Maori perspective needed for private prisons

A former Corrections Service manager says it should be compulsory for privately-run prisons to involve Maori in their operation.

Runanga o Te Rarawa chair Haami Piripi says it's a disgrace a bill reported back to parliament this week simply requires contractors to consult with Maori where they consider it appropriate.

Mr Piripi, who oversaw the Maori involvement in Auckland Central Remand Prison when it was under private management in the late 1990s, says the government is missing an opportunity to make a real impact on Maori reoffending.

“We’ve got systems here in place, we’ve got people in place, whanau in place, marae in place, and still the Department of Corrections insists on incarcerating these people in a barbed wire fence stuck in the middle of nowhere and making visits from their families very very difficult. It is a failed system and it needs to be renewed and reviewed,” Mr Piripi says,

He says nobody wants to reduce Maori offending more than Maori.

DIABETES WAITING TO STRIKE 20 PERCENT

It's diabetes awareness week, and a long-time sufferer is warning fellow Maori the good life could catch up with them.

Sonny Samuels of Tainui lost his ability to walk 15 years ago.

He says like many Maori and Pacific Islanders he ate and drank too much until he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Now he's a prisoner of the disease, watching everything he eats and hooking up to a dialysis machine for hours at a time.

Sonny Samuels says there is a wealth of information now available on diabetes, and Maori who are over-weight or feeling unwell should get tested to see if they are among the one in five Maori with diabetes or a pre-diabetic condition.

MANY STRANDS TO GENIUS OF TAWHAO TIOKE

Tuhoe kaumatua Tawhao Tioke is being remembered as man of religion, a healer, a gifted musician and a man steeped in his tribe's language and culture.

Mr Tioke died on Tuesday in North Shore Hospital at the age of 89.

Relative Hemana Waaka says he was widely known for his encylopaedic knowledge of the ngahere or forest and of rongoa or traditional healing plants.

Before giving up farming and moving to Auckland, the Presbyterian minister was also an accomplished dance band musician.

Tawhao Tioke is lying in state at Papakura Marae until Friday.

LAST LINK WITH PIONEER BATTALION LOST

Also this week, Te Aupouri has laid to rest Jeanie Subritzky, the last link with the Maori contribution to World War One.

Mrs Subritzky's late husband Corporal Robert Subritzky enlisted in the Pioneer Batallion 1915, and fought at the Somme and Messines where he was seriously wounded.

Mrs Subritzky worked as a teacher in the north, and was known for the depth of her knowledge about her husband's companions in arms and about his Maori and Polish heritage.

CHASM SEEN IN MAORI PARTY HANDLING OF HARAWIRA

The first representative of a Maori party to hold a general seat in Parliament says forcing Hone Harawira to be come an independent would create an irreparable chasm in the Maori Party.

Sandra Lee, a former Mana Motuhake leader and Alliance deputy leader, says Maori Party leaders need to try harder to work through the problems they have with the Taitokerau MP.

She says a forced or voluntary expulsion would be a betrayal of the Maori who voted for Mr Harawira.

“They also voted for him the person as a candidate for the Maori Party. It would be a sad day if people in the north who have put their stake in the ground in support of having a Maori party in Parliament were disenfranchised,” Ms Lee says.

She says Hone Harawira's transgressions are relatively minor compared with what other politicians have done in the past.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN CLENDON WHAKAPAPA

Parliament's newest Maori MP has revealed a Pakeha whakapapa that reaches back to before the Treaty of Waitangi.

In his maiden speech this week, the Greens' Dave Clendon talked of his tupuna James Clendon, who was a witness on both the 1835 He Whakaputanga or Declaration of Independence and the 1840 treaty.

After the death of his first wife, James Clendon married Jane Kerenene, the daughter of Takotowi te Whata of Mangamuka.

Mr Clendon says that history gives him a unique perspective on the oath of allegiance to the Crown.

“We do recognise the monarchy here as having a legitimate right as sovereign so I had no discomfort with that but in my maiden speech I opened by also reaffirming my commitment to te tiriti as our founding document, our constitutional base,” he says.

Mr Clendon was a lecturer in resource management and small business advisor before being called into Parliament to replace Sue Bradford.

CNI IWI HONOURED FOR STRATEGIC EFFORT

The eight central North island iwi have been acknowledged for their strategic planning in the wake of their giant forestry settlement.

Tuwharetoa chair Tumu te Heuheu received the tohu on behalf of the iwi at the Auckland University Business School's Maori Business Awards last night.

Manuka Henare, the school's associate dean for Maori and Pacific development says past winners of the award have included hapu groups and land trusts.

He says the multi-iwi group stood out because it achieved unity after 20 years of division.

