same old game

It's a classic really - boscawen of the Act party bleats on about how the new Foreshore and Seabed legislation - the Marine and Coastal Area Act (MaCAA), will allow iwi to gain control over all the coastline and charge boaties etc etc etc, meanwhile Treaty Negotiations Minister finlayson says "it was a very high test" and  "it's a very high threshold to prove customary title, but he believes there are a few iwi which would meet that test."

Stuff

"Some of my political opponents may well be alleging for electoral purposes that the Government's going to do backroom shoddy deals. I can assure you that is not the case."

It took about year for an iwi to reach an agreement in principle with the Government, he said. It could take another couple of years to reach a deed of settlement.

How few is a few I wonder - not many that is for sure - we know because the deliberately high threshold for customary title was one of the main issues for Māori as the legislation was rammed through by the maori party and national. 

Finlayson gives us a glimpse with this comment, "These are very intensely factual inquiries." Yep - just the facts please - FACTS are the measure and the be all and end all but are 'facts' objective? Don't they also relate to the position of the proponent of those facts? If i draw a six on the ground and you see a nine - what are the facts - that it is a nine or a six? Both? Neither? History is made up of disputed facts.

And in regards to customary title - the facts are that Māori held tino rangatiratanga before the colonisers came and a number of rangatira signed te Tiriti which guaranteed their continued rangatiratanga, meanwhile the powers that be used every dirty trick in the book to steal the land and resources of Māori for themselves and their own profit. Now many Māori are alienated from their tribal lands and ancestors because the governments deliberately ignored their obligations to maori as agreed to in te Tiriti. This alientation results in Māori higher representation in social measurement statistics showing - poorer, less healthy, more imprisoned, dying sooner and so on. 

Those facts will be contrasted with the Crown facts as they attempt to block iwi from their historic lands. Same old same old.

we know better than you

The maori party are really disappointing at the moment. Many people are outraged about the truncated deliberation process and the early reporting back of the Bill replacing the Foreshore and Seabed Act but not Tariana Turia. Apparently she says, the decision to fasttrack this was "made last year". What? That seems very strange to me. Attorney General finlayson has made some big calls too, such as this one -

Members of the committee had also wanted to see legal advice about tests for customary title the Government received on the bill but Mr Finlayson said it was his choice to refuse to release that.

I bet you don't want that information coming out.

The most contentious part of it is the test for customary title -- continuous use and occupation since 1840 -- which Maori critics say is too hard to meet. Mrs Turia said her party had campaigned on repeal and for the right to go to court and it achieved those things, even if it remained unhappy with the tests. Mr Finlayson told reporters he did not intend to move on the test issue, which he considered honest and objective.

Finlayson laughs off the outrage saying there is no point in further deliberation because, "Well everyone's position was very well predetermined" why bother asking for submissions then - a big fake process leading to a predetermined decision. No one is fooled - it isn't even subtle. This is a foul brew concocted by these weaklings.

no YOU go to hell

What a poor example finlayson has set by telling a group of maori to "go to hell" - What right has this person has to curse this group - for any reason. He is losing it - his recent obnoxious interview with Kathryn Ryan and now this. From TVNZ

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson has told a Maori protest group in the Northland town of Taipa they can "go to hell".

Hone, from Stuff

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira said he was disappointed Mr Finlayson had spoken "so disparagingly" about the protesters.

"They are simply seeking the return of lands clearly identified by the Waitangi tribunal as having been improperly taken in the past," he said.

"They have been very respectful even when being abused themselves."

The group has re-occupied land in Taipa, a week after they were moved on from a previous occupation on a section next door. The taking over of ancestorial land and building whare is an effective resistance tool as we are seeing up in Taipa. I support this action and this example is a showing lessons that we can all take on board.

From Radio NZ

Protesters moved back on to Taipa Point on Tuesday and are setting up camp on private land, next to the council reserve they were evicted from last week.

And Margaret Mutu states,

Ngati Kahu negotiator Margaret Mutu said on the iwi's website in March that she told a hui "the current settlement cannot be full and final because it does not return all our lands".

Prof Mutu said a 1997 Waitangi Tribunal report agreed that Ngati Kahu's title to the Taipa Point land had never been extinguished.

It is pretty clear that this is their land - give it back as i state in this post.

From Stuff

Far North District Council spokeswoman Alison Lees said the land was given to the council in parts in 1928 and 1963.

Give this land back. And as for finlayson - grow up and start treating people with a bit of respect.

Ngati Kuia Te Whakatau Treaty Settlement

Congratulations Ngati Kuia on the signing of your Treaty of Waitangi settlement deed on Saturday - you have waited a long time for this - Te Whakatau deed of settlement – redress for 150 years of injustice, broken promises and cultural repression for Ngati Kuia, the people of Te Hoiere (Pelorus).

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson said (from The Marlborough Express)

"The Crown had repeatedly failed Ngati Kuia in their rights and interests to land and its actions had left them almost landless.

And the Crown's attempts to provide for landless Ngati Kuia amounted to nothing more than a cruel hoax, he said. "In 1884, Teone Hiporaiti was moved to describe Ngati Kuia as `the poorest tribe under the heavens', and I think these words resonate with the sheer exasperation and despair that must have been felt by all of Ngati Kuia.

"The Crown is deeply sorry for these actions and its failure to remedy them until now. I hope that in signing this deed, we are restoring the economic base of Ngati Kuia, restoring the honour of the crown and re-establishing the treaty relationship between the two parties."

And the iwi response was (From The Marlborough Express)

"Ngati Kuia chairman Waihaere Mason replied: "Greetings, minister, and welcome. The fact that you have come here, face to face, to this, our place – centre of the universe – to be with us today speaks volumes for our mana, and for your mana."

"As a people, we must move from grievance to a place of optimism; to a new future that will allow us to grow culturally, socially and economically. We must seize this opportunity. We must move on. Our children's children will be told of today and charged with the responsibility to protect this heritage."

and (from The Marlborough Express)

"The settlement gave the iwi many opportunities to buy land in Te Tau Ihu, Sharyn Smith said.

But, also it allowed the iwi to give their – original – names back to the land.

This was important to Ngati Kuia.

"We were the people who named the places – all we are reinstating is our own names. Te Hoiere (Pelorus) is a significant name for us; to have that acknowledged with that name is really important – and that is only one name of many."

and (from The Marlborough Express)

"That was what redress was about: identity."

"Having a secure sense of identity is much more important than having money in the bank. To have a place to belong and to have people who call you their own."

Ngati Kuia would always work toward strengthening the land of their tipuna (ancestors) for their children, iwi negotiator Mark Moses said."If your sense of pride comes from saying, `I come from this mountain and this river', but the mountain is bare and the river is polluted, what does that say about you?"

These quotes show what values are important for maori - they also show the dignity and mana of the people and they allow us to understand and appreciate the momentus occasion that this is for those whose land was taken - this is a privilege we have been afforded.

How much could we learn if these historical and life changing settlements were given greater prominence in our society? How much would we grow - as a country, as well as personally.