Te Karaka is now online and it is really fantastic. There are opportunites to leave comments on articles which i really believe will help us build stronger Ngai Tahu communities. Go here and have a look and leave a comment. Let's get behind this and support the connection and communication between all Ngai Tahu whanui.
"Welcome to the new interactive TE KARAKA website. Our developer Simon Leslie has been working on this project to enhance TE KARAKA’s online magazine with some of the bells and whistles that can be found on the Internet. Now, you can leave comments, follow us on Twitter, print or email your favourite article at the push of a button. We are especially interested in hearing your opinions about our articles.
I hope the discussions and korero around the Foreshore and Seabed proposals will be available online too, especially important for those of us who are not able to get to the meetings.
"The foreshore and seabed is to be removed from Crown ownership and any "uninvestigated" Maori customary title extinguished by the last Labour Government's contentious Foreshore and Seabed Act will be restored, under proposals just announced.
A discussion document released today outlines the Government's proposals for what should replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act once it is repealed.
It says the Government believes it is time for a new approach to ownership.
"Instead of identifying an owner, the new legislation would explicitly provide that no one can own the foreshore and seabed. It will be declared to be a public domain."
First thought - maori own it - if that belief is given up we may as well roll over entirely.
"The public domain proposal would see New Zealanders' rights and interests recognised, rather than being concerned with ownership.
The Government also proposed to restore the right to go to court to establish customary title as a form of recognition to parts of the foreshore and seabed, where this could be proved.
This would see the courts apply common law principles derived from Canada's experience of customary title and Maori tikanga.
But while Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia welcomed the Government's commitment to repealing the act today, she suggested that Maori might "struggle" with its proposals.
"I encourage our people, who might be struggling with those proposals, to seek guidance from their hapu, to return home to those hapu who have, for generation after generation, cared for te takutai moana on behalf of us all.
"Our priority is repeal - we promised our people we'd get it so that's our main objective. Beyond repeal is to get the best deal for our mokopuna," Mrs Turia said.
That line is a real worry. Repeal is just repeal, not a solution. Just getting a repeal is important but no where near enough and if getting a repeal is the big win and the maori party promote themselves because of that, then we need another maori party in parliment.
She hoped that repealing the act would bring an end to the "mamae, hurt and injustices our people have had to endure", she said.
We will see if the hurts and injustices are soothed by this.
30 March 2010 at 2:19 pm
The co-jellyfish leaders are at it again…bet my spines more invisible than yours Pita..na na na na na
BLiP
30 March 2010 at 2:27 pm
Very mana enhancing, ain’t it?
Ron
31 March 2010 at 2:51 am
The Maori Party are getting everything they deserve. They went with the Tories. .
Yes it did surprise many of us and many of us said before the election that if they went with the Tories it would be the end of them. It’s the end of them. idiots.
And the many others - all wrong - all just pushing their own agendas
"Police and Ngai Tahu swooped on two Hokitika jade businesses this morning in a search for pounamu allegedly stolen from South Westland.
The Jade Factory and Mountain Jade were both shut while police searched inside. Staff were not letting anyone through the doors.
West Coast police area commander Inspector John Canning said they were looking for distinctive "snowflake" pounamu.
Twelve police officers from Greymouth and Hokitika were involved in executing the search warrants today, removing jade exhibits from the shelves of both shops.
"It's (snowflake) only found in one place, the Cascade Plateau. It never had a mining licence before or after Ngai Tahu had ownership vested in 1997," Mr Canning said.
"Ngai Tahu has not given permission to anyone to mine or remove that type of greenstone from the area."
Mr Canning said the operation could potentially have major ramifications for the jade industry."
You cannot hide thieves - the pounamu is calling out to those who can hear. If any business has been trafficing in our taonga they should be closed down.
Don't support the attack on our most vulnerable, the attack on maori. Say no to blaming the poor and the sick and the disabled. Fight for our people. Tell national to fuck off. Maori Party - do your job.
"Prime Minister John Key says the Maori Party may still support today's vote on the Government's welfare reforms despite co-leader Tariana Turia airing concerns.
Mrs Turia told Radio New Zealand she was voting for the reforms because she was bound by Cabinet collective responsibility as associate social development minister."
RESIGN
"Mr Key also rejected suggestions Social Development Minister Paula Bennett had failed to keep the Maori Party up to speed, saying there had been "complete and full consultation" on the package."
BIG LIE
The maori party have to stand up for maori. Maori are most affected by these attacks and the maori party have to stand up - or else just go away and we will fight the battles without you.
I recieved this email today about a little girl stolen, raped and murdered. This happens a lot around our world and it is unbelievable. And as we sit there wondering how these atrocities can occur let's consider the video for Derty Sesh which is funded by NZ on Air and shows a woman hunted, murdered, and cut into pieces.
And they fit together these two disgusting pieces of news - they fit together very well.
"Amita was a sweet 9 year old girl who loved her family. One day, she was kidnapped, taken to a city far away and put in a cage. She was forced to have sex with dozens of men per day, and brutally beaten when she cried or refused. 5 terror-filled years later, suffering from sexually transmitted disease, she died from a beating at age 14.
Amita's story is about the worst nightmare imaginable, but the UN estimates that millions of women and girls are traded for rape every year -- one of the most horrific problems in our world today. The best way to tackle it is to expose the rape traders and kill their profits. In January Avaaz members voted to make this a top priority this year, so we're beginning work across the world with expert teams, local campaigners, sex workers and investigators to shut down these brutal and shadowy businesses.
Every minute this problem continues is too long. We can't bring Amita back, but every minute, two more Amitas are sold into horror."
It is beyond imagination that this sort of activity is still happening in this world in 2010.
What do you think this NZ on Air funded Derty Sesh video has to do with it?
How can we allow this to be funded and shown in this country. Is it okay to show the brutal horror of a woman getting stalked, killed and cut up?