“Finally they reached a point where they could all sign off on one settlement but secondly, now how do we commercialise our assets and they were able to in very quick time reach in broad strategic terms what they want to do over the next 50 years in forestry, energy and carbon emissions,” Dr Henare says.

Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was named Maori business leader of the year, and there were also awards for past students who have succeeded in business or management.

Please explain to associate minister

Labour MP Shane Jones says associate Maori Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu needs to explain why she didn't keep senior colleagues informed of Maori Television's bid for free to air broadcast rights to the 2011 Rugby world cup.

Mr Jones says Pita Sharples should not have to apologise for using his budget to bankroll the bid, by having Te Puni Kokiri buy $3 million of programming on the channel.

But he says more experienced colleagues have been trying to turn the situation to their own ends.

“The person who has been furtive in this whole deal and I’ll have more to say about that in the House this week, has been Georgina te Heuheu. Pita deliberately delegated to her the governance role as minister for Maori TV. She’s never put her head up once. She deliberately misled Bill English,” Mr Jones says.

He says Maori Television was set up by Labour to foster the revival of Maori language and cultural identity, not to be a populist sports broadcaster.

TOBACCO INQUIRY WATCHED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

There's international interest in how New Zealand is tackling the tobacco industry.

Shane Bradbrook from anti-smoking lobby group Te Reo Marama says people at the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Darwin last week were keen to hear his presentation on the schedules Maori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the tobacco industry.

He says there is a similar inquiry going on in Western Australia, but it lacks the kind of forthright rhetoric coming from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira.

“One of the advocates here wanted those quotes from Hone Harawira because he wanted to impress on politicians that they needed to be passionate about getting rid of tobacco. All eyes are now focused on New Zealand. They believe that Maori Affairs Select Committee inquiry shows massive leadership and of course it’s indigenous leadership,” Mr Bradbrook says.

Written submissions to the Maori Affairs Select Committee enquiry close at the end of January

MAORI BODYBUILDERS DO WELL IN NATIONALS

Maori bodybuilders were to the fore at the New Zealand Federation of Bodybuilders national championships in Auckland over the weekend.

Maureen O'Connell picked up the Open Women's figure tall title ... and the pairs title with Johnson Reihana.

She says there's a lot of talented Maori bodybuilders coming through.

“The sport's growing amongst Maori but we still need to promote it because it’s such a healthy lifestyle and it gets the whole family involved in active living. It’s a mean as sport,” Ms O'Connell says.

She says the federation is looking at taking a Maori bodybuilding team to compete in the South Pacific championships next year, if the international body approves.

TAMIHERE CONFIDENT MAORI CAN WIN IN HEALTH SHAKE UP

The head of one of the country's largest social service providers is confident Maori will do well in a major shake up of the primary health sector.

Bids to provide regional primary care services close on Wednesday.

John Tamihere, the chair of Waiora Health PHO in West Auckland, says it's one of the biggest ever reorganisations of the health sector.

He says reducing the number of public health organisations set up by the last government should channel more money into care rather than administration.

“I am reasonably certain Maori will do OK in this change process for one reason only. We are some of the best providers of primary healthcare to our communities that are working and working at good dollar value,” Mr Tamihere says.

If Maori health providers miss out on contracts they are likely to challenge the decision in court.

PREVENTION WORKING FOR WAIORA HEALTH

Meanwhile, Waiora Health is finding prevention is about doing simple things well.

Community worker Katherine Tipene says by providing transport and child care so women can get to appointments, it has halved the number of Maori women in west Auckland missing tests for cervical cancer.

The service follows up with supportive phone calls.

“A lot of it comes down to the upbringing and about our body, how whakama our wahine are and so forth, and not knowing what a colposcopy is. When a lot of wahine hear colposocopy, automatically they think it’s cancer, but I just educate them and say no, it is preventable,” Ms Tipene says.

Getting women to tests has a positive effect on early diagnosis and treatment.

IRONY BONE MISSING IN IKRAM CRITICS

A TV3 reporter under fire for spoofing Maori Television's rugby world cup coverage says young Maori need to develop a sense of humour.

Ali Ikram says his Night Line item was his idea of a redneck's nightmare if MTS wins its bid for free to air broadcast rights.

It included using the Waitangi Tribunal as a video ref, and a dig at the number of programmes presenter Julian Wilcox fronts.

Mr Ikram says his job on Night Line is to send up the news, but it has drawn a complaint from Auckland university Maori students.

“One of the things this has uncovered, there are sections of young Maori who don’t have a sense of humour or a sense of irony about race relations in this country. I know what racist humour is and I know what racial vilification is all about. I didn’t go anywhere near that because I know that is completely wrong,” Mr Ikram says.

He says it would be more racist to declare Maori topics off limits.