direct and true

Leadership is leading and standing up for what you believe in and that is why I support Hone and his actions, which have resulted in his arrest last night. They do want to get rid of state housing and turn the whole thing into some market, that is obvious. The people thrown out suffer and we already have a massive housing crisis - many people are really suffering. This is exactly the type of attention that the Mana Party should be highlighting and they are doing it. The poor and most affected by disadvantage need support, active support that gets the cameras clicking. It seems that is the only way to cut through the gray-daze of public perception - I don't like it but it is what we have to work with - so I say work with it. It isn't easy to oppose the apparatus of state especially when you are a representative of the system - it takes personal and moral courage and Hone has those qualities in abundance. The people need leaders and leadership, they need hope and a vision for the future and they need support now. 

Hone Harawira displays his mana with this action.

watching backs

When I heard the news that the maori party had selected Waihoroi Shortland to represent them not their unsuccessful Tai Tokerau byelection candidate Solomon Tipene I thought we may have some fallout.


We have had some fallout.


Solomon Tipene says

"Watch your back, lest it be bitten by the Maori Party dogs. I'm referring to the leaders - they did that to me and Hone Harawira."

Stong language and strong views from experience, from knowledge. Maori Party president Pem Bird doesn't get it

Mr Bird said he was disappointed by Mr Tipene's "inexcusable" outburst, given the time and resources the party had put into his campaign.

Ummm that was the point of his statement - fake support and buckling under pressure - just like the maori party have done with the gnats and their party agