a wave of emotion

I like this homecoming, this connecting of the past, present and the future. The emotion, the tears, the joy, the sorrow. Welcome home Hine Muka.

NZH

Tears of joy and jubilation were shed at the welcoming of a historic Maori cloak back home to Wairarapa yesterday afternoon.The 19th century woven cloak, or korowai, originally belonged to Wairarapa iwi and had been stored in the Rochester Historical Society collection in the United States for more than 100 years.

To have waited for the people for so long and now together again!!!

"It's absolutely overwhelming and almost indescribable the value that this has to our people," Wairarapa List MP Ms Fox said."The greatest thing we have is the reconnection with our ancestors who are definitely here in spirit and here today to see her come home."

I can feel the emotion from here - the tears fall, the tears of joy and time and space tear and we are here together again.

Ms Fox said the korowai, which was shaped to the shoulder with darting, was a priceless example of expert weaving which is not seen today.She said korowai made today are usually square and that this korowai was "a bit wider in the hips so it must be made for me"."The effort and the time and the amount of harakeke that is involved in making her will be a beacon and example for the future," she said."It will connect us with our whenua and it will connect us with our ancestors and be an example for our young people to restore and revive these traditions."Wairarapa iwi representatives, who collected the korowai from the Nelson Provincial Museum where it was being cared for before its return, lovingly named the cloak Hine Muka.

The Mana that this brings and the impetus for knowledge and even more connection.

Aratoi Museum of Art and History director Alice Hutchison said when Wairarapa iwi were reunited with the korowai in Nelson earlier this week, the feeling in the room, was "so intense and so strong for everybody"."It was like a wave of incredible love and I've never felt anything like it."

When you feel it, you know. It is the most unbelievable feeling, so intense - a different dimension.

And so I want EVERYTHING returned so that all Māori can experience these feelings, these gifts. And I want other cultures to feel the same - so museums send it all back to where it came from, send it back to the people, their people. Stop this hoarding - stop this paternalistic attitude that people cannot look after their own.

I have been and seen some of the taonga under Te Papa - they cry out for return, their voices deafening. This is a poem I wrote after visiting Te Papa

Longing for a breeze

the floor was polished

and clacked

with footfall and they lay

quietly disemboweled,

and were viewed.

a card explained: revered once, then dis

repair, now look

their mauri is strong. so they

say breezelessly.

A whare tūpuna

will say what to that?

Pita Sharple's taiaha watches

through glass.

They are alone at night.

Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia.

Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia.

This battle to protect and stand with our indigenous brothers and sisters began with this

It has been six months since the federal government signed over funding responsibility for providing municipal and essential services to Western Australia’s 274 remote Indigenous communities to the state government and four since the WA premier, Colin Barnett, said between 100 and 150 of those communities faced “closure” because they were “not viable”.

On Tuesday, Tony Abbott further inflamed the situation by saying his government could not be expected to “endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have”.

Tony Abbott is so bad he makes John Key look okay. Lifestyle choices??? The response has been sharp

The Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has blasted Tony Abbott’s comments that living in a remote community is a lifestyle choice, saying it is a “deranged debate” conducted in a “substandard manner”... He described the comments as “shameless” and a “disgraceful turn of events”.

and

The chairwoman of the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia, Michelle Nelson-Cox, said Abbott’s comments were “hugely disappointing”.

“The prime minister’s comments about Aboriginal communities place no value on the connection to country and culture that these communities provide, nor the important role they play in the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people,” she said.

“Aboriginal people are obligated to maintain a connection to country to sustain spiritual beliefs, customary activities and traditional lore. In addition to providing a home to many Aboriginal people, these communities provide a continuing sense of identity through this ongoing connection to country.”

This article dispels the myth of closing these communities because of sexual abuse.

And Gerry Brownlee

 denied co-leader of the Māori Party, Marama Fox leave from the House of Representatives to vote on a motion to condemn the Australian Government’s impending closure of remote indigenous communities in Western Australia.

What can we do from here to support our brothers and sisters over there?

Facebook site here  And here is a great profile of Sam Cook who is one of the leaders of the social media campaign.

March on 1 May to show support - will update soon.

UPDATE: Current A-Z listings of upcoming actions ‪#‎SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA‬