I say NO - it is too much and should not be supported. For those who say it is okay, just art - what would happen if he wanted to make a music video about what happened to the 9 year old little girl in the email - Amita?
Video taken down now and the censor's office has begun a classification process at the request of the Department of Internal Affairs. This is good. Hat tip LudditeJourno
Tuna - long finned eels are beautiful creatures. I often take my son to visit them in the gardens. We walk to the edge and they come over, their bright eyes looking at us as we look at them. My son calls them snakes and eels and tuna. At his first party the other day he wanted a snake painted on his face. His first proper drawing has been a series of snakes. He knows that snakes are eels and eels are tuna. He likes them and so do I. They are dying out and will be gone in our lifetimes if we don't take action to protect them.
And a start will be to stop commercial fishing and the selling of eel at markets.
"With the blessing of the Ministry of Fisheries, commercial fishing of the eel continues - a situation freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy described as a "travesty".
FishMart at the Auckland fish market sells live eels for $19.95/kg.
"Where in the world could you go down to a central-city market and legally buy a live, threatened, endemic animal?" said Joy, of Manaaki Tuna (the Massey University Tuna Research and Restoration Group).
Get to know your eel or tuna as they are really special taonga that deserve our protection. I want my son's son's son to be able to see tuna in the wild and for that to happen we need to get serious about saving them NOW.
"For at least 65 million years, long-finned eels (Anquilla dieffenbachii) have been swimming up and down New Zealand’s waterways.The long-finned eel is one of the largest freshwater eels in the world and it is found only in the rivers and lakes of this country. Longfin eels are threatened fish.
They are legendary climbers and have made their way well inland in most river systems, even those with natural barriers. Elvers (young eels) swimming up river will climb waterfalls and even dams by leaving the water and wriggling over damp areas. It is not unheard of for an eel to climb a waterfall of up to 20 metres.
Compared with many other fish, eels are slow growing - a long-fin may grow only between 15-25mm a year. They can also live for many years. Large long-fins have been estimated to be at least 60 years old.
Long-finned eels breed only once, at the end of their life. When they are ready to breed, they leave New Zealand and swim five thousand kilometres up into the tropical Pacific to spawn, probably in deep ocean trenches somewhere near Tonga.
Habitat loss also affects eels. Changes caused by hydro development, drainage and irrigation schemes and river diversions affect eels by reducing their habitat and the water available for aquatic life. Culverts and dams can also impact on eels by preventing their migration.
Eel habitat is also impacted by pollution. Sewage and effluent from meat works and pulp and paper plants discharged into rivers can remove large quantities of oxygen from the water. The result of this oxygen depletion is that the fish will either die or move away."
Protect the tuna, protect the habitat, protect the rivers and waterways and we protect us and our children after us.
"Minister of Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has used an "Eden Park and postage stamp" analogy, regarding Government plans to allow mining on protected Schedule 4 conservation land.
"Coromandel Watchdog has produced an Eden Park -mining image which is more accurate and compelling as to the real-life impacts of modern gold mining", says spokesperson Denis Tegg.
"Using Google maps of identical scale we have produced an image which places Eden Park alongside Newmont's Waihi gold mine. The map shows the open pit, the tailings dam containing 40 million tonnes of hazardous waste, processing facilities and waste rock dumps."
"The image reveals that when looking at real-life mining impacts, it is Eden Park which is the tiny postage stamp, when compared to the massive scale of this gold mining operation" said Mr. Tegg. "The Waihi mining operations are equivalent in size to around 70 Eden Parks"
This song is especially meaningful to me. I remember travelling with mates across saddle hill, off to the brighton surf club for a party. One of my mates made a throw away comment that was racist and derogatory to maori. It was my first realisation that that could happen. That people I liked and were friends with, could be racist in an unconscious and conscious way. The words, "I was thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie." from this song rang in my head. I'll never forget that day.
Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming
Sayin' something about a queen
There were peasants singin' and drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree
There was a fanfare blowin' to the sun
That floated on the breeze
Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies
I was lyin' in a burned out basement
With a full moon in my eyes
I was hopin' for a replacement
When the sun burst through the skies
There was a band playin' in my head
And I felt like getting high
Thinkin' about what a friend had said,
I was hopin' it was a lie
Thinkin' about what a friend had said,
I was hopin' it was a lie
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun
Flyin' mother nature's silver seed
To a new home in the sun
The writing I enjoy the most from Mr Trotter is when I feel his heart. This latest post is a good example where I really connect with the narrative and the emotions and the writer is part of that and infuses the prose with their unique voice. I encourage you to go and have a read.
I have posted about the desecration here and Maps posted here.
Te Rongomai o Te Karaka is gone now, blown up. Let's make sure this never happens any where else.
I don't think bush was trying to get clinton to move - I think he was wiping the handshake off his skin.
What do you think?
"A video appearing to show George W Bush wiping his hands on Bill Clinton's shirt after shaking hands with a Haitian man is quickly gathering momentum on the internet."
This story, from aussie, about widespread passing on of extreme racist and pornographic emails, within the victorian police force, is very disturbing and as bad as it gets. From SMH
"Up to 100 officers are being investigated and could face the sack for sharing the emails, described by Chief Commissioner Simon Overland as "disturbing and gross", on work computers.
A series of racist and pornographic emails shared among Victoria Police officers are too shocking to ever be released publicly, the state's police chief says.
The most serious email shows an ethnic man being tortured.
"It is extremely serious, it’s offensive, and my view is that it would cause significant concern and alarm in the community if the material was made public," he said.
"If the Victorian public were aware of the nature of that material, I believe that it's of such a nature that it would cause significant concern within the Victorian community."
Mr Overland said some of the emails are so serious that they raised real questions about a number of individuals' suitability to continue with Victoria Police.
"We're not talking about one item, we're talking about multiple items," he said.
Whew! Officers made comments on the emails before passing them on and so far one officer under investigation has committed suicide.
Our own police aren't clean in this regard, by any measure, and I hope they take this wake up call from across the ditch seriously and root out the sickos within their ranks here.
This from paula bennett, around the discrimination identified by findlayson, in the beneficiary bashing measures introduced this week.
"I think that is a discrimination that most New Zealanders will see as being fair and reasonable."
What's the bet if she was discriminated against she would be the first to jump up and down. bennett is an ex solo mum, of maori descent, who dragged herself up through the system, on a benefit, and when she reaches a place where she can help other with her experiences what does she do? She puts the boot in. She says it was good enough for me but not for you - the saddest aspect of this is that bennett is just being used anyway and she can't even see it. The worse sort of hypocrite is someone like bennett who takes off the system and denies others the same opportunity.
"An immense ring of dust which fuels a massive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy M51, located 20 million light-years away. Surprisingly, they found that the ring is standing almost perpendicular to the relatively flat spiral galaxy, like a top spinning on its side with respect to the floor. Even more surprising is the discovery of a secondary ring or dust lane which is contrary to all expectations.
Interesting news that the crafar dairy farms have been sold to the China Jin Hui Mining Corporation - recently renamed Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings. From stuff
"Bloomberg reported that Natural Dairy would pay $1.5 billion for New Zealand farm assets, farm land, livestock and milk powder production plants."
That's a lot of money from natural dairy nz holdings - LOL why don't we stick with your original name mining corporation - this is not fooling anyone.
I not a great fan of labour's but i'll give them their due, when due - trevor mallard teaches steven joyce a lesson in politics and this video is worth watching to see gerry brownlee's face. He stuffed up. He is under pressure. He wants to mine our national parks. Well it's time to put the blowtorch on mr brownlee.
Pity about the insults to Massey - they certainly don't deserve that.
How to distract people National 101 - bash the beneficaries - yeah that always works - plus it will distract people from the mining - yeah that works too.
But let's be clear - this idea is not about accountability, or saving money or creating efficiencies - it is a thinly veiled punch in the face to the less fortunate in our society and it just happens that maori are over represented in those groups.
"The government has released its latest welfare "reforms" - and as floated last year, they centre on forcing sick people to work, parents to ignore their children, and the long-term unemployed to re-apply after a year in the explicit hope that the new administrative barrier will cause some of them to fall through the cracks.
Then there's the question of where the jobs these people are supposed to do are going to be coming from. We're in a recession, and unemployment is at a 15-year high. Under these circumstances, imposing work requirements on beneficiaries is simply sadism. But again, that's the point: by making demands which are near-impossible to meet, the government will be able to throw these people off their benefits, thus cutting welfare costs. As for the actual welfare of those people or their kids, well, this government doesn't care about that. Tax cuts for their rich mates and "shrinking the size of the state" are more important than whether every New Zealander has food, clothing, and a roof over their heads."
"Don't you LOVE their timing? The day after the Government announces they will mine precious conservation land, National call a press conference to play out one of NZ's favourite cultural past times - BASH THE FILTHY BENNIE.
It also looks like Nikki Kaye's position is less principled than first reported, turns out she had discussed it with Key yesterday...
...this smells funny now. National's strategy is to oversell the value and fold on one symbolic mining site they don't have much intention of mining to make it look like they are being moderate while pushing ahead with the rest of the mining agenda."
The bloggers are fighting hard to get the truth out. The gnats are little pricks and they will feel the displeasure of the electorate.
Have you felt like this? Or do you know someone who has.
"Quite simply, I couldn't find joy in anything, nor could I remember what it was like to look forward to anything. Every morning I woke up dreading what the day would bring. I would stand in the shower for extended periods of time, desperately trying to convince myself to face the day. Each step into the outside world was a giant hurdle and I totally withdrew from social activities. Eventually I started going to sleep hoping that somehow I wouldn't wake up in the morning.
It got so bad that I couldn't be trusted to be on my own in case I hurt myself, and I ended up moving back in with my parents where I didn't get off the couch for weeks.
That is a pretty good description and if you think you or your friend might be depressed go here for help. Don't delay do it today.
Great to see indigenous people working together. Offering apologies and thanks and celebrating the salmon and their spirit that swims in all oceans, interconnected - is the way to go.
"Twenty-seven members of the Winnemem Wintu tribe were given an official welcome at the Rehua Marae in Christchurch yesterday.
The tribe has a spiritual connection with the salmon and believes fish populations have fallen since its native McCloud River was blocked by a dam in the 1940s.
The South Island quinnat population is derived from eggs exported from the McCloud River in California by the United States Government.
Tribe members will hold a ceremony on the banks of the Rakaia River next week, calling on the quinnat salmon to return to the rivers of their homeland.
The salmon were taken and sent around the world - no one asked the indigenous people, no one even considered what they might have to say. And the same where the salmon were sent. Did anyone ask maori about whether they wanted salmon introduced?
"The ceremony will include an apology to the fish for not fighting harder to stop the dam that affected the McCloud River.
The trip was prompted after Sisk-Franco met commissioner Karen Johansen, of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, at the United Nations in New York.
Johansen contacted fellow commissioner Richard Tankersley in the South Island, who put the native Americans in touch with Ngai Tahu.
This is making a good result from a bad situation. Colonisation and the destruction of habitat, via dams and other disgraces, for people and all life has occured. Plants and animals have been rerooted and planted in other areas. It is right to offer apologies and blessings to these displaced creatures.
Air NZ have apologised for having, in their cabin crew training manual, the statement that that Tongans may drink the bar dry if given the chance. But FFS why have it in the manual in the first place. These type of racial slurs are unacceptable.
"Air New Zealand is apologising to prominent members of New Zealand's Tongan community for a cabin crew training manual that says Tongan passengers may want to drink the plane dry.
The comments were in a section aimed at helping crew members deal with passengers from different ethnicities.
That is a FAIL.
The airline has apologised to the Tongan Advisory Council and to Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni, who is of Tongan and Samoan descent.
Tidy up your act Air NZ this is just embarassing, for you and for us.
"The Government is proposing opening up more than 7000 hectares of conservation land to mining.
The land includes some areas in the Coromandel Peninsula, and the Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park.
The proposal has just been released by Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson.
Mr Brownlee said 7058ha of land presently in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act could be opened to mining, and he has floated the proposal in a discussion document.
Land in Schedule 4 is usually deemed to be of high conservation value and, at this stage, cannot be mined.
Mr Brownlee said 7058ha was just 0.2% of Schedule 4 land.
"This is nothing like the vast tracts of land suggested to date by the environmental lobby."
He said only 5% of the land being considered could actually be mined - as little as 500ha. That was smaller than the average New Zealand sheep and beef farm
You are finished brownlee - the lies you have run with are now about to catch up with you and your legacy will be destruction and decay. Your name will be used to shame others - starting today.
"Quick report from Bevan's Tangi. It might go well on your website. I don't have a photo.
I have just come back from Porangahau where I attended the tangi of Bevan Tipene Matua. It was a very sad sight to see a rangatira in his coffin when there is so much more work to be done. Only 40 years old and leaving children behind all added to the tragedy. It was a large tangi and they came from far and wide to show their respect. However, none was more appreciated than those five van loads that arrived from Ngai Tahu after a fifteen hour journey. Bevan was Ngai Tahu on one side and Kahungungu on the other. This journey linked both sides and it honoured his whakapapa. It was well received and it was a fine tribute to Bevan. Well done."
I was not one of the ones who fell at the feet of van dyk because she choose to leave where where was born and move here and play netball for this country. Yes she is a good player - ummm that's about it.
News that the van dyk's have made some mistakes on their property and dumped tree stumps in the streams is upsetting.
"Van Dyk and husband Antonie Christoffel (Christie) van Dyk have been served with a series of abatement notices, fined $750 for breaching an abatement, and have been ordered to do remedial work.
The notices came after they were reported for clearing more than 2.5 hectares of gorse from their SH2 property in Kaitoke on November 4. Bulldozers were seen being used for the clearing.
Fair enough to get rid of gorse but do it in a way that is sustainable FFS and don't dump your stumps
"Among the issues being investigated was the level of damage to two waterways, which had been filled in by the earthworks, Mr Cross said. Tree stumps were also dumped in the streams, he said.
The van Dyks had been ordered to come up with a plan to restore the streams, and to create sediment and erosion control for the hillside.
Forest & Bird lower North Island field officer Aalbert Rebergen said he had noticed the work being done a few months ago and was amazed someone would clear such a steep hill.
Messy business that should not happen. You guys have been accepted by many parts of this country - don't abuse the kindness you have found here by damaging our land and streams.
Try to silence people and they don't generally like it. Let's hope that the good people within DOC go round this attempt to stop information and the true involvement of DOC in opening our national parks for mining, getting out in the open. It won't work and is a terrible indication of where DOC leadership is at. Are they are colluding with the mining interests?
"Department of Conservation (DOC) staff have been told not to talk to lobby group Forest & Bird without permission in the wake of the information leaks relating to proposals for mining in national parks."
Of course DOC say it is not because they don't trust Forest and Bird or that they believe the leaker of the real story is from DOC - the email is to protect staff. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
"Hundreds of eels, some as old as 50, have died in a devastating pollution spill in the Puhinui Stream last week."Wai Care Manukau co-ordinator Andrew Jenks says "It just takes one small act to undo a huge amount of benefit people have been putting in over the years."
Jaden helped Wai Care contractor Paul Woodard with the clean-up, the pair focusing on a 1km area near Liverpool and Glasgow Aves.
In just two days they collected 500 dead eels. Mr Woodard estimates there could be hundreds more.
Auckland Regional Council pollution response manager Nigel Clarke says water samples tested have shown nothing out of the ordinary. The council will also investigate whether the pollution came from a local business. Pollution hotline: 3773107.
What selfishness and what a waste. I hope they catch the pollutor.
I always worry when a politician speaks in the third person, even when they are just trying to make a point. It seems like a disconnect to me, a slight glimpse into the inner.
Pita Sharples was under a bit of fire about the 3 strikes legislation. This is ACT's big one, before they bow out ungraciously. News that as Associate Minister of Corrections, Pita Sharples was not consulted about the amendments to the three strikes policy released in January, gave labour a stick to deliver a few blows. From NZ Herald
"Labour's corrections spokesman, Clayton Cosgrove, said he found it astounding."
"Labour MP Shane Jones also questioned Dr Sharples over being "sidelined"."
All well and good. I quite liked the fact that sharples had not been consulted - it gave him an arm-length to fend off any association. But then we got an attack from sharples back to labour. From Scoop
"... Sharples says Labour is clumsy in opposition and suprisingly unclear about how multiple Ministerial roles work."
and then the line that bugged me so much.
" “In that capacity I have a very close relationship with Dr Sharples as Associate Minister of Corrections and with Dr Sharples the Co-leader of the Maori Party,” he said."
This type of response, generated by jones very 'smart and knowledgeable slight on mana, is a worry. Jones knows what works and what doesn't - the maori party needs to hone their defenses.
Dirty diary farms and farmers is a very big concern and with the latest annual report from the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord just released, shows that the problem is getting worse not better. Pull your socks up dairy farmers or leave the land and farm to someone who cares about the ecosystem and sustainability.
"The update shows the average level of significant non-compliance worsened to 15 per cent in 2008/09 from 12 per cent in the previous year.
Farmers in Northland had the worst results, with full compliance listed at 39 per cent in the latest year, down from 43 per cent in 2008. Compliance in Waikato fell to 41 per cent from 48 per cent and Canterbury declined to 43 per cent from 46 per cent .
Those number should make your nose bleed - 4 to 5 out of 10 farmers are not fully complying. That means they are putting the shit into the rivers - they are destroying our rivers and waterways to make more money.
But some are leading the way.
"Taranaki was the shining star, holding steady on 96 per cent compliance."
It must be bad when even carter comes out swinging.
"Agriculture Minister David Carter said, "Until every farmer takes responsibility for improving effluent management, the environment and dairy’s reputation will suffer."
The snapshot “tells a totally unacceptable story of effluent management".
"Regardless of whether this is because farmers don’t have the right tools, don’t know how to comply, or simply don’t care, behaviour has to change.”
I hope it can change but it may be too late - dairy's reputation is effuent like already.
Good work by the Greens, especially Metiria. Got to keep the pressure on regarding their evil plan to mine our National Parks. And also very good to see the maori party get their supplementary in - it caused a few problems for double dipton.
It is interesting to note labour's response to news that "The Ministry of Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri, not the Ministry of Social Development, will be responsible for the Whanau Ora social services policy." as reported in the NZH
"Labour social development spokeswoman Annette King said that making TPK the lead agency "makes a mockery of John Key's claim that Whanau Ora is for all New Zealanders".
TPK was set up to provide services for Maori so for an agency to be running a programme that is for everybody would be problematic, she said."
A pretty weak attack on key, and there is no evidence that the forthcoming experience of rolling out whanau ora to maori and then replicating that for other groups cannot be coordinated by TPK. The only problematic part is politicans playing political football with maori aspirations.
"The policy seeks to address families in need in a holistic manner."
Do you agree with Graham Dingle that, "foreigners should not be appointed in charge of the country's treasures." or the slightly revised, "If they are from outside of the country they need to be open to and willing to understand us as a people."
Maps has full coverage of the Last days of the dictator detailing the disaster of Vanda Vitali's reign as Director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum
Protecting our treasures and taonga is our responsibility for the future generations - do we really want to leave that to someone who just arrived yesterday? What about the day before yesterday?
Out of control Vedanta Resources has told The UK government’s National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines on multinational enterprises to poke it's nose out of it's business, even though.
"Vedanta Resources is a British company, formed in the UK for the purpose of floating on the London Stock Exchange. It is, therefore, bound by British company law, and expected to abide by British corporate guidelines."
"The British government released the final review of its investigation, based on reports from both Survival and Vedanta on whether the company has made the changes demanded by the government last September."
Survival’s submission, based on a detailed field investigation, concluded, ‘We found not the slightest evidence that [Vedanta] has done anything at all. On the contrary, the company appears to have ignored the NCP’s recommendations in their entirety.’
Vedanta, however, has simply asserted, ‘Vedanta wishes to make clear that it does not accept the UK NCP’s conclusions'."
"In September 2009, the British government upheld a complaint against FTSE 100 company Vedanta by Survival. The government’s National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines on multinational enterprises concluded that Vedanta had ‘failed to respect the human rights’ of the Dongria Kondh, whose sacred mountain Vedanta wishes to mine. The NCP concluded that a change in the company’s behaviour was ‘essential’
Vedanta could or would not do the following
"Vedanta should immediately and adequately engage with the indigenous group Dongria Kondh.
Vedanta should include a human and indigenous rights impact assessment in its project management process and in doing so should pay particular attention to the creation of an adequate consultation process, prior to the finalisation and execution of the project, with indigenous groups potentially affected by the company’s activities.
The UK NCP also stressed that whichever self-regulatory practices Vedanta chooses to follow, it is essential that these are translated into concrete actions on the ground, particularly in relation to the human and indigenous rights impact assessments and consultation with the affected communities."
This mining company will not win. The arrogance and obsession with profits have blinded them, they think they are invincible - but they are not. People power is stopping them. Here's what you can do
Act now to help the Dongria Kondh
Your support is vital if the Dongria Kondh are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
Gordon Campbell has written a very good post about the economics of mining in our National Parks.
Who is giving the figures to the government for their justification of the mining? Is this person independant or interrelated to the mining interests? How do they come by the figures bandied about?
You know what the answers are - I recommend a good read of the post and then we need to get everyone up to speed on the lies and disinformation liberally spread by these buffoons.
An excerpt to end
"... probably signals that National’s recent focus group results have told the government just how politically unpalatable its plans to open Schedule Four lands for mining would be. The government is plainly running scared off from being seen as a writing a blank cheque for the wholesale plundering of our national parks. Problem is, licensing a little bit of pillage and plundering isn’t much better. “OFF LIMITS” is the only sellable political slogan."
made up economic figures + compromised self interest = key and brownlee happy - but not for long, their cards have been marked.
Important notice for those helping to revitalise our language
KMK WHĀNAU HUI 2010
Tēnā koutou kā pākaiahi o tō tātou reo e whitawhita kaha ana ki kā kāika maha.
He pānui tēnei mo koutou kā manu matarae, ka tū ētahi hui-a-whānau mo kā whānau e whakatipu tamariki ana i te reo Māori hai reo mātua ki te kāika, arā kā pou o tō tātou tino kaupapa, Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata.
Ko ēnei kā hui:
1. 16 - 18 April 2010: Haere ki te roto Kaniere, Te Tai Poutini (Tirohia ngā wāhi pounamu ki te Tai Poutini)
2. 14 - 16 May 2010: Noho ki te marae o Tuahiwi: (Haerenga ki Orana Park me ētahi atu wāhi ngahau o te taone nui o Otautahi )
3. 4 - 6 June 2010 : Noho ki te marae o Ōtākou: (Haerenga ki Cadbury World, Ngā Pūrerehua ki te Whare Taonga me te puna kaukau nui)
Toitū te Kura team are facilitating 3 whānau hui for those KMK whānau who are fluent in te reo , who are raising te reo speaking tamariki in the home, bringing together mātua and tamariki in a fun te reo Māori immersion environment. There are limited places available for each hui. If you and your whānau are interested in attending any of these hui or would like more information please contact Paulette Tamati-Elliffe for more details.
This conference is one i would like to go to, or receive information from. If you are going - let me know.
4th International Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Conference, 6-9 June, Auckland.
The Conference will discuss strategies for generating social, educational, intellectual, and economic opportunities by building relationships that engage, understand, and accommodate difference to overcome the adverse effects resulting from failure to understand sufficiently the differences among indigenous and non-indigenous communities and societies.
Target groups for the conference include: academics, emerging researchers, graduate students; community groups/workers/activists; tribal and community elders and leaders; and local and national government representatives. Welcome one and all!
Nice post from Robb regarding the misnomer and disinformation term 'surgical mining'.
Excerpt
"If Key, Brownlee and National consider placing entire towns in peril from landslides and erosion caused floods due to gold mining hills in the Coromandel as acceptable collateral damage, then it should be of no surprise they also refuse to rule out the use of "other" types of "modern method" mining techniques."
and
"If our system has depleted itself, and the "time" has come to rip into the few wild and relatively pristine areas still left, perhaps we are really asking the wrong questions. These people are up to no good and must be confronted and stopped."
I'm pretty cynical and when I see this sort of story on the news it makes me wonder.
The pr campaign has begun in earnest. It's going to get dirty. From TVNZ
"At a time when the government is considering opening up more conservation land to mineral exploration, Rio Tinto is giving some back.
The international mining giant is backing a conservation project aimed at helping the westland petrel.
Now I'm all for saving the petrel - how did it get to be endangered anyway, did destroying it's habitat have any thing to do with it, perhaps.
"The 80 hectares of land was once a mining site but now the company is giving it back to the community.
Good, we'll take it - thanks.
We need to begin solidifying the opposition to mining our national parks. I have started talking with people about the issue and we need to think about meetings and groups. We need some very simplfied messages that cut to the heart of the issue. And these messages will need to be repeated and amplified. Some calls will need to be considered, for instance what is more likely to move people, a beautiful picture of our wilderness or the same picture with an open-cast mine in it. It may be okay to use both when necessary but we will have to go emotional and visceal, and that may mean using images and copy that show the consequences of doing nothing. I still think the whole approach can be positive. It's about protecting our wilderness for all of us to enjoy and marvel at. It is about treasuring the environment and the ecosystems and living within nature instead of fighting nature, and commodifying and corportising nature.
I am getting very irritated with the continual abuse of maori hospitality and culture by some people.
There have been a number of examples of desecration of taonga over recent days and now this - freedom campers shitting on a pa site - FFS - listen up freedom campers - your goddam arse is going to fall off for this type of offence.
"Freedom campers have desecrated a pa site in Kaikoura with human waste.
Te Runanga O Kaikoura member Maurice Manawatu of Maori Tours Kaikoura visits the site daily as the starting point of a cultural tour.
"I am fuming," he says. "The whanau is really upset too. It's just desecration of land that was gifted to the community and it's not on."
The pa holds important cultural significance for Maori and is a place where many visitors go to understand the area's native history, with its fortified walls, now raised mounds of grass, telling the story of how the area was once protected.
One German tourist spoken to on Monday who had been sleeping in his car at the pa, suggested facilities in Scarborough St needed to be "improved" to prevent people such as him from using the bushes as toilets.
The man, who declined to be named, said he had camped at the pa because there was no sign telling him not to.
Nice one german tourist - another fine example of arrogance and stupidity. I suppose you have a shit next to stonehenge do you?
it is very simple - if they abuse maori hospitality then send them back to where they came from. The almighty dollar is nothing compared to respecting maori culture. How long is this going to go on? How long?
maori sacred stone destroyed for small hydro scheme and they blew up this sacred rock in front of the people for whom it is sacred. Clearwater Hydro - you are the lowest and i hope you reap ALL the rewards from this action - in this world and the next.
"Clearwater Hydro company blew up the sacred kohatu Te Rongomai o Te Karaka with reckless disregard for mana whenua who held it in high regard.
The company dynamited the two-storey high kohatu at 5.30am in front of whanau from Marokopa Marae in Te Anga, Waitomo who had been occupying the site in an effort to protect it.
“This was a cold-hearted decision. The company may think that they have rid themselves of any issues by lighting the fuse and destroying the kohatu but I think they have only made things worse for themselves,” Maori Party MP for Te Tai Hauauru Tariana Turia said.
“Only yesterday was I calling for cool-heads and more dialogue between all the parties then several hours later, they blew it up. I am extremely pouri for the people of Marokopa and Maniapoto,” she said.
Despite what appeared to be inadequate consultation on Clearwater and Environment Waikato’s behalf, the people of Marokopa Marae did everything they could to protect the kohatu, Mrs Turia said.
Those efforts included appealing the decision of the Environment Court, appealing the resource consent from the regional council and meeting with Clearwater, which indicated to them that it would divert the earthworks and penstock around the site of cultural significance.
Mrs Turia has approached the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the Minister of Maori Affairs and the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage to investigate these issues further, particularly around where accountability sits in the destruction of an important archaeological site.
This is direct evidence of how maori are treated in this country - what an absolute shocker. It is getting close to the time when some people are going to have to make some big decisions about what they stand for and who they stand with.
Footnote - Maps has written an excellent post on this and other thought-provoking subjects.
"Prosecutors vowed Monday to move forward against 21 defendants, in spite of the stunning suicide of the chief witness against them. The cases stem from a two-year investigation into trafficking of stolen Native American artifacts.
Last week's suicide by FBI informant Ted Gardiner, the third connected with the case, raises question marks over upcoming trials. Gardiner killed himself March 1 complicating an already complex case. Some say Gardiner was haunted by the suicides of two suspects he fingered. Others say upcoming trials for 21 defendants overwhelmed him with pressure."
Now i am not a fan of FBI informants but i am even less of a fan of those who traffic stolen Native American artifacts. i hope the prosecution is successful.
And what has this to do with here? We not only have artifacts all over the place but we have even worse.
We have grave robbers in this country who descerate the ancient graves of maori.
Maps has exposed a particular individual Noel Hilliam who has posted photos of his disgusting activities and yes he is part of the-pale-people-were-here-before-maori-and-taught-them-everything-they-know brigade.
As Maps notes
"In the aftermath of the controversy at Dargaville museum, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust decided to open an investigation into Hilliam's activities at Maori burial sites.
The dargaville saga is here and here for those that wish to have a read.
These destructive beliefs lead to shocking actions such as hilliam's - we must fight this at every step.
UPDATE there is something very wrong in dargaville. It was claimed that Noel Hilliam was awarded the Kiwibank Senior New Zealander of the year award. Kiwibank and the award organisers have said that is not true. The dargaville online is now saying that kiwibank and the award organisers are wrong and he did win - go here for the latest.
"With 50,000 visitors expected in Wellington for the Rugby World Cup, the Te Wharewaka O Poneke Trust might have been expected to welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the rich heritage of waka culture. Instead, its new wharewaka will be used to demonstrate the Kiwi culture of rugby and beer.
The city council is enthusiastic about such commercial activity. Its vision for the wharewaka is as a place for event sponsor promotions and giveaways, areas for rugby merchandising, capacity for Rugby World Cup theming and branding … meet-the-player sessions and autograph sessions, media promotions, recruitment and training of staff, and fund-raising. Almost as an after-thought, this week’s report to the council mentions that the wharewaka will also be used for a cultural experience including powhiris and Kapa Haka, cultural performances and entertainers … If there’s any space left for them in between the rugby-focused events and the souvenir stalls.
Sir Ngatata Love said three years ago: “The purpose of the development (of the wharewaka) is to bring waka culture to life around Wellington’s harbour and beyond … for events that celebrate waka and their use, together with local Maori history.”
The Rugby World Cup could be a disaster for maori aspirations, because when the fiasco moves on we will still be here trying to sort out the mess. And no amount of powhiri or haka and other maori-wash, that will be applyed during the cup, will make any difference to the lives of maori. So while everyone is holding hands pretending to be one people for the cameras - the real stuggles will still be going on and will resurface after the circus is gone.
"The Ministry of Economic Development has advised its minister, Gerry Brownlee, the road might only tweak New Zealand's existing tourism product, would not give the tourism industry a new point of difference, would not constitute a nationally significant tourism development and might be in conflict with the 100% Pure New Zealand brand."
"The name of the report writer has been withheld under the Official Information Act."
The report was written in January.
Mr Brownlee provided it to the Otago Daily Times last week.
He said he had not known it had been completed and was in his office at the time he made supportive comments about the proposal to this newspaper in January."
What the... he didn't know that the report slamming the idea was completed before he made his supportive comments? That's incompetance isn't it?
"Last week, he said he still personally supported the initiative but "there was no particular appetite for advancing it".
He did not have plans to take the matter forward."
YET - just wait until the mining is setting up - they will need some roads then won't they gerry - you don't fool us, not even slightly.
Go here to read about this area from a Ngai Tahu perspective.
So a return to commercial whaling will save the whales - that is a classic load of dross. From Stuff
"New Zealand's International Whaling Commission (IWC) representative Sir Geoffrey Palmer has defended a new proposal on commercial whaling after harsh criticism from anti-whaling groups.
The proposal, presented to the IWC at a informal meeting in the US over the weekend, would allow Japan, Norway and Iceland to openly hunt whales despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling but aim to reduce the total catch over the next 10 years.
What is it with these ex members of parliment - palmer you should be ashamed to be putting this forward - where is your backbone man.
"Australia has rejected the proposal and said it will go to the International Court of Justice if negotiations fail."
It's a funny old world sometimes. You can end up being on the side of groups that may be unexpected.
Fish and Game is one group in that catagory for me.
The fact that Fish and Game want to save waterways and wetlands, so they can hunt and kill things there, is a little difficult to stomach but at least they are fighting hard to save our wild places. I sincerely thank them for their efforts.
We have to save our wild places, we have to protect our rivers and nurture our wetlands. There is no choice - we have to. So any group that is working to protect these places, is in alignment with our goals. We need all groups that are in alignment with our goal of protecting our wilderness from dams, from mining, from commerical activity and from unnecessary roads to work together.
Wetlands are a great example where mutually aligned groups can work together to make a difference. I hope some other groups join the call from Fish and Game.
"Fish and Game Otago is calling for answers as to why some wetlands are being drained and their vegetation destroyed in South Otago.
Fish and Game Otago chief executive Niall Watson said they had yet to get an answer to their concerns that the rush swamp areas on the margins of Lake Tuakitoto were being developed into pasture.
"We want to stop any further development."
Fish and Game was also concerned about Cairn Swamp in the upper Waipahi catchment which it considered to have been "whittled away over time", Mr Watson said.
"Its drainage and destruction is not a desirable thing."
I totally agree Fish and Game.
Otago Regional Council manager support services Gerard Collings said the council was aware of one instance at Lake Tuakitoto where a farmer, who had a grazing lease, regrassed an area. It was questioned whether or not it was wetland area.
As a result the council was considering reviewing the conditions of the grazing leases.
The council was also aware of another incident on Kuriwao Reserve land, but in that situation the council was bound by the perpetual leases the landowners held."
"considering reviewing" doesn't mean much, does it. Hopefully this call from Fish and Game will get some action so that these farmers cannot drain wetlands to make more pasture. We collectivelly need wetlands much more , than a farmer individually, needs the extra income from putting some more dairy cows on their land.
First they said it was a stocktake, then they said that they would be mining schedule 4 national parks when they are taken out of that schedule no matter what anyone said, then they said they would do surgical mining where the land surface is not disturbed and now brownlee won't rule out open cast mining. If you think we are going to allow that gerry you are more of an idiot than you look.
"Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has refused to rule out open-pit mining in our highest value conservation parks ahead of a review due out shortly.
The Government is considering allowing access to minerals in parts of the conservation estate now off-limits to mining under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.
The areas are listed in Schedule 4 for their ecological and scenic values, and include all 14 national parks and the Coromandel Forest Park.
This attitude of take, take, take is abusive - to the people and to our world. You have an unwinable fight on your hands brownlee - i hope you don't end up with blood on them too.
This accord is a start - but just the start. Iwi must have the ability to protect the rivers - if we leave it up to business and dairy farmers the rivers will die. From NZH
"Ngati Awa, Ngati Rangitihi and Ngati Tuwharetoa have had a shaky relationship with the owners of the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill in Kawerau, which has been discharging effluent into the Tarawera River.
But yesterday, they aimed to turn over a new leaf, signing a memorandum of understanding with Carter Holt Harvey and Norske Skog to make a commitment to clean up the river together."
The Tarawera River is known as the black drain!
"Ngati Rangitihi spokesman Henry Pryor said it was important that the community, including iwi, supported the mill because it created hundreds of jobs for people in the Matata and Kawerau regions."
I can understand the pragmatic rationale behind the sentiment but i don't agree with it. I do agree that we don't want everyone to be out of work but why does it have to be an either-or situation. I tend to go with the previous position of
"Members of Ngati Awa had previously called for the mill to be shut down altogether."
Pressure must be exerted on these types of companies - after all they exist in our communities even though most of the money they make goes to overseas interests. Why exert pressure?
"As Henry says, "The river is a living entity which represents the spiritual, cultural and physical life of our ancestors. If it is unwell, so are we."
and
In October, the mill was given permission to continue discharging effluent into the river, as well as gas and dust emissions, for another 25 years.
One of the conditions of its consent was improving consultation with the local iwi.
Let's just be really clear - the company doesn't care about the river or the people or the community or the environment - they care about profit - PROFIT.
They will take the profit until the day the river dies and they can't generate it anymore and then they will leave and do it somewhere else, meanwhile the community, the river, the people will all be left to look after themselves.
"Maanu Paul says those who signed the memorandum don't hold the mandate from the Matata iwi when it comes to the river and the mill's resource consent.
“The claim for the river in the Waitangi Tribunal is in the name of Te Tino Tangatiratanga o Ngati Rangitihi. The appeal to the Environment Court is in the name of Te Tino Tangatiratanga o Ngati Rangitihi. It is certainly not in the name of those people who are purporting to speak in the name of Rangitihi,” Mr Paul says.
He says the small number of jobs Ngati Rangitihi people have at the mill needs to be weighed against the hundreds they miss out on because of the pollution of their waterways.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is still underway and they are getting some awesome images and information from around Saturn.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
From the website
"A crescent of Tethys displays two of the moon's large craters.
Penelope Crater can be seen at the top left. Antinous Crater is in the bottom left, in the far southern latitudes. Features on Tethys are named after characters and places from Homer's Greek epics."
So breaking into protective enclosures and desecrating maori rock art is just a big joke is it german tourist? You know, I'd rather not have any tourists here if they are going to do that.
"Ngai Tahu is outraged that a German tourist has broken into a steel cage protecting ancient Maori rock wall paintings and then boasted about it online.
Pictures have appeared online of a German tourist breaking into the Maerewhenua Maori rock art site near Duntroon.
The woman is pictured climbing past the protective netting around the rock drawings and then inside the site.
Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust curator Amanda Symon was outraged.
"The rocks are caged for a reason.
"They have come here and desecrated one of our heritage sites. It is just completely thoughtless to squeeze in there.
"She is brushing past a rock drawing so there is huge potential to do damage."
Young and dumb is no excuse. The rock art is caged for a reason - why is this any different from having a poo in the sistine chapel. That tourist will now reap the reaction to her very poor judgement.
"Well, we are some people who first of all never damaged anything, which wouldn't have been damaged before by hammering metal into an ancient rock, but that's another issue.
Yes - called irrelevant. Accept responsibility - you did it and you can't justify it because it was already damaged - it was and that was why protective fencing was in place.
"When we came there, there were several writings [graffiti] already written on the site. And no I don't agree with writing on ancient sites, seriously I would be the last person.
"So we were standing there, trying to figure out which one of the ancient drawings was really ancient and which ones weren't. It was basically impossible to tell and there was the temptation of the fact that somebody must have managed to get into a well secured place.
Whilst i think this tourist is actually being more insulting here, I'm going to let that go because it is a good point we need interpretation to help these people work out the context of this Rock Art - Runaka members would be the place to start.
"So we started wondering how hard can it be to go in there. It was more the fascination of solving a riddle than to actually get a prize for it. It wasn't hard after all."
Yes big olympic gold for you - what a hero.
"That was all. We solved the riddle, got in, took a picture that it is possible to trick your own kind, didn't touch a thing, went out again and left the place exactly how it was before."
Well it wasn't exactly the same was it? Keep fooling yourself.
"She then goes on to say the metal was bent back to its original position.
"Do me a favour and worry about things that really matter, things you have an influence in. Did you hug your kids today? Do you know if they smoke?"
Accept responsibility - you came here and accepted our hospitality.
Don't come back here german tourist, please, we really don't want or need people like you and your mates around.
