Mother set to challenge Sharples on home patch

Fireworks are expected at this evening's meeting of Pita Sharples' Tamaki Makaurau electorate committee.

Veteran activist Titewhai Harawira, the mother of Hone Harawira, is urging members to turn up and challenge the Maori Party leader over his treatment of the embattled Taitokerau MP.

She says party leaders are acting unconstitutionally and not adhering to the principles of tikanga and whanangatanga on which the party was formed.

“Our MP Pita Sharples has been making decisions and making public statements without a mandate from Tamaki here. Our MP acts, votes and stands according to the instructions of the electorate. We are the bosses, not the other way round,” Mrs Harawira says

She says party bosses who are pressuring her son to leave the party and become an independent are ignoring his support on the ground.

EARLY KUMARA DISTRIBUTED FOR PRESERVATION

There's a renewed effort to grow varieties of kumara that pre-date the Treaty of Waitangi.

The kumara were brought back from research facilities in Japan 20 years ago by the late Dell Wihongi, but her daughter Hema Wihongi says initial efforts to cultivate them around the motu had limited success.

Five of the varieties pre-date European contact, and the other four were introduced before 1840.

Ms Wihongi says people have become reliant on commercially produced vegetables, but it's important culturally to keep the old varieties going.

“I think one of the issues there is maintaining that diversity of foods and especially traditional diversity, we get to a stage worldwide that traditional foods are just becoming extinct,” Hema Wihongi says.

The seed plants are going out to iwi involved in the WAI 262 fauna and flora claim who have developed expertise in growing traditional varieties.


MORIVN SIMON HONOURED FOR LIFETIME OF COMPOSITION

The winner of a lifetime contribution award for Maori music says it's a great honour for someone who can't read a note.

Morvin Simon won the Keeper of Traditions award at the weekend's Waiata Maori Music Awards in Hastings for his work spent writing hundreds of songs and directing choral groups in the Whanganui region.

He says his aim has always been to bring out the wairua in songs using simple techniques.

“I was absolutely honoured of course and of course I still can’t read music or write it as well but we just use the six strings of the guitar, I formulate my harmonies from,” Mr Simon says.

The honour was even more special because the inaugural winner last year was the late Sir Howard Morrison.

TUHOE TOHUNGA TAWHAO TIKAO DIES AT 89

Ngai Tuhoe has lost one of its most outstanding authorities on its traditions, especially around rongoa Maori medicine.

Tawhao Tioke died yesterday at North Shore hospital aged 89.

In his early years Mr Tioke moved with his family to Maungapohatu in Te Urewera, where his father was one of those arrested with the prophet Rua Kenana.

Relative Hemana Waaka says Mr Tioke was a waka huia or treasure trove who shared his knowledge generously.

“He was one of the few who was able to retain Tuhoetanga absolutely correct. He was one of those who was never taught to read and write in English. However, the other side that sort of supported him in that area was when he became a Presbyterian minister, which was very strong in that part of Tuhoe and Waimana, as one of the protégés of Hoani Lawton,” Mr Waaka says.

Tawhao Tioke is lying in state at Papakura Marae until Friday morning, when he will be taken for burial at Waikumete Cemetery in west Auckland beside his wife.

CLENDON STRESSES ECNOMICS IN GREEN MAIDEN SPEECH

The Greens new Maori MP has made economics the centre piece of his maiden speech to Parliament.

Dave Clendon, who is of Pakeha and Ngapuhi me Te Roroa descent, replaces Sue Bradford who resigned last month.

The former lecturer in resource management and small business advisor says the Greens have a more sophisticated understanding of economics than other parties.

“All of our material wealth is derived from the environment, form soil and land and water and air, and if we damage those things, we’re not only causing spiritual damage to papatuanuku and ourselves, but we are also undermining our economic opportunities to the extent those resources will no longer be there for us,” Mr Clendon sauys.

PUBLISHER MAKES BUYBACK OFFER TO STEM CRITICISM

Author Witi Ihimaera, is offering to buy back copies of his latest novel.

Ihimaera, who was yesterday named an Arts Foundation laureate, has apologised for not crediting the original sources of some passages in The Trowenna Sea, which follows the story of five Maori imprisoned in Tasmania in the 1840s.

His publisher, Geoff Walker, says Penguin Books New Zealand will take back stock from any bookseller who wishes to return the book.

He says Ihimaera is at the forefront of New Zealand fiction writing, and Penguin is standing beside him.

“Some of his novels such as The Matriarch and Te Uncle’s Story and Bulibasha have been some of the best novels written in English and and have brought I think te ao Maori to a Pakeha readership to a considerable degree. That is one of the key features of his novels, and The Trowenna Sea contains the same features,” Mr Walker says.

A revised edition of The Trowenna Sea will be published next year with a new section explaining the background and making full acknowledgement to writers whose work is drawn on.

Dame Kiri in the business of opera

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will tonight be honoured as Auckland University's Maori Business Leader of the Year.

Awards organiser Manuka Henare says the awards are a way to celebrate Maori achievement and point the way for the next generation.

He says opera singer's music talent is only one aspect of her 40 year distinguished international career, and she has also showed business acumen.

“Her business is the business of opera and classical music. We wanted to recognise her outstanding international achievements but also to her contribution to Aotearoa’s identity and culture internationally and thirdly the wonderful mentoring programme she has for young New Zealand singers and musicians,” Dr Henare says.

Dame Kiri is singing in Berlin tonight so can't be in Auckland to receive the award, but a small ceremony is planned for when she comes back to Aotearoa over the summer.

SCHOOLS NEED BUSINESS FOCUS ON ASIAN POTENTIAL

Meanwhile, the Asia New Zealand Foundation says Maori business stands to gain from an increased focus on Asian culture in New Zealand schools.

Director Richard Grant says while Asians make up about 10 percent of new Zealand's population now, that figure is expected to grow to around 16 percent by 2025.

He says New Zealand will rely heavily on trade with the region, and it makes sense for children to learn more about their future trading partners while at school.

Dr Grant says that also applies to the growing Maori stake in the economy.

“Now but also more so in the future their critical export markets are going to be probably around the Asian rim. These companies are going to need people who work for them, who are in the export business in product specification, in marketing, I communication, who feel confident about dealing with the various economies of Asia,” Dr Grant says.

SAFE HOUSE TO GET VIOLENT MEN OUT OF HOME

The phone at Tairawhiti Men against Violence has been running hot since news broke it was setting up a safe house for men in violent domestic situations.

Spokesperson Tim Marshall says the informal group, 75 percent of whom are Maori, was set up three years ago in response to three high profile domestic related murders in the region.

He says with the support of Gisborne women's refuge in Gisborne, from the new year a donated house will be used as temporary accommodation for men caught up in domestic violence.

“Instead of when the police turn up at a house and uplift a whole lot of children and take them away, and often in the middle of the night, wouldn’t it be easier to take the one person away and he could have somewhere else to stay for a couple of nights or however long it took. Still go to work the next day, still support the whanau, but then negotiate a safe way back,” Mr Marshall says.

Tairawhit Men Against Violence is also planning a resource centre to help men become better husbands, partners and fathers.

LAUREATE IHIMAERA LOOKING FORWARD TO FERTILE ACTIVITY

One of the country's newest Arts Foundation Laureates says his best work is yet to come.

Writer Witi Ihimaera from Ngati Porou and Te Aitanga a Mahaki was one of five people honoured last night.

Also receiving the $50,000 award were carver Lyonel Grant from Ngati Pikiao, taonga puoro revialist Richard Nunns, musician Chris Knox and photographer Anne Noble.

Mr Ihimaera, who was also made was made a Distinguished Companion in the New Zealand Order of Merit this year, says he sees it as recognition of the body of work he's built up since his first collection of short stories, 1972's Pounamu Pounamu.

“It's an honour to have that recognized, that longevity, but also to know the foundation wants to invest in all of our futures because there comes a time when you’re within that rank of artists and your best work is still to come and I think my best work is still to come and so I’ll be using this award to ensure that that happens,” Ihimaera says.

He's now looking forward to writing the next two books in the series that started with The Trowenna Sea, the controversial historical novel published this year.

GREENS SAYS CHEAP PRICE PAID FOR MAORI PARTY SUPPORT

The Greens say the Maori Party is selling its people short in accepting a deal to support National's emissions trading scheme.

Co-leader Meteria Turei says what's been offered would probably have happened anyway, such as the chance for some iwi to plant trees on conservation land and harvest the carbon credits.

She says ordinary Maori will pay higher taxes and higher fuel bills while National's farming and big business supporters get huge subsidies.

“National are getting a fabulous deal because they get to protect the business interests which they’ve always supported, get the Maori Party on side and get their legislation through. The losers are ordinary whanau who won’t get huge advantage out of the forestry deals, who don’t have huge political sway with the Maori Party or politics in general and who are going to have to deal with increased costs,” Ms Turei says.

She says the only way to protect whanau from the impact of the ETS is to make sure polluters pay.

NGATI PAOA BLOCKS DISPLAY OF FARMER’S FOSSICKED ARTIFACTS

Hauraki Maori want to stop fossickers taking sacred artefacts from their historic pa sites.

Glen Tupuhi, the Ngati Paoa representative on the Hauraki Maori Trust board, says that's behind his iwi's objection to a private museum near Kaiaua displaying taonga found at Rangipo on the Firth of Thames.

He says it's for Maori to decide their fate, not the farmers who have set up the museum.

