Perception and reality meet at tide line

Labour leader Phil Goff says reform of the Foreshore and Seabed Act could cost the Maori Party votes once its supporters realise they've been had.

Mr Goff says the so called agreement between National and the Maori Party to let Maori go to the High Court to prove customary title is just two sides posturing to save political face.

He says perceptions need to line up with reality at same stage.

“When they don't, then people both feel angry because they haven’t got what they wanted, and feel angry that the wool has been pulled over their eyes and people don’t know what the difference between Crown ownership and public space is because there is no difference, they know that the same criteria for customary rights will apply as applied before the courts for decades and actually was being applied in the negotiations between iwi and the Crown under the existing act,” Mr Goff says.

NURSES’ STORIES ENLIVEN HISTORY BOOK

The author of a book celebrating a hundred years of the New Zealand Nurses' Organisation says she's discovered some larger-than-life Maori characters in her research.

Mary Ellen O'Connor says the rigid and regimental nature of the profession in its early years put off many Maori women, who were more likely to go into fields like mental health care.

But she says there were women like Marika Wehipehana who persisted and also practiced what is now called cultural safety, especially in strongly Maori areas like the East Coast.

The book is Freed to Serve, Proud to Care.

MATARIKI GAMES FOR TAINUI KAUMATUA

The organiser of today's Port Waikato Matariki Winter Olympics says the Maori new year celebration brings out the competitive spirit in the region's kaumatua.

Livane Ratu from Huakina Development Trust says kuia and koroua from Waiuku to Mangatangi will get advice on health eating and ways to avoid falls, which are the main cause of injury among the elderly.

They will also engage in some age-appropriate games like giant ball soccer, indoor bowls and darts.

A lemon tree will be planted, with due ceremony, to mark the day.

HIGH TAR AND NICOTINE LEVELS HITTING MAORI SMOKERS

Tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand says high levels of tar and nicotine in New Zealand cigarettes could be one reason the addiction hits Maori so hard.

Dr Wigand, who went public in 1996 with documents showing the industry was covering up its knowledge of the risks of tobacco, is in the country to give evidence to a Maori affairs select committee inquiry.

He says while factors such as family pressure to smoke and the lack of effective cessation programmes may contribute to the fact almost one in two adult Maori are addicted to tobacco, the way the industry concocts its products here is causing extreme harm.

“The high level of nicotine, the high level of tar could go to explaining partially the reason why there is such an issue among the Mori. You have a nicotine level that’s substantially higher than (brands in other countries). You have a tar level that is directly related to the illnesses associated with tobacco use, the morbidity and mortality, and I think that’s part of the equation,” Dr Wigand says.

He says as more affluent societies step up the pressure to go smokefree, the tobacco industry is shifting its focus to marketing in the developing world and to lower income communities such as Maori.

MAORI TO BE INVOLVED IN STAGE TWO OF ART PLAN

The consultant behind a 10-year public art plan for Hamilton is denying he left Maori out of the picture.

Some Hamilton City Councilors have complained Rob Garrett's $20,000 report ignored important themes like heritage and Maori.

But Mr Garrett says his intention was always to involve tangata whenua in the detailed planning which follows the initial document.

“You can't tell the stories of Hamilton and you can’t engage the communities of Hamilton without giving consideration to the Maori stories, both the vibrant, living ongoing stories of today as well as the heritage,” Mr Garrett says.

The four themes he identified for the council to focus on are the river, arrivals, innovation and people.

TITANICS PLAY TO PUT A SMILE ON FACES

Playwright Albert Belz wants today's audiences to experience some of the excitement generated by the Maori showbands of the 1960s and 70s.
His Raising the Titanics premieres tonight at TAPAC theatre in Auckland's Western Springs College.

The 37 year old from Ngati Porou, Ngapuhi and Ngati Pokai says he wanted to write a play which put Howard Morrison, Billy T James, Prince Tui Teka and Kiri Te Kanawa on the same stage.

That was put in the too hard basket, and instead he came up with the story of a fictitious showband called the Maori Titanics.

“Encompassed all the good times, the best things, the innocence, the romance, the adventure of that period. It’s about making people walk out of that theatre with the biggest smile on their face and walk down memory lane, having experienced for the first time the beauty that was the Maori showbands,” Mr Belz says.

This week's TAPAC season of Raising the Titanics is sold out, but it gets another run next month at the Taonga Whakaari: Maori Playwrights Festival in Papakura.

Sharples assured on education changes

Associate education minister Pita Sharples hopes proposed changes to tertiary education won't stop Maori mature students getting to university.

His Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia yesterday warned that suggestions loans will be cut for students who don't pass their exams first time will affect many Maori second chance learners, who can need time to develop study skills.

Dr Sharples says he came away from a meeting with Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce feeling reassured.

“I mentioned I didn’t want entry programmes docked and he thought that wouldn’t be the case, that there’d still be that transition are. I’m hoping that adult Maori can still continue the road into university,” Dr Sharples says

He also gained an assurance the student learning centres which offer support for students would continue.

WHANAU BANDS SHARE WOMAD STAGE

The opening ceremony for the festival of World Music and Dance or Womad is underway about now at New Plymouth's Bowl of Brooklands.

New Zealand programme director Emere Wano says alongside the international acts, festival goers can catch performances by Te Roopu kapahaka o Te Whanau A Apanui, female vocal trio Pacific Curls, reggae band House of Shem and other Maori musical talent.

Ms Wano says for whanau bands like Kaeo's 1814, it's a chance to rub shoulders with established artists.

KORORAREKA BATTLE LEADS TO ALTERNATIVE HISTORY LESSON

It's the fourth Kororareka Festival tomorrow, as Russell remembers the 1845 battle that levelled the Bay of Islands township.

The Kororareka Marae Society is promising a celebration of Maori culture, with kapa haka, Rawhiti band Sweet As, a beauty contest, traditional kai, the Hone Heke Run from Russell township to the flagstaff on Maiki Hill, and firing of a collection of old cannons

Historian Manuka Henare says the festival allows Maori and pakeha to come together with their own views about the sacking.

“Tomorrow there will be the Maori view that Hone Heke and Kawiti and others were protecting Maori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. But the British soldiers and some of the Pakeha business people felt the British has to stand up to these insurgents and troublemakers. Most of the damage at Kororraka wasn’t actually done by Maori, it was done by the British bombardment.
Dr Henare says.

TOBACCO SALESMAN SPILLS THE BEANS ON HARD TACTICS

The Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the impact of smoking on Maori has heard how the tobacco industry deliberately targets Maori.

A submission by Te Kao-based Whakawhiti Ora Pai Community Health included an interview with a kaumatua who had been the Northland sales representative of a major tobacco company.

Director Errol Murray says the kaumatua detailed how free cigarettes and kickbacks were used to get retailers to give brands priority, and how a large proportion of the sales force was Maori ... not because it was an equal opportunity employer, but because Maori were the market.

“That was his job, selling to his relations, and he thought it was a glamorous job. Everybody thought it was a glamorous job. You’ve got a good job mate. He gets a company car. He gets to fly away. He’s getting good money, he’s on a salary. And it was just a fluke we knew him and we had someone talk to him. He knew what it was for. There was no hidden agenda. But he wanted to share it because he’s now a non smoker and he’s seen the effect tobacco use has had on his family, on his own health, so there’s some regrets there now,” Mr Murray says.

CHILE EXCHANGE BRINGS MATERIAL FOR DOCUMENTARY

A Rotorua kura kaupapa student who features in a Maori Television series about Maori kids in Chile says her hosts were surprised to hear the students conversing in te reo maori.

The six part documentary Kia Ora Hola follows six students from Te Kura o te Kautu during the six weeks they spent at Colegio Pucalan Montessori school in Colina, just north of the capital Santiago.

Tae Amorangi Rikirangi Thomas says her Chilean hosts were keen to pick up on some reo Maori, after they got over their surprise at hearing the children speak it to each other.

All students at Te Kura o te Kautu are taught Spanish.

Kiaora Hola screens tonight at 9-30 on Maori Television

STACEY JONES TAKE COACHING SPOT WITH PIRATES

One of the most popular Maori sportspeople of all time has made another crowd-pleasing move.

Stacey Jones, from Ngapuhi and Maniapoto has teamed up with Awen Guttenbiel to coach the Pt Chevalier Pirates, who take on the Hibiscus Coast Raiders tomorrow in the first round of the Phelan Shield.

The former Warriors have called in former teammates like Wairangi Koopu and Monty Betham to help the Pirates work their way out of third division.

Switching codes to play in the team is rugby commentator Karl Te Nana, whose son is set to join the Pirates if his school's first fifteen doesn't need him.

The Pt Chev Pirates and the Hibicus Coast Raiders square off at Stanmore Bay on the Whangaparoa Penninsula at 2-30 tomorrow.

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.

Select committee tobacco inquiry starts

The Maori Affairs Select Committee kicked off its inquiry into the tobacco industry with a hearing in Rotorua today.

The inquiry is chaired by Nation's Tau Henare, but it came about through pressure from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira.

The Tai Tokerau MP says he has mixed emotions about the inquiry into an industry that leads to the death of more than 600 Maori a year.

“I'd rather have all of our people alive rather than have to go through this exercise but the tobacco giants don’t care that our people die from their products. They just want money. Someone’s got to do it and I’m glad it’s us, the Maori Affairs Select Committee. I’m looking forward to it,” Mr Harawira says.

He sees the inquiry as a step towards banning the sale of tobacco in New Zealand.

TE AUTE OLD BOY WINS GOLDEN SHEARS FIRST TIME UP

A new champion has emerged from the 50th Golden Shears.

26-year-old Cam Ferguson from Waipawa clipped his way to victory at Masterton over two-time winner Johnny Kirkpatrick and 17-time winner David Fagan, with Dion King 4th.

Commentator Koro Mullins says the win capped a great summer for the Te Aute Old Boy and shows he's got what it takes to compete at the highest level of the sport.

“When you're at that level it’s all a mid game and the young man, only 26, to step up in his first Golden Shear final, a lot of these guys have done 10, 12, 20 Golden Shears final, and for this man to step up to the plate and took it out, wonderful,” Mr Mullins says.

The win puts Ferguson into the New Zealand team heading to the world championships in Wales in July.

NGATI RANGIWEWEHI STORM BACK IN KAPA HAKA

Ngati Rangiwewehi's first equal placing in the Te Arawa kapa haka regional championships held at Rotorua's Energy Events centre on Saturday gave an extra thrill to the event's co-ordinator.

As tutors, Trevor Maxwell and his late wife Atareta won two national titles with the Rotorua group.

This year the group is coached by his nephew, Dan Vaka, and it came back strongly after failing to make the cut to years ago.

Honours were shared with Te Maataarae i Orehu, whose total was boosted after a recount, with Tuhourangi - Ngati Wahiao, Nga Uri o te Whanoa and Manaia also through to represent the region at Te Matatini in Gisborne next February.

Mr Maxwell says he was touched by the tribute his old team paid to Atareta and him.

The Kahungunu region picks its Matatini contenders at Te Aute College next weekend.

ACT IDEALOGUE LASHES OUT AT MAORI MEN

Former ACT deputy leader Muriel Newman says Maori men are the problem ... but the government shouldn't create targeted programmes to address the problem,

Mrs Newman is sticking by her claims to the ACT Party conference that the National Maori party relationship has brought race relations to an all time low, and there's no way the Maori Party's flagship whanau ora policy should just be for Maori.

But she says Maori men have abandoned the whanau.

“If you look back at 1968, 72 percent of children born into Maori families had a mum and dad who were married and by 2008 that had dropped to 22 percent. That is actually a real issue I wish Maori leadership would address. It hasn’t changed like that for any other group in New Zealand,” Mrs Newman says.

TOBACCO INVESTIGATION A MILESTONE

The director of Maori anti smoking group Te Reo Marama, Shane Kawentata Bradbrook says today's start of the Maori Affair's Select Committee's investigation into the tobacco industry is a milestone.

The committee heard evidence in Rotorua today, and sits at Alexandra Park Raceway in Auckland on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mr Bradbrook says it will hear from people who lost parents to smoking-related diseases.

“It's an historic moment to not only take on the tobacco industry but also to get some parliamentary inquiry into tobacco and the consequences on Maori which has been devastating since the 1950s when governments around the world knew that there was a link between smoking and cancer,” says Mr Bradbrook, from Ngai Taamanuhiri, Rongowhakaata and Ngati Kahungunu.

PATH TO KIWI TEAM FOR AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS

There was a strong Maori flavour at Sydney's Parramatta Stadium over the weekend as Kiwi coach Steven Kearny and captain Benji Marshall led a roots camp for young players eligible to play for New Zealand.

Players from the under-20s National Junior, Jersey Flegg and S.G.Ball competitions mixed with established NRL stars Roy Assotasi and Nathan Cayless and legends Tawera Nika and Ruben Wiki.

New Zealand Rugby league football manager Tony Kemp says many of the emerging players were born in Australia to New Zealand parents, and they need to know the door is open for them to wear the Kiwi jersey.

The day was capped off with a hangi put by the Sydney under 16 rangatahi team, who are raising money to attend the national Maori tournament in Rotorua over Labour weekend.