maori site because the artifacts, though quite limited, suggest there was moa being exploited and hunted and eaten on the site, so it could have been as early as 500 years ago,” Ms Parslow says.

Kupe is believed to have landed at the bay about 900, naming it Te Hau Kapua or cloud bank carried along by the wind, and the Tainui canoe also landed nearby.

Sharples disappointed at government caution

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says the Maori Party didn't get as much as it wanted for Whanau Ora, but there is enough to start the new system for delivering health and welfare services to Maori families.

John Tamihere, the chief executive of Waipareira Trust which hope to deliver Whanau Ora in west Auckland, has slammed the Government's refusal to put new money in.

But Dr Sharples says money has been reallocated within the health, social development and Maori affairs budgets to set up the necessary infrastructure.

“We expected big biccies and what he is saying really is this programme has got to be properly embraced by government. What government is saying is, ‘Look it’s brand new, we’re not sure how it is going to go, we have to exercise caution.’ The two views are absolutely appropriate at this time but I agree with John that it would be good to have government come behind this full bore,” Dr Sharples says.

He says the Maori Party accepts the Government doesn't have spare money as the country climbs out of recession.

NEW PHDS READY FOR TRIBAL CHALLENGES

The latest crop of Maori PhD graduates from around the country are having their achievements acknowledged at a Turangawaewae Marae in Ngaruawahia tonight.

Graham Hingangaroa Smith, the chief executive of Te Wananga o Awanuiarangi, says the 25 graduates bring the total of Maori PhDs to well over the 500 he was aiming for when he launched the higher education strategy at the start of the decade.

He says the Maori economy and society needs highly-qualified people, especially as tribes move into post-settlement development.

Professor Smith says many of this year's recipients of Te Amorangi National Maori Excellence awards are scientists, which is a good sign for building Maori capacity.

VOYAGING WAKA TESTED ON WAITEMATA HARBOUR

Four double-hulled voyaging waka will be put through trials on the Waitemata Harbour this weekend.

The 22 metre fibreglass waka are being readied to sail to Tahiti to raise awareness of the environmental issues affecting Pacific communities.

Rob Hewitt, a former Navy diver, has been teaching water safety to the crews.

He says Hine Mona, Te Mataua A Maui, Maramaru Atua and Uto Ni Yalo will be quite a sight as they leave Westhaven Marina about 9.30 on Sunday morning to travel to Motuihe Island.

They will be beached on the island, before heading back across the harbour to Mission Bay.

POROPOROAKI NEEDED FOR ORGAN TRANSPLANTS

An anthropologist who has studied Maori organ donation says incorporating powhiri and poroporoaki into the process could boost the number of Maori willing to donate body parts.

Dr Jennifer Ngahooro from Otago Medical School's Bioethics Centre says there is a long waiting list for Maori in need of kidneys and other organ transplants, but few allow their organs to be harvested after death ... reducing the chances of a compatible match.

She told this week's Future of Organ and Tissue Donation seminar in Wellington that creating a poroporoaki ceremony for the relatives of donors, and a powhiri when the organs are passed to the recipients, could overcome some cultural barriers to donation.

“On the one side u have the donor family and the other side u have the recipient and the recipient family. This divide between the two and also the anonymity between the donor and the recipient, this is what people are really struggling with. I was thinking about the gap and it occurred to me this is what happens during a powhiri,” Mrs Ngahooro says.

POLITICAL FOOLERY IRKS DYSON

Labour's social development spokesperson Ruth Dyson says National has played the Maori Party for fools over its Whanau Ora policy.

A report advocating a new method for delivery of health and social services was made public yesterday, but operational details or funding won't be revealed until the May Budget.

Ms Dyson says the Maori Party promised far more for whanau ora than it has been able to deliver.

“Well I think the National Party are just making fools of them now and it doesn’t matter what party it is, I really resent that sort of behaviour. You can have a few jokes at your opposition’s expense but they signed up to a deal with the Maori Party and now they’re treating them as if they're foolish,” Ms Dyson says

She says because the Government isn't putting any new money into the scheme, it will mean cuts to other programmes which support families and communities.

IWIKATEA NICHOLSON HONOURED FOR EDUCATION SUPPORT

Te Wananga O Raukawa kaumatua Iwikatea Nicholson is being honoured tonight for his contribution to Maori education.

Wananga founder Whatarangi Winiata says the tohu at Te Amorangi National Maori Excellence awards at Turangawaewae is well deserved.

He says Mr Nicholson has made significant contributions to Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toa Rangatira, as well as to the King Movement which chose the recipient.

Savings hope in management model

The newly-created Minister for Whanau Ora says money for the new service delivery model will come from savings in the way health and welfare services are managed.

The report of the Whanau Ora Taskforce was released yesterday with a promise that details of how it would operate would be revealed in May's Budget, but that there would be no new funding.

Instead, existing spending within the Health, Social Development and maori Development Ministries will be prioritised.

Tariana Turia says it will allow Maori and other providers to consolidate support for families which are currently split across a range of contracts.

She says the Government expects its agencies to look at how they will integrate contracts in the health and social services sector.

“This is going to be huge because essentially it will mean that over time we will need less bureaucracy because in fact the NGO sectors will be taking over the role that in the past has been played by others. I think it will be a huge shift and over time people will begin to see the benefit from it,” Mrs Turia says.

She says benefits are unlikely to be immediate.

POLICY SET TO DELIVER LESS THAN PR0MISED

But Labour's Maori Social Development spokesperson, Nanaia Mahuta, says Maori service providers will be disappointed at how little the Whanau Ora policy now promises to deliver.

Ms Mahuta says the delay in making the Whanau Ora taskforce report and the lack of detail on its implementations point to deep divisions between the Maori Party and the Government over the policy.

She says with no new funding, Maori providers are right to be concerned.

“Social service and health providers out there should be quite concerned because if they start to lose contracts in favour of whanau ora it may well erode the current capacity within their organisation and compromise the quality of service they are providing to whanau out there,” Ms Mahuha says.

She says it's still not clear if Whanau Ora is just for Maori or if it will forced on other communities.

NATHAN CAYLISS MARKS 200 GAMES AS HEAD EEL

An Australian-born Maori prop has created National Rugby league history.

Parramatta's Nathan Cayliss, who has whakapapa links to Taranaki, has become the first player to captain the same club in 200 matches.

Kormer Kiwi captain Ritchie Barnett says Cayliss's leadership skills were spotted early when he was appointed Eels skipper in his early 20's.

Mr Barnett says the 32-year-old prop deserves recognition as the first one club skipper to play 200 NRL games.

Nathan Cayliss has announced this season will be his last.

INCORPORATIONS MUST COME UNDER IWI FOR SETTLEMENTS

A "please explain" note from a United Nations committee isn't enough to make the government negotiate with a Maori land trust about top of the South Island claims.

WAI 56 claimants complained to a UN Human Rights subcommittee about the Crown's refusal to talk to them directly about land taken from the Wakatu Incorporation by Crown managers.

Paul James, director of the Office of Treaty Settlements, says the Crown is resolving historical claims through negotiations large natural iwi groupings rather than individual claimants.

“The WAI 56 claim represented by the Wakatu Incorporation has been part of that negotiation process from day one. Their claim was in the deed of mandate, in the negotiation process that was set up under that mandate, they held two of the 10 directorships and they participated actively in all the negotiations so that’s a good model for how to involve those incorporations in the settlements process,” Mr James says.

The Crown hopes to complete top of the South Island settlements this year.

LIVE TRANSFERS COULD RESOLVE ORGAN SHORTAGE

A seminar on organ transplant in Wellington has concluded that live organ transplantation could be a way of getting around traditional Maori concerns.

Dr Rhonda Shaw from Victoria University's school of social and cultural studies says the Maori view that the body parts are tapu was one of the main reasons New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the western world.

That's despite it also having among the highest rates of diabetes and kidney disease.

Dr Shaw says donors could be blood relatives, spouses or close friends who could spare a suitable kidney.

Maori are four times more likely than non-Maori to die of kidney disease.

ESSAYISTS OFF TO ANZAC COMMEMORATION

An essay about his fighting forbears has won a Whanganui 17-year-old a trip to Turkey.

Wanganui Collegiate deputy head boy Keepa Hipango will be among a group of 20 secondary school essayists joining Prime Minister John Key at this year's Anzac Day commemoration in Gallipoli.

His essay noted that although relations between Maori and Pakeha at the time of the First World War were far from ideal, both peoples united in a time of crisis.

Keepa Hipango says it will be an honour to be on the battleground.

Whanau Ora policy to be revealed

The wraps come off the government's Whanau Ora policy today, two months after a task force headed by Sir Mason Durie delivered its report on a better way to deliver health, welfare and education services to Maori.

Prime Minister John Key says the government hasn't accepted all the recommendations of the as yet secret report, but budget decisions have been made.

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, the Associate minister for social development, says families need to be given the power to make decisions for themselves.

“For a long time Maori have been criticised roundly for not addressing significant issues that are impacting on their families, and this is an opportunity for not only them to do so but also we are looking at Pacific peoples and the general population,” Mrs Turia says.

NEW VISION OF SERVICE DELIVERY

Meanwhile, Te Whanau o Waipareira is awaiting today's release of the government's whanau ora policy to see how it ties in with its own vision of social service delivery.

The west Auckland trust is tagged as one of the lead agencies for the policy, and chief executive John Tamihere says it has been training its staff for three months to see beyond their immediate specialties.

He says while the policy is primarily about health, it needs to break down boundaries.

“I suspect what will be announced is what most Maori organisations have been working for and striving for, that is a totally integrated family management type programme reaching across health, welfare, education and justice so that no individual will fall through the huge number of gaps that occur right now,” Mr Tamihere says.

More important than today's announcement will be finding out how much is committed for Whanau ora in next month's budget.

OHIO COLLECTION BOUGHT BACK TO AOTEAROA FOR AUCTION

An Auckland auction house has won the right to sell a collection of Maori and Pacific taonga being made surplus from an American museum.

Neil Campbell from Webb’s says he was approached by the Zanesville Museum of Art in Ohio to value the items, which were being cleared to make room for more Native American artefacts.

Much of the collection was gifted by foreign aid worker Eric Young, who was based in the south Pacific in the 1950s and 60s.

Mr Campbell was able to convince the museum board that repatriating the collection was the right thing to do.

“The material is probably worth more in New York than it is here which is a great irony I guess. On a global setting (Maori) is considered one of the highest forms of indigenous applied arts. The guys that are collecting this sort of material recognize Maori applied arts as some of the best,” Mr Campbell says.

The Zanesville collection will be auctioned in mid-June, and by law the Maori items will have to stay in the country.

WAIPAREIRA FAMILY NAVIGATORS POISED TO START

Today could mark a new era for social service delivery.

The government will announce how much of the Maori Party's whanau ora agenda it is willing to fund.

John Tamihere from West Auckland's Waipareira Trust, which is expected to be a lead agency for the policy, says millions of dollars could be saved by bulk funding Maori providers to work on a whole of family basis.

He says Waipareira has been retraining its health and welfare staff in expectation of the new model.

“Instead of calling people your mental health worker, your social worker, this and that, all they are is whanau navigators. They help you navigate through your health plans, through the education plan for your children through to yourself and what you might want to do in terms of upskilling yourself. They will help you through your welfare difficulties, and if there is a justice issue, we will plug that in too,” Mr Tamihere says.

He says tackling tough social problems at a whanau level is an investment in the health of the whole community.

ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY SACKING THREATENS IWI INPUT

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei is warning the decision to fire the elected members of Environment Canterbury could shut Maori out of decision-making in that region.

Ms Turei says the appointment of commissioners by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide derails democracy.

She says mana whenua will struggle to have a say.

“It unhitches the relationship between Ngai Tagu and the council, Environment Canterbury. It makes it uncertain then what the relationship of the iwi are to the council decisions so all the work that has gone into those relationships could be completely undone,” Ms Turei says.

She says the decision by National and Act to shut Maori out of both the Auckland super city council and Environment Canterbury is a disturbing trend.

MONEY AND MENTORING FOR ASPIRING NOVELISTS

The Maori Literature Trust is looking for six Maori writers who are serious about creating a bestseller.

Chair Robyn Bargh says the trust will pay the writers a living allowance for six months and provide mentors to critique their work weekly.

She says the initiative is a way to address the under-representation of Maori work on the bookshelves.

“There's an interesting cross cultural dimension in New Zealand that really isn’t being explored adequately in our literature and so I think this is a good opportunity to encourage Maori writers to actually talk about what it looks like form their perspective and create characters who have different perspectives on life on Aotearoa,” Mrs Bargh says.

Applicants for Te Papa Tupu need to submit a finished piece or working manuscript of more than 5000 words by mid-May.

Party scrapping undermining welfare policy

Labour leader Phil Goff says conflict between National and the Maori Party is creating confusion in welfare policy.

Mr Goff says a claim by associate social development minister Tariana Turia that she was only informed at the last moment of benefit changes indicates a huge rift with the senior minister, Paula Bennett.

He says that doesn't bode well for the Maori Party's flagship health and welfare initiative, the whanau ora system for service delivery.

“The government and he Maori Party have left a huge amount of confusion, one Tariana saying it’s by Maori for Maori, John Key saying it’s for everybody. Well, it can’t be both. The real question is how the money is going to be spent, who it’s going to spent on, where that money comes from and whether there are proper accountability mechanisms. Now all of those are big questions. None of them have been answered,” Mr Goff says.

The Maori Party has announced that it will be casting four votes against the government's welfare crack down, but Mrs Turia will vote in favour in line with her ministerial responsibility.

WHANGAREI KEEN TO SELL LAND BEFORE CLAIMS PROCESS

Whangarei Maori are crying foul over Whangarei District Council's plan to sell former Northland Harbour Board land.

Businesses which occupy the land, most of which is under perpetual lease, have been asked if they want to freehold.

Mike Kake, the chair of neighbouring landowner Rewarewa D Incorporation, says the land was taken from Maori under the Whangarei Harbour Vesting Act, and it should be returned to the original owners if it's surplus.

He says the council is running scared of what might come up in the forthcoming Waitangi Tribunal investigation of Northland land claims.

“There's been no consultation with tangata whenua at all. They look like they’re cashing up and I believe a lot of this activity is to get in before the treaty settlements. Once the hearing is done the pressure could come on,” Mr Kake says.

He says councils in other parts of the country have been prepared to make former harbour board land available for treaty settlements, but not Whangarei.

NEW NETBALL CENTRE MAGNET FOR RANGATAHI

Rangatahi in west Auckland have a new sports centre.

Te Pai in Henderson has reopened after a four year, $7 million refit.
It includes indoor netball courts and facilities for other codes.

Eru Thompson from Te Kawerau a Maki, who blessed the new building, says it's an investment in the city's future leaders.

He says Waitakere is taking the lead in programmes and facilities for Auckland's young people, especially rangatahi Maori.

TAMIHERE LISTS OBSTACLES IN MAYORAL RACE

Waipareira Trust head John Tamihere says he's not the man to become the third candidate for the the Auckland super city mayoralty.

The former Tamaki Makaurau MP has denied reports he's seeking the number two spot on Auckland mayor John Banks' ticket.

He says Waipareira, rolling out whanau ora and his talkback radio gig are keeping him busy ... and there are also major hurdles in the way of anyone contemplating taking on Mr Banks and rival Len Brown.

“You've got two candidates who have national political organisations, one National and one Labour. That’s a formidable organisatIonal base to overcome. As a consequence they’ve got a lot of money behind them. That’s something you have to overcome,” Mr Tamihere says.

He'd like to see a well funded, high profile alternative candiate emerge, because the current contest is a big yawn for Auckland voters.

FORESHORE DISCUSSION DOC WILL TEST RELATIONSHIP

Former Alliance president Matt McCarten says today's release of the Foreshore and Seabed Act rewrite will be a real test for the National-Maori Party relationship.

Mr McCarten says tensions between the two partners over things like welfare policy, Maori representation on the Auckland super city seats and the introduction of standards testing in primary schools are natural.

But if the Government does not deliver real gains on the Maori Party' defining issue, its supporters will be asking questions.

“If they don't get anything, I think they’re in real trouble, the Nats and the Maori Party both. I think you may see the relationship, the warm personal relationships they have will come under because the Maori Party will legitimately have to say what’s our role here,” Mr McCarten says.

He says the Maori Party needs to show what is offered is better than it got under Labour.

HARAKEKE WORKER CHOSEN ARTIST IN WAITAKERE RESIDENCE

A Ngapuhi flax artist is to serve as Auckland Regional Council artist in residence in the Waitakere ranges.

Maureen Lander was taught korowai and other weaving skills by the late late Diggeress Te Kanawa, and went on to teach Maori material culture at Auckland University's Maori studies department.

She says Waitakere has long been a source of inspiration, as well as the place she gets raw materials for her weaving and installation work.

She’s excited by the number of younger weavers emerging who are going back to traditional sources for inspiration.

Turia defends whanau ora from Peters’ race attack

Tariana Turia is accusing New Zealand First leader Winston Peters of playing the race card with his weekend attack on her whanau ora policy.

At a public meeting in Tauranga, Mr Peters said using Maori providers to deliver social services was separatist and opened the door to back-handers and nepotism.

Mrs Turia, the associate minister of social development, says as a former minister Mr Peters knows Maori health providers have received government funding since 1993 ... and whanau ora merely streamlines the process.

“For Winston to turn around and make out that what’s going on is somehow denial of everybody else, he misses completely the point and whanau ora will provide a new way forward, and if Winston gets back into Parliament, he better get used to it,” Mrs Turia says.

She says most New Zealanders want better results from the billions in health and social spending, and whanau ora can provide those results.

MINERALS SOUGHT WITH HAURAKI SETTLEMENT

Hauraki iwi says their treaty settlement must include not only conservation land on the Coromandel peninsula but all the minerals underneath that land.

Paul Majurey from the Marutauhu confederation says the government's plans to open up parts of the peninsula to mining can't be divorced from the settlement negotiations.

He says recent Crown agreements in principle with other iwi have shown conservation land is not off the table as far as settlements are concerned.

“Our people have called for the land to come back, so if the land comes back then all those resources that go with it are what is being sought as well,” Mr Majurey says.

He is looking forward to talking with the government on this subject.

POOR PREPARATION LETS DOWN MAORI TERTIARY STUDENTS

The latest findings from Auckland University's long running Starpath research project shows most Maori students from low decile schools aren't properly prepared for university.

Director Liz McKinley says as a result their chances of success are lower than non-Maori.

She says many stumble with external exams, because at high school they tended to choose internal assessment.

“Many students who did not have the experience of have a lot of experience in sitting external exams at school suddenly found the external exams they were made to sit at university quite difficult to manage, almost as if they weren’t practised or skilled enough in approaching examination type conditions,” Dr McKinley says.

Maori students need good advice from early on about which subjects will better prepare them for university.

FISHFISH BETTER THAN SHELLFISH FOR AQUACULTURE COMPO

Salmon rather than shellfish are likely to be the focus of future Maori investment in aquaculture.

Parliament last week passed the Maori Commercial Aquaculture settlement, under which South Island and Hauraki iwi share $97 million.

Richard Bradley from Marlborough based Rangitane says the negotiation process involved a thorough analysis of the state of the industry, and it's clear from the price difference in water space that the future is in finfish rather than mussels.

“NIWA's been doing a lot of research around finfish and of course a lot of people are telling us it’s too early yet. When I hear that I know they’re in there and don’t necessarily want us there. The key part now is Maori are cashed up and want to invest in the top part of aquaculture, not just in contract gangs to open shellfish,” Mr Bradley says.

Aquaculture was on the agenda at today's Treaty Tribes Coalition Maori Fisheries Conference in Napier, along with a presentation on whaling by Dan Goodman from the Cetacian Research Institute in Tokyo.

ELIMINATION OF CARIES AIM OF DENTAL STUDY

The lead researcher for a 5-year study on how caries in early childhood affect long term Maori health patterns says his aim is to eliminate dental decay.

John Broughton from the Ngai Tahu Maori Health Unit at Otago University will work with Te Raukura Hauora O Tainui to track pregnant women and their offspring and monitor their dental health.

He says the $2 million project, funded through the International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnership, should make a difference.

“The thing about oral disease, it’s all preventable, and there’s no reason with young children, why as they grow and develop and maybe get secondary teeth, they can go right through life without getting a filling in their mouth, and that’s the aim,” Dr Broughton says.

KAPA HAKA NEEDING EXPERIENCE TO CREATE NEW TEAMS

The head of the Wellington Maori Cultural Society says kapa haka from the region are disadvantaged by entry rules for the national Te Matatini competition.

Hema Temara says Pukeahu, which placed third at the Whanganui a Tara regionals on Saturday, was of national standard.

But because only seven teams competed, only winners Tu Te Maungaroa and runners up Nga Taonga Mai Tawhiti are off to Gisborne.

Mrs Temara says more rangatahi want to join roopu than there are places, and the region needs experienced tutors of the calibre of Auckland's Bub Wehi and Pita Sharples to form new groups.

Customer insight needed for forest investment

The manager of Tuwharetoa's largest forestry businesses says Maori need to understand the needs of the global timber customer so they can know where best to invest.

George Asher says Lake Taupo Forest Trust and Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust have a policy of buying out leases as trees are harvested, so they have total ownership of the next crop.

The policy has also been adopted by the Central North Island forestry coalition, which Ngati Tuwharetoa is part of.

Mr Asher says Maori need to invest in other parts of the industry, and his preference would be to buy into the marketing and distribution end of the chain

“We want to understand what our customers want. Understanding that determines what sort of product creates the best value, what sort of trees are best suited to creating those products and that’s the sort of stuff we need to know before investing in any part of that value chain,” Mr Asher says.

TRUSTEES GET TIPS ON RUNNING MARAE BETTER

Marae trustees in the Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa will be given a crash course over the next few weeks on how they can do their jobs better.

Roger Arana, the Takitimu regional manager for Te Puni Kokiri, says the Internal Affairs-led marae planning and funding workshops will give trustees a chance to hear what agencies like Inland Revenue, the Fire Service, Historic Places Trust and the Maori Land Court have to offer them.

He says it's protection for kaitiaki.

“A lot of our people do things from their heart, he Maori tena, but there are also responsibilities that come from being a trustee and there’s liabilities for trustees too so you’ve really got to understand what that's all about,” Mr Arana says.

TAONGA COLLECTION ADRIFT FROM TALES OF LAND AND MANA

A former curator of Maori taonga at Auckland War Memorial Museum says treating the Oldman Collection as a single unit may help people identify where individual items came from.

The collection of Maori and Pacific Island artefacts was put together by William Oldman in England in the first half of last century.

The New Zealand Government bought it in 1948 and split it between museums in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, who have now agreed to coordinate guardianship.

Paul Tapsell says it's a significant collection with many fine objects, but the specific tribal or geographic origins of most of the pieces are unknown.

“A lot of these things were probably collected by early visitors, be they whalers or missionaries, early settlers, collecting them perhaps for aesthetic, curiosity reasons that had nothing to do with their ancestral connections to landscapes and expressions of mana. That korero is no longer available,” Professor Tapsell says.

There could be clues about some of the items in early writings by missionaries or travelers, or in tribal records, but it will require diligent research to track them back.

WHANAU ORA IN LINE WITH HEALTH SECTOR CHANGES

One of the architects of Whanau Ora says the new way of delivering services to Maori is consistent with other changes the Government is making in the health sector.

Lorna Dyall from Te Kupenga Hauora Maori in Auckland University's School of Population Health says rather than services being developed to suit health professionals, they are now being designed to give consumers and whanau what they want.

She says whanau ora also includes development, which is important for the wider society which is trying to grapple with the needs of an aging population.

“You can only look after an older population and a young population if you work as a whanau so actually helping skills in the whanau to be able to care for each other both now and plan for the future so it’s actually moving from just focusing on me, what’s important for me, to actually how do I contribute to a whanau because a whanau only exists if you all work together,” Dr Dyall says.

The whanau ora idea has upset some people because of the way Maori people make their culture explicit, but the principles can apply to any group.

KIDNEY TESTS COULD SAVE LATER ILLNESS

It"s Kidney Awareness Week, and Maori are being urged to get a check up which can pick up problems like undiagnosed diabetes.

Kelvin Lynn, the medical director of Kidney Health New Zealand, says the disease can be beaten if detected early through a simple test, but left undiagnosed it can lead to kidney failure and other conditions.

He says Maori are twice as likely to have diabetes than Pakeha, and community-based programes are the best way to detect it and treat it.

Professor Lynn says if people know they have diabetes, they can make the lifestyle changes which are the key to beating both diabetes and kidney failure.

FORM TWO STUDENTS SITTING NCEA LEVEL 1 MAORI

The principal of Titahi Bay North School says a group of year 8 language learners are inspiring younger students by sitting level 1 NCEA Maori before they head to High School.

Stephen Caldwell says Te Whanau o te Kakano reo immersion programme complements the mainstream teaching programmes at the school, which has a 75 percent Maori roll.

He says the teachers believe the second formers can pass level 1 NCEA Maori.

“The kids were needing to be extended. They were very fluent. We’re confident they can handle it. We’ve got four kids sitting it this year and we expect it to continue,” Mr Caldwell says.

Tarawera River deal irks tribal elements

A member of Ngati Rangitihi in the eastern Bay of Plenty says an agreement this week with the operators of the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill in Kawerau is hot air.

The memorandum of understanding commits Carter Holt Harvey and Norske Skog to work with Rangitihi, Ngati Awa and Tuwharetoa ki Kawerau on measures to clean up the Tarawera River, which is known as the black drain.

But Maanu Paul says those who signed the memorandum don't hold the mandate from the Matata iwi when it comes to the river and the mill's resource consent.

“The claim for the river in the Waitangi Tribunal is in the name of Te Tino Tangatiratanga o Ngati Rangitihi. The appeal to the Environment Court is in the name of Te Tino Tangatiratanga o Ngati Rangitihi. It is certainly not in the name of those people who are purporting to speak in the name of Rangitihi,” Mr Paul says.

He says the small number of jobs Ngati Rangitihi people have at the mill needs to be weighed against the hundreds they miss out on because of the pollution of their waterways.

WHANAU ORA POLICIES COULD CLOSE THE GAPS

New Waikato University emeritus professor Tamati Reedy believes the government's new whanau ora policies could close some of the gaps between Maori and Pakeha.

Associate social welfare minister Tariana Turia highlighted some of the gaps in a speech to the Business Roundtable today, including the fact only 19 percent of Maori students leave school with NCEA level 3 or higher compared to 45 percent of Pakeha.

Dr Reedy, who headed Waikato's school of Maori and Pacific development, says Maori have been pointing to the answers for generations.

CROWDS BRING LOVE AND TEARS TO MARAE

Hundreds of people have been through Otiria Marae near Moerewa to pay their respects to Gerard Ngawati, who died on Tuesday aged 55.

The Ngati Hine man touched the lives of thousands through his championing of Maori touch rugby and other sports and his work for the Ministry of Education, the Hillary Commission and Skill New Zealand.

Tamaki Makaurau MP Pita Sharples, who worked with Mr Ngawati in west Auckland for more than two decades, says hundreds more mourners saw him off at Hone Waititi Marae in Glen Eden before he was taken north.

“The saying on the marae yesterday at Hoani Waititi was the kawa of the marae was violated by love and that’s how it was. We had no control of the whare by the end,” Dr Sharples says.

Gerard Ngawati's funeral service at Otiria Marae starts at 10 tomorrow morning.

LANDOWNERS MOVE TO OWN NEXT HARVEST

One of the country's most experienced Maori foresters says Maori have to stop letting others grow trees on their land.

George Asher, the chief executive and general manager of Lake Taupo and Lake Rotoaira Forest Trusts, spoke to a forestry conference in Auckland today about Maori aspirations for the sector.

He says the Ngati Tuwharetoa trusts have been resuming rather than rolling over leases on their 33,000 hectares of forests, and they have encouraged the Central North Island iwi collective to adopt the same strategy with the 170,000 hectares of forests it has got back from the Crown.

“At least for the Tuwharetoa Trusts, we’ve got skin in the game and we’re progressing towards 100 percent ownership of the crop, we’re over 50 percent of the way there now and we’re fully appraised of the risks and the operations and the prospects of future value added entry into the value chain,” Mr Asher says.

He says the bottom line for Maori business is people, so they need to generate profits which can be used to meet the social and cultural objectives of iwi.

TRUANCY MAJOR THREAT FOR MAORI FUTURE

Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Parekura Horomia says the Maori community needs to get on top of truancy and absenteeism.

Education Ministry figures out this week show absenteeism rates have stayed static for the past three years, with about 30,000 students a day skipping classes.

Mr Horomia says a disproportionate number of those students are Maori, and changes are needed at school and in the home.

The government is spending an additional $4 million a year tackling truancy.

VETERANS WELCOMES TO ORAKEI MARAE FOR REUNION

Ngati Whatua today welcomed a small number of surviving veterans of the 28 Maori Battalion and hundreds of their family members to Orakei Marae.

Kaumatua Joe Hawke says it was a day rich in emotion, and the veterans remembers companions whose graves lie on foreign battlefields.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says the turnout shows the support that still exists for the group.

The event has a different structure than previous reunions, with more time given for the 28 veterans to talk among themselves, rather than their time filled with performances.

Key takes softer line on Whanau Ora

The Prime Minister is reassuring Maori who fear his demand Whanau Ora be available for all could dilute the new welfare delivery model.

Details of the policy are under wraps while Cabinet considers the recommendations of the Whanau Ora Taskforce led by Sir Mason Durie, but John Key told Parliament last week it would be available to all families who are struggling.

But he now says it's designed around a Maori kaupapa, and like kohanga reo it is likely to be largely used by Maori.

“In the end it might suit some families in the way that kohanga reo and kuras are welcome to any individual. It’s largely Maori kids that go there but not exclusively,” Mr Key says.

He says whanau ora means the state will trust poor families to take greater responsibility for their own care.

MAORI PARTY LOOKING FOR FLEX IN EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Maori Party wants to see more flexibility in the education system to help Maori children do better.

Education spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell says he's backing the call from an Inter-Party education working group for the top five percent and bottom 20 percent of children to have the right to switch schools, because Maori make up a big percentage of the bottom 20 percent.

He says the needs of students in Mangere are different from those in Remuera or Ruatahuna... so the solutions needs to be flexible too.

“Some schools have had the choice of locking in to the resources of the Correspondence School and have been able to make advances for rangatahi Maori thorough their programme so there are advances that can be adjusted and moved,” Mr Flavell says.

The Inter-Party Working Group wants more work to be done by MPs or officials on the broad brush ideas in its report.

SIR DOUGLAS GRAHAM DEFENDS TRIBUNAL CONTINUITY

Former treaty negotiations minister Sir Douglas Graham says the Waitangi Tribunal needs to continue after historical treaty claims are settled.

The government has a target of 2014 to settle such claims.

Sir Douglas, who acted as facilitator on a comprehensive multi-iwi Auckland settlement, says the tribunal will still have a role considering new issues that arise.

“If Maori people feel that the Crown or the government is not acting properly, they ought to be able to go off to the Waitangi and say so. So I’m not one who thinks after the historical claims are settled, we ought to abolish the tribunal and forget about it. I think it ought to remain there as a safety valve and somewhere for Maori to go,” Sir Douglas says.

The country should be proud of itself on the way treaty settlements are progressing, and he's happy to continue to be involved if asked.

PETERS PREFERS TARGETING OVER SIMPLE REPETITION

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says there's a case for a targeted welfare delivery system for Maori, but it should not be turned into a one size fits all model.

The Whanau Ora policy being developed as part of the Maori Party's support agreement with National was supposed to use Maori providers to help Maori families in need deal more effectively with government agencies.

The Prime Minister, John Key, now says will be available to all families in need.

But Mr Peters, who was Maori affairs minister in the Bolger government in 1991, says a well-designed policy can make a real impact in Maori families ... but be meaningless to non-Maori.

“To do what they’re intending in a way is not to understand the Polynesian character and culture and the Maori character and culture. Maoridom, as the Maori, as the army has proven, thrives on direct intervention and leadership and certainty as to where they are going, and they do not like a vacuum,” Mr Peters says.

He says the controversy over the policy shows the Maori Party's political naivety.

KEY KEEN TO USED TALENTS OF FORMER MINISTER

The government has more work for former treaty negotiations minister Sir Douglas Graham.

Sir Douglas helped bring together Auckland tribes to develop the framework for settlements across the isthmus.

Prime Minister John Key says the government is considering where Sir Graham will be dispatched next.

He says the former National MP has a sharp legal mind and can see a way through complex situations.

“I think he is someone who is respected as someone who comes to iwi talking with the voice of the Crown. He’s not just some junior official we’re putting out there and I think that does help progress issues,” Mr Key says.

ATAMIRA DANCE TROUPE KEEN TO SPREAD REPERTOIRE

Atamira Dance Company has the world in its sights.

Executive director Moss Patterson says an infusion of Creative New Zealand funding has given the 10-year-old Maori troupe confidence about its future.

It will take two new works, Memoirs of Active and Taonga, to present to bookers at next month's Performing Arts Market in Wellington and at other such markets such as the Tokyo performing arts market.

Atamira will showcase its younger dancers and choreographers at special event at Corban Estate in West Auckland the first weekend of March.

Whanau Ora sale bungled - Peters

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Maori Party has mishandled the development of its whanau ora policy, and it's now unlikely to win the support it needs from either Maori or government.

Associate social development minister Tariana Turia last week received a report from the Whanau Ora Taskforce led by Sir Mason Durie on streamlining delivery of services to struggling Maori families.

But she won't make the report public until Cabinet has considered its recommendations, and Prime Minister John Key is now saying whanau ora must be for all families.

Mr Peters says when he wanted to make major changes in the Maori affairs portfolio in the early 1990s, he didn't give his Cabinet colleagues a chance to rewrite his Ka Awatea policy.

“I went to the Maori people and said here are the details, tell me what you think, it’s been written in consultation widely with you, if you are in and signed up let’s go, if not, let’s not waste anyone else’s time. Then I went to Cabinet. But now, with Whanau Ora, no one in Maoridom knows what's going on,” Mr Peters says.

He says there are arguments for creating Maori-specific service delivery systems, but not for Mr Key's one size fits all approach.

WHANAU ORA CONFUSION COULD STRANGLE POLICY AT BIRTH

Meanwhile, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the confusion around whanau ora doesn't bode well for what could be a very good programme.

She says the Greens will support programmes by Maori for Maori and anything that reduces inequality and poverty.

But all it's hearing is confusion about how the policy will be funded or delivered.

“This could mean existing services not getting access to funding, those with a track record losing access to their funding, that their won’t be any new money put into it,” Ms Turei says.

There are concerns that public money for whanau ora could go to private for profit service providers rather than the community sector that has a history of supporting whanua.

ATAMIRA SHOWCASES YOUNGER DANCERS

Maori Dance company Atamira is kicking off the year with a showcase of works by its younger dancers and choreographers.

The performance is on the first weekend of March at the Corban Estate in Henderson.

Executive director Moss Patterson says Hou will introduce dance audiences to newcomers like Gaby Thomas and Nancy Wijohn, who use contemporary dance to explore their whakapapa and identity in urban Auckland.

“So really exciting ideas about hw modern dance, contemporary dance and theatre can be used to tell stories of the past and really that’s what Atamira Dance Company is about. It’s about drawing the stories of our tupuna, letting them come through our bodies, letting our bodies be the conduit for those stories and putting them out on to the stage,” Mr Patterson says.

New funding from Creative New Zealand means Atamira can run a full programme of performances this year.

WHANAU ORA A HIGHER TRUST MODEL

The Prime Minister says the Whanau Ora programme is about trusting Maori and other families to take greater care of themselves.

Details of the new service delivery model are yet to emerge, but John Key last week told Parliament the Maori Party initiative will apply to all New Zealanders in need.

He says much of the $20 million spent every day on social welfare is ineffective because government departments don't co-ordinate their activities.

Mr Key says Whanau Ora will move money into the community where families will be expected to take greater responsibility for themselves.

“They have to have their own plan. They have to be ambitious themselves. They have to take some responsibility for themselves and it’s a higher trust model from the state,” Mr Key says.

In some cases that could mean reconnecting Maori families with their iwi.

MAORI PARTY ENDORSES ACT REWRITE OF EDUCATION CHOICE

The Maori Party says it wants to see choice in education for Maori parents and children.

Education spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell was part of an Inter-Party Working Group that recommended the top five percent and bottom 20 percent of pupils should be able to switch schools.

He says the group, which was set up as part of ACT's confidence and supply agreement with the National Party, visited a wide range of schools, kura and teacher training colleges in compiling its report for Education Minister Anne Tolley.

“The whole kaupapa was about choice. Some people might equate that with vouchers. I didn’t necessarily by itself but the whole notion about choice is something that I believe needs to be given some consideration in particular around the under-achievement of a certain percentage of our children in the education system so we need to look at all options,” Mr Flavell says.

It's not acceptable that Maori students are more likely than non-Maori to leave school without qualifications.

TAI MAORI WELCOMES DEMISE OF RIVAL TE WAKA TOI

Arts body Toi Maori is looking forward to a smoother funding relationship with the restructuring of Creative New Zealand.

Arts and Heritage Minister Chris Finlayson intends to scrap the separate Maori funding board, Te Waka Toi, and instead have four people with knowledge of Maori arts on a new 13-member arts council.

Garry Nicholas, the chief executive of Toi Maori, says the artists' organisation often found itself competing with Te Waka Toi.

“The Maori staff are still in place which is one of the concerns we had with the proposed changes and we would hope that strengthens so the officers do work directly with organisations like Tai Maori and we can assist them much mire cleanly than the previous structure offered us,” Mr Nicholas says.

The new arts council needs to align its funding more with where artists see their arts going.

Whanau ora suits Waipareira model

The chief executive of Waiparaera Trust is endorsing moves to make the new whanau ora health and welfare programmes available to all New Zealanders.

John Tamihere says the three quarters of the 47,000 west Aucklanders on the books of the trust's health care subsidiary are non-Maori, and it has put a proposal to government to extend whanau ora services to 130,000 families.

He says whanau ora should allow the Trust to align education, skills training and welfare programmes with health services.

“That alignment works better for us and it doesn’t matter who gets the service. What matters is that for the first time in New Zealand history, we are actually seen as no longer and anchor or burden to the community but are provising significant solutions,” Mr Tamahere says.

Whanau ora will work differently in other areas of the country where there higher percentages of Maori in the community.

BISHOPS CONCERNED AT HURIHANGA CLOSURE

Catholic and Anglican bishops in the Waikato have combined to voice their concern about the axing of government funding for Hamilton's Te Hurihanga offender rehabilitation centre.

The goverment claims the live in programme, which deals mainly with young Maori men, was too expensive.

But Denis Browne, who co-signed a letter to the Waikato times with Anglican David Moxon, says the programme wasn't given a chance.

“The success rate so far has been really uplifting, As far as we know there haven’t been any breakdowns at all in the formation that is given to these young peole and it’s disappointing a project so young is nipped in the bud before it gets a chance to prove itself,” Bishop Browne says.

He says the government seems to be turning its back on rehabilitation for offenders, particularly young Maori offenders.

CONE PLAN EMPTY WORDS ON PLANNING DOCUMENTS

Ngati Whatua says Auckland's City Council's commitment to protect the city's volcanic cones doesn't go beyond the words on planning documents.
The council has set aside just $457,000 this year to maintain all of the city’s 23 volcanic features.

Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua o Orakei Trust Board says that means the continued degradation of the ancient sites.

That's a concern for the 12 mana whenua iwi and hapu who signed a framework agreement last week with the Crown promising them ownership and co-management of at least 11 cones.

Mr Blair says the budget doesn't match the council's claim the maunga make Auckland what it is.

“They're empty words on planning documents so if there is no real commitment from protecting these sites from erosion, form over-use of tourism and so on, it’s a travesty,” Mr Blair says.

WAKA TOI AXING COULD BE GOOD TIMING

A former head of Te Waka Toi and Creative New Zealand says the arts council needed an overhaul, but it's important to maintain a strong Maori presence.

The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Christopher Finlayson, is scrapping separate Maori and Pacific arts boards in favour of a single 13-member board, which would include four members with knowledge of Maori arts.

Cliff Whiting says Creative New Zealand had become top heavy and bureaucratic.

“That's a natural process in the way things grow and develop. I think it’s reached a point now where change needs to take place but I do hope and I’m pretty sure the minister and others who are involved will make sure it is a fair split all the way round with ethnic groups and not only treaty partners but also with the different art forms,” he says.

Cliff Whiting was among the group of Maori artists and writers who lobbied for a separate Maori arts council back in the 1970s.

SKEPTICISM ON NEW ATTEMPT TO PUSH EDUCATION VOUCHERS

Labour's education spokesperson says Maori are unlikely to benefit from education vouchers.

A working group of National, ACT and Maori Party MPs yesterday released a paper proposing that parents can shift their kids to another school if they are in the top 5 percent or bottom 20 percent of students.

Kelvin Davis, who was an intermediate school principal before entering parliament, says it's nonsense for Maori children are in rural areas, because there are no alternative schools.

“There's going to be more inconsistencies for Maori kids with this whatever this report says and whatever these vouchers are meant to allow kids to be able to do. I don’t think Maori are going to benefit from this whatsoever,” Mr Davis says.

He says the scheme is likely to mean the diversion of funds from low decile schools which are already struggling to teach large numbers of Maori children.

MAST STEP FOUND IN MURIWAI WAKA

An ancient waka dug out of Muriwai Beach last year has revealed some surprises.

Robert Brassey, the Auckland Regional Council's heritage specialist, says restorers have spotted a socket or step for a mast, making it a rare example of a sailing canoe.

The seven metre kauri canoe was moved yesterday from a temporary tank at the Muriwai Parks Depot into a more permanent container, and Mr Brassey says preservation could take two years.

“The only thing that's stopping the waka deteriorating is that the cell structure of the timber so if it were to dry out it would shrink and collapse and turn to dust so in the longer term that water needs to come out and be replaced with something more permanent which is Polyethelyne glycol,” Mr Brassey says.

Once preservation is complete the waka can be put on display, after consultation with iwi.