“In former times our tupuna were having to cope with urbanisation, having to cope with all sorts of things. These things were very much fringe issues for Maori. But the whole landscape has changed now. For us as Maori, we are very concerned about these taonga. They belong to us and you cannot actually go out and say ‘hey look what I’ve found and I’ve got a collection,’” Mr Tupuhi says.

He says fossicking on pa sites is illegal and breaks wahi tapu.

Labour ETS attack brings in racial taunt

Green Party co-leader Meteria Turei has accused Labour's Phil Goff of playing the race card on changes to the emissions trading scheme.

Mr Goff claims the Government's negotiations to win support from the Maori Party for its plans means race-based legislation is in the offing.

The idea is some iwi who received forests in their treaty settlements would be given the right to plant trees on parts of the conservation estate and collect the carbon credits.

But Ms Turei says the there could be some merit in the proposal.

“It's not about being race based. It‘sa bout the value of those settlements and Labour can take some responsibility for issues around the valuation of settlements and themselves when they were in government. It’s a silly comment from Phil Goff and playing to the worst kind of politics,” Ms Turei says.

She says the forestry deal should have been part of the scheme anyway, and the Maori Party is selling its support cheaply and ignoring the long term interests of ordinary Maori.

FOSTERING REVIEW LOOKING IN WRONG PLACE FOR TROUBLE

A veteran Maori social worker says a review of foster care needs to take a Maori way of seeing the world.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has asked whether children placed with extended family are better off than those fostered outside the family, in light of high re-abuse rates for children in whanau care.

But Malcolm Peri, who was involved in the maatua whangai programmes of the 1980s which championed whanau-based care, says Ms Bennett's department has squeezed the kaupapa Maori aspects out of its work with children.

“I can't remember any real effort in the last 20 years the system has put in place to to strengthen Maori families from te ao Maori and I don’t think they give us credit for things Maori have progressed, for the families have been placed with families and have been healed,” Mr Peri says.

He says abandoning Maori programmes would mean going back to failed assimilation policies.

DAWN’S LIGHT SHINES ON HISTORICAL WAHAROA

A giant carving in the middle of Taupo is leaving townspeople and visitors awestruck.

The nine metre totara waharoa was commissioned from master carver Delaney Brown by Contact Energy to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wairakei geothermal power scheme.

Mayor Rick Cooper says more than 2000 people were on hand for the unveiling on Saturday morning, and watched at the first rays of the sun struck the sculpture.

The carving is a history of Ngati Tuwharetoa.

FIVE FEATURE IN ALUMNI AWARDS

A writer, a carver and a musician who rediscovered ancient Maori sounds are this evening joining the ranks of New Zealand's laureates.

Witi Ihimaera, Lyonel Grant and Richard Nunns are being honoured this evening at a ceremony in Auckland, along with musician Chris Knox and photographer Ann Noble.

Mr Ihimaera says it's an honour to join the select group of 49 who have been honoured by the privately-funded Arts Foundation’in its first decade.

“We've never really had that opportunity at all until the foundation came along and focused on that so for nine years or so they’ve been building this wonderful poutama or stairway of excellence on which they have placed us so from a Maori perspective I am very honoured to stand on that poutama,” Ihimaera says.

Even with 12 novels under his belt, he feels his best work is yet to come.

GRANT WILL USE GRANT TO WRITE TESTAMENT TO HOUSE

Another of the laureates, Lyonel Grant of Ngati Pikiao, says he's still getting over completing a new meeting house at Unitec, which has consumed all his energy for the past six years.

He also received an honorary doctorate from the west Auckland polytechnic this year.

Mr Grant says the laureate award, which comes with a no strings $50,000, gives him a chance to reflect on where he is at in his career, and possibly to write a book about Te Noho Kotahitanga.

“The reaction to the house has been such I feel walking away would be an injustice to the house and all that energy and time so I am going to go as hard as I can and write as much a I can in the next year or so and then get an over arching editor to make sense of it,” Mr Grant says.

COMMUNITIES TOLD ARTIST WHAT TO HEAR

A third laureate says it was the affirmation of Maori communites that allowed him to continue his investigations into traditional Maori instruments.

Richard Nunns worked with stone carver Brian Flintoff and the late Hirini Melbourne from Ngai Tuhoe to recreate taonga puora and work out how to play them.

He says because there was no one around to learn from, the trio asked the people if they were on the right track.

“We chose consciously from day one that we would take our work back to audit, back to affirmation or condemnation among the people themselves to marae after marae after marae and their affirmation is often tears, their affirmation is often wild excitement, their affirmation is a collegial argument going on in the wharenui late at night.

“That also taught us very quickly that Maori knowledge, traditional knowledge seems to be collegial. No one person knows it all and in fact it’s a wonderful protective system of sharing knowledge in a whole variety of ways so that you contribute part and also the people themselves, the hapu, the iwi the whanau are an organism, are a unit in themselves and the knowledge is protected in that way,” he says.

Richard Nunns, who has Parkinsons disease, says the money will help him move house and build a new studio so he can protect and record the instruments he has discovered over the years.

Maori Party finds reasons to support ETS

The Maori Party's environment spokesperson says Maori will be directly affected by any sea level rise caused by global warming.

National needs the party's votes to get its changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme through, after it failed to get select committee support for the bill.

Rahui Katene says the Maori Party is seeking concessions to protect Maori from flow on effects such as a energy price rises and restrictions on land use.

She says National's scheme is significantly better than Labour's, and doing nothing wasn't an option.

“A lot of our marae are built at sea level and even when they’re built a bit higher, with sea level coming higher, they’re going to be getting I guess you could call them refugees from the coast,” Mrs Katene says.

The legislation is on track to be passed before the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month.

DIABETES HUGE RISK FOR MAORI

Trimmed down Maori entertainer Ruia Aperahama has joined the chorus urging Maori to get checked for diabetes.

The composer of the most played reo Maori song on iwi radio this year says years of eating the wrong foods has caught up with him, and he's made lifestyle changes to avoid the need for dialysis.

He says Maori make up a disproportionate number of the nearly 200 thousand New Zealanders who have undiagnosed diabetes, so it is vital they take time for check up.

Diabetes Awareness week starts tomorrow

MAORI CONTRIBUTION TO SOCCER JUST STARTING

The best ever Maori soccer player says Maori are poised to make a bigger contribution to New Zealand football than ever before.

Wynton Rufer from Ngati Porou was in Wellington on Saturday night to watch Rory Fallon, who also has whakapapa connections to the East Coast, land the goal that put Bahrain out and New Zealand in to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The Oceania player of the Century, who runs the Wyners Soccer Academy in Auckland, says with the right support Maori players can go all the way.

“The programmes have gt to be set up all round the country so we have a pathway going right through to professional football. You can see the kids that have come through our programme. We had a young Maori lad, he was on a three year scholarship to Japan, and there’s more of them there, so get them to give me a call,” Mr Rufer says.

Maori and Polynesian players featured prominently in the New Zealand squad for this year's under 17 World Cup and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

BARRETT LEGACY WILL BE LEGION OF MAORI DIPLOMATS

The country's most senior Maori diplomat, Tia Barrett, is lying in state at Turangawaewae Marae in Ngaruawahi, where his Ngati Maniapoto and Tainui people are remembering his contributions to Maori and New Zealand.

Mr Barrett died in Auckland on Sunday aged 62 after being taken ill in the Cook Islands, where he was High Commissioner.

Writer Witi Ihimaera, who entered Foreign Affairs with Mr Barrett in the early 1970s, says his shoes will be hard to fill.

He says Mr Barrett patiently worked to create a Maori dimension to the way New Zealand represents itself overseas, and he created opportunities for other Maori to enter the diplomatic service.

“As a consequence there are so many many Maori now who are representing New Zealand in overseas posts throughout the world so that is something he was very proud of. We have people who are working at all levels now and wherever I go in the world I’m constantly thrilled excited that Tia’s legacy is there and of course it will live on because he was such and inspiration to all of them,” Mr Ihimaera says.

Tia Barrett will be at Turangawaewae until Thursday, when his body will be taken to Kahotea Marae in Otorohanga for burial.

WANANGA CONTRIBUTE TO TARANAKI FESTIVAL SUCCESS

A thumbs up for the first Taranaki Maori Festival held in Waitara over the weekend.

Waatea News reporter Te Kauhoe Wano returned home for the gathering which brought together the region's eight iwi for two days of sports and kapa haka.

There were also wananga where reo experts like Huirangi Waikerepuru and Ruakere Hond shared their knowledge of the region's distinctive tikanga and dialect.

“They were conducting wananga, whether it be waiata or tribal history, talking about our mita, all those things that make us Taranaki and reinforces our pride in ourselves as a people and coming together makes us a stronger force and that’s a goal for years to come,” Mr Wano says.

Organisers will consider whether to make the festival an annual event, to capitalise on the momentum created over the weekend.

TEXT ON POU INFLUENCES SCULPTOR

A whare tupuna has inspired a Maori visual art student's contribution to a show at Palmerston North's Te Manawa, Museum and Art Gallery.

Karangawai Marsh is one of five Massey University degree and masters students represented in Te Awatea Matatau, the dawning of light and knowledge.

Her three free-standing pou made of dowels, cable ties and flourescent lights are inspired the pou pou of her ancestral meeting house, Te Tokanganui a noho in Te Kuiti, which incorporate text.

As a Maori language teacher, she's intrigued by the way words can be used in the visual arts.

Te Awatea Matatau is on display at Te Manawa in Palmerston North until early February.