Category: Te Ao Māori

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Crown has apologised to Auckland and Hauraki iwi Ngāti Paoa for its actions which led to the iwi becoming “virtually landless.”

Around 500 iwi members travelled to Parliament to witness the third reading of the Ngāti Pāoa Claims Settlement Bill.

The rohe, or region, of Ngāti Pāoa extends through Hauraki and parts of the Coromandel Peninsula to Auckland and includes islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

For Rangitahi Pompey, it’s the end of a long road, as her father was one of the many people who carried the baton for Ngāti Pāoa through the long years to settle their historical grievances with the Crown.

“I often speak of him and talk of how he ate, drunk, slept and died, Ngāti Pāoa. Everything about him was for the people and that was at the calling of his father to come home.”

It was just over 40 years ago, in March 1985, that Ngāti Pāoa leader Hariata Gordon lodged the tenth claim to the Waitangi Tribunal – Wai 10, the Waiheke Island Claim. That claim was heard and reported on by the Tribunal in 1987.

Many of the Ngāti Pāoa claims were lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal and heard during the Hauraki Inquiry in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Pompey told RNZ it’s been a long journey and although the settlement has passed, it’s not over for the iwi.

“So even though we are where we are, we have still got things to do. We still have things to achieve and today, I guess we step into a new space where we can start to realise those dreams. Realise and bring to fruition the dreams of many people.”

It will be the mokopuna, the children and grandchildren who will carry the iwi into the future, she said.

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Paul Goldsmith said in the settlement the Crown acknowledged the effect of its actions including raupatu (confiscation), the impact of the Native Land Courts and Crown purchasing which left Ngāti Pāoa virtually landless.

“The crown also acknowledged it breached the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles when it invaded the Waikato, attacking Ngāti Pāoa and shelled the unfortified village of Pūkorokoro in 1863 causing the death of iwi members.”

Goldsmith said no settlement can fully compensate Ngāti Pāoa for what they lost.

The settlement included $23.5 million in financial reddress, the opportunity to purchase seven commercial properties and the return of 12 cultural sites of significance including sites for a marae and papakāinga development in the suburb of Point England, he said.

The settlement consolidates the Waiheke Station Trust into the Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust so that all settlement assets are held by one organisation.

“This consolidation was strongly supported by iwi members during the ratification process” said Goldsmith

Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust chair Herearoha Skipper said this was a time to remember the Ngāti Pāoa leaders who, over decades, had sought justice from the Crown.

“In particular, we acknowledge the work of the Ngāti Pāoa Negotiators, Morehu Wilson and Hauauru Rawiri. Sadly, Morehu passed in 2022, and it is with aroha that we have his whānau join us on this momentous occasion.”

Skipper said there are other aspects of the Ngāti Pāoa settlement package that will need to be finalised.

“The Pare Hauraki Collective Redress Bill was introduced to Parliament in December 2022, but has not yet had a first reading. The Marutūāhu Iwi Collective Redress Deed needs to be signed by the Crown, on the basis of what was offered and without change. Without these, the Crown will not have fully delivered the Ngāti Paoa settlement package.”

“The Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust is confident that these matters can be resolved before the next general election.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tauranga iwi Ngāi Te Rangi says the fight for te reo Māori is not over yet and that it’s going to continue promoting te reo regardless of what the government does.

The Waitangi Tribunal released its Taku Kura Reo, Taku Reo Kahurangi report on Crown policies concerning the use of te reo Māori in the public service in October.

The claim brought by Ngāi Te Rangi focussed on commitments in the coalition agreement between National and NZ First to ensure all public service departments have their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Māori’. Secondly, to ‘equire the public service departments and Crown Entities to communicate primarily in English – except those entities specifically related to Māori’.

It was the first of a flurry of applications the Tribunal received for an urgent inquiry after the government came to power in 2023. Hearings took place in June 2024.

The Tribunal found the Crown breached the principles of te Tiriti / ​the Treaty, including rangatiratanga, partnership, active protection, equity and good government.

Judge Te Kani Williams said any diminishing of Crown support for the revitilisation of te reo was a matter of serious concern.

“As the Tribunal has previously observed, te reo has been matched only by Māori land as a galvanising force for Māori protest in recent decades.

“The language remains in a vulnerable state (something the Crown readily acknowledged in our inquiry) and te reo advocates are quick to remind us that there is no margin for complacency.”

