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.

Sharples’ electorate rejects GST rise

Pita Sharples's Tamaki Makaurau electorate committee has come out against a rise in GST.

Chairperson Eru Thompson says nine of the electorate's 10 branches were represented at the monthly hui.

He says the committee appreciates the party's confidence and supply agreement would require MPs to vote in favour if National goes ahead with its plan to up the tax to 15 percent, but sentiment was strong.

“We wouldn't be entertaining that idea, so a resolution was moved by the Auckland electorate to have dialogue with the rest of the electorates in the country,” Mr Thompson says.

The branches also supported Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira's proposal that the takutai moana issue be resolved by putting all foreshore and seabed under Maori title with full public access.

PRISON CONDITIONS SHOW NEED FOR REVIEW OF SYSTEM

Former governor general Sir Paul Reeves says Maori need to be concerned not just by moves to increase imprisonment rates but by current prison conditions.

Sir Paul visited New Plymouth prison at the weekend with the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

They were shocked to find young prisoners in their cells for 22 hours each day, and remand prisoners who had been locked up for more than a year.

He says iwi leaders must get involved in the debate around measures ACT's three strikes bill, which is likely to mean even more Maori in jail for longer.

“It’s a matter of public debate and I think we should get there and be part of that debate and to say well, the way to treat people who have infringed is not necessarily by locking them up and throwing the key away. There are other ways of dealing with these people to try and produce some form of rehabilitation,” Sir Paul says.

GROW YOUR OWN SUBSTITUTE FOR TOTAL TOBACCO BAN

A Far North Maori health group is proposing people be allowed to grow tobacco for their own use, if there are to be restrictions on commercial sales of cigarettes.

Errol Murray from Whakawhiti Ora Pai Community Health Services told the Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry that smoking has reduced the life expectations of generations of Te Aupouri and Ngati Kuri.

He says the ultimate aim is to stop the tobacco companies importing and selling tobacco, but there will still be people who are addicted to the drug.

“We also understand that people are still going to want to smoke so you will probably drive it underground so one of the proposals was they allow them to grow their own, only a certain amount and for personal use only,” Mr Murray says.

Hiss submission included details of industry marketing practices given by a former tobacco salesman, practices which the previous submission from British American Tobacco had denied.

ATTACK ON WAAHI TAPU DESPICABLE ABUSE OF POWER

Te Tai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia says blowing up of a two storey rock to make way for a power project was cultural vandalism.

On Monday Clearwater Hydro dynamited Te Rongomai o Te Karaka at Te Anga on the west coast of the King Country after police removed whanau from Marakopa Marae who were protesting the action.

Mrs Turia says the Lines Company subsidiary was aware of the significance of the natural feature to the hapu, and the behaviour of the company and its contractors was despicable.

“To sit there and cheer and celebrate and drink in that sacred spot, I just thought it was outrageous. It was really a display of power, of those who control asserting it and showing those whanau from there that they accounted for nothing,” Mrs Turia says.

Her personal appeal to Cleawater Hydro to hold off was simply ignored.

SCIENCE SUBJECTS NEEDED FOR START IN HEALTH CAREER

A national programme to bolster the ranks of Maori in the health sector was launched today at Auckland Airport's Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa marae.

Project manger Tuhakia Kepa says Kia Ora Hauroa aims to recruit another thousand Maori workers into the health and disabilty sector over the next 2 years.

The programme is overseen by Counties Manukau District Health Board, with the Waitemata, Lakes, Capital and Coast and Canterbury DHBs managing regional hubs.

Mr Kepa says a Kia Ora Hauroa website will give students information about the types of courses they need to work in health.

“So try and encourage Maori kids at secondary school to maintain some level of science qualification be it biology, physics or chemistry. With those subjects in their kete when they get to the end of secondary school, they will have an opportunity to look at probably 85 different health roles and health study pathways them might be interested in,” Mr Kepa says.

FORMER MILITARY CHURCH BECOMES CATHEDRAL 150 YEARS LATE

Former governor general and Anglican Archbishop Sir Paul Reeves says last weekend's dedication of a cathedral in New Plymouth is making people think about how a society heals a divided past.

St Mary's is the first new Anglican cathedral worldwide for more than 80 years.

It was built as a cathedral 150 years ago, but it was not consecrated because of the outbreak of the first Taranaki War, and instead became a church for the British garrison.

“It has the hatchments, the boards with the emblems of the British regiments and they’re hanging on the wall, and I’m sure there are relatives of mine who would say wasn’t St Mary’s the place where they stored the ammunition that subsequently was used to fire on our relatives. That may or may not have been the case but that’s the perception, so there’s a lot of work to be done and we’ve talked a lot about that,” Sir Reeves says.