Tuesday, April 20, 2010

well done pita

This is the start of Pita Sharples speech to the UN -

from Stuff
"To the inherent powers of this land; to the Onondaga people, who have offered spiritual acknowledgement to the unseen world to bless us, greetings to you.
To the spirits of the deceased, of each and every nation, we farewell you to the ultimate resting place of humankind.
To this house of the peoples of the world, please welcome this newcomer from New Zealand.
To the living representatives of indigenous peoples of the world, I salute you all.
I greet your mountains, your rivers, your lands, (the places) where your ancestors originated, including you who are meeting here today.
I come with a humble heart to celebrate the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The New Zealand Government has long discussed this matter, and has recently decided to support it.
So I salute the leaders and chiefs, the many peoples and groups who established the foundation of the Declaration, for assent by the Governments of the world.
Announcement of New Zealand's Support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
I will post more when I have had a good read - but to those who say this means nothing - I say, this means something.

3 comments:

feddabonn said...

kia ora marty, this is good stuff, good stuff.i've been rather news starved, and didn't realise this was happening at all! thanks for bringing it to attention.

Marty Mars said...

Kia ora feddabonn

I don't think many knew this was on the cards - it has taken many people by surprise - including most, if not all, political pundits.

Country Lane said...

I'm sure it means something. So Pita got to go and get us signed up. At what cost to his integrity?
The Maori Tory Party have lied and sold out too many times now for any of us to be very supportive of him in this. They lied and sold out on the ETS; have sold out on the prison's issue, GST and the Supersity; and Tariana Turia has joined in enthusiastically on beneficiary bashing.

If Maori success is going to be at the cost of the rest of the country (as it is under this current Tory regime) then it's not success.