Ngāi Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhiao told RNZ the iwi was compelled to take the claim to the Tribunal because the “attack” on te reo is also an attack on Māori cultural identity.

“From our perspective, it’s led to Māori thinking harder about the fact that the fight for our reo is not over yet. So we’ve got to continue to keep promoting te reo amongst our whānau, particularly the mokopuna we’ve got coming up behind us, and ensure that regardless of what the Crown does, that te reo won’t vanish or be extinguished.”

Tawhiao said if iwi leaders didn’t model to the next generation that they would not tolerate the attack on te reo, then they would end up paying the price with “another silent generation of Māori”.

“I think at a higher level, protecting and upholding te reo Māori as the first language of this whenua, this place we now call Aotearoa, is an obligation, not only for us as iwi Māori, but actually for all thinking Kiwis in our view.

“But the recovery and the progress has been remarkable… not only for Māori, but there’s a whole generation of tangata Tiriti who have also taken efforts to learn te reo Māori, not because they must, because they want to.”

Tawhiao said despite the efforts to recover te reo Māori there remained a “stubborn and outdated” view that the indigenous language of Aotearoa had no value.

After the Tribunal had finished writing its report, Judge Williams said they “were appraised of further steps being taken by the Crown to relegate the placement and status of te reo Māori behind English”, referencing Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden’s announcement that New Zeland’s passport was being redesigned to place the English words above the te reo text.

Tawhiao said it is just the latest of a “whole basket of policies” designed to assimilate Māori.

But for Ngāi Te Rangi he said the best thing they could do was to follow the words of the late Kiingi Tuheitia, to be “Māori everyday, in every way”.

“I think that’s something we’ve got to encourage our people to do, that our cultural identity doesn’t require or depend on any government acknowledging it. But at the same time, we don’t want to be spending our time defending our very identity and who we are, which is where people were starting to feel.”

The iwi would continue to encourage its people to carry on speaking te reo wherever they chose to and however they could, he said.

“Just as an example of what happened to te reo, when I was learning as a young fellow, and I was visiting my dad one day, and every time I met with him, I talked to him in Māori, so he talked back to me so that I could hear, first of all, did I make sense? Did he hear me? But secondly, to hear how he spoke so I could learn more.

“And I remember we were sitting in a coffee shop having a cup of tea and I was talking to him in te reo Māori and then some people came in and he was looking nervously at them and I said, ‘what’s up?’. He said, ‘well, it’s a bit rude to talk Māori in front of Pākehā people’. And I thought, oh God, and I said to him, ‘Dad, it’s an official language now, we’re allowed to speak Māori’. You know, we’re recovering from that trauma.”

Tawhiao said unlike his father he never lived through that trauma, but he lived through its impacts.

The next generations have lived with the revival of te reo Māori, and he said he didn’t want to see that progress stifled by “continued outdated views that come from an age that’s long past”.

Judge Williams, quoting from the landmark 1986 Tribunal report on the te reo Māori claim, said, “To recognise Māori officially is one thing, to enable its use widely is another thing altogether.

“There must be more than just the right to use it in the courts. There must also be the right to use it with any department or any local body if official recognition is to be real recognition, and not mere tokenism.”

The Tribunal’s recommendations

• Take immediate steps to reverse actions and policy concerning the use of te reo in agency names and government communications.
• Ensure new governments comply with the Crown’s obligations to te reo Māori under both existing legislation and te Tiriti / the Treaty and its principles.
• Strengthen the wording of Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016.
• Make Te Tohu Reorua i te Reo Māori me te Reo Pākehā – Māori-English Bilingual Signage 2016 guidelines compulsory.
• Amend the 2024 Government Workforce Policy Statement “so that the payment of te reo allowances to government officials continues regardless of whether te reo skills are a requirement to perform their role or not”.
• Increase the bilingual aptitude of the public service.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Te Pāti Māori’s leadership is willing to meet with estranged MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris, the National Iwi Chairs Forum says.

Ngāti Kahungunu chairman Bayden Barber sat down with the party’s president and two co-leaders at Parliament this afternoon.

“It was a great meeting and we’re looking forward to bringing the factions of the party together to have a hui on a marae here in Pōneke.

“We just got agreement from this side so that’s a great start. Need to talk to Mariameno and Tākuta, but from Rawiri and Deb they were supportive.”

The National Iwi Chairs Forum would be reaching out to Kapa-Kingi and Ferris this evening to put the same hui request to them, Barber said.

“The sooner the better, we want it to happen ASAP.

“We’re keen to try and find a resolution this month because we know that as it gets beyond this year, there’s a very low chance of having success in the election. So yeah, there’s time pressure to get this sorted.”

After what he had heard today, Barber said he still believed things could be patched up.

“[The leadership] laid it all out, timelined the whole thing and that was helpful to understand the context but at the end of the day, the question goes back to, is this surmountable?

“We think it is, as iwi chairs, and hence why we’ve called a hui and they’ve agreed to attend. We look forward to having similar conversations with Mariameno and Tākuta shortly.”

Using the waka-jumping legislation to boot Kapa-Kingi and Ferris out of Parliament had not come up today, Barber said.

“We’re looking for a solution to maintain unity within the Māori Party. That’s what we’re focused on because that’s going to get us the most chance of success at the next election.

“If it comes down to that outcome, that’ll be something for them sort out.”

‘Nothing that would preclude’ waka-jumping in party’s constitution

Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders were asked if they would waka-jump the rogue MPs this afternoon.

“We haven’t considered that particular option at this time,” Rawiri Waititi said.

“We’re allowing our national council to work through the constitution and we need to be able to allow them to do that without having to deal with that through the media.”

Political scientist Dr Lara Greaves has had a look at the constitution and said it did not prohibit the party from using the legislation.

“There’s nothing that would preclude any kind of enactment of the party hopping legislation. There’s nothing explicit in there.”

She said the Māori Party’s constitution was an “interesting” political document that gave the party’s president a lot of power, relative to other positions in the party.

“The president has a key role in dispute resolution.”

She added timing was also a key consideration for any party invoking the waka-jumping rules.

“If it’s six months before the election, that’s when there’s no by-election.

“So we’re starting to run into this really strange period where we have potential by election, or by elections, running close to the election or the cut off stage.”

Greaves said it would be easiest for for Kapa-Kingi and Ferris to meet with the party’s leadership and stick it out, over going solo and setting up their own party.

“Starting up a political party is incredibly hard with incredibly long hours. You’ve got to find money, you’ve got to find resources. We’re a year out from a general election.

“You’re going to split the Māori vote, potentially the Māori Party vote, allow Labour to come through the middle.

“They’re ultimately in quite a stressful situation where it might be a case that they bow out quietly or resign or retire at the election instead of going through that whole rigmarole of starting up a political party.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders and their offside MPs are set to meet on Thursday to try to find headway in their open conflict.

The party is in crisis, with party president John Tamihere calling on Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris to “do the honourable thing” and step down while Tamihere said there was “a process in play” for the two MPs to be expelled from the party.

That’s after a petition saying Tamihere should be the one standing down.

As well, there are allegations of intimidation and financial mismanagement

Iwi leaders are hopeful they can bring Te Pāti Māori MPs back together and make the party a credible force leading into next year’s election.

National Iwi Chairs Forum chairperson Bayden Barber believes outstanding issues can be patched up.

At a hui he led yesterday, party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer agreed to meet with the estranged MPs.

Barber said after the meeting at Parliament the factions of the party would be brought together for a hui on a marae in Pōneke.

He told Morning Report the first priority he stressed at the meeting was the need for “a ceasefire” on all social media barbs which hadn’t been helpful.

He also wanted to see a hui to thrash out the issues in the hope of a resolution so that Te Pāti Māori could go on to play a part in the next government.

While the problems among the party’s caucus were serious they weren’t “insurmountable”.

“Our view would be let’s get to a hui and face to face between the parties and go from there.”

He wanted a a pause on any “consitutional stuff” such as moves to expel the two disaffected MPs.

While there was talk of a coup and expulsion, the two factions weren’t talking to each other.

Barber said the crisis appeared to have begun when Kapa-Kingi objected to the loss of the whip role within the party, however, he was a little unsure on the core problem.

“It’s headed south since.”

Ferris had agreed to a meeting this week, while Barber was still trying to contact Kapa-Kingi.

“We’ll sit down, put those issues on the table … let’s get to a hui face to face on the marae in Pōneke and let’s work things out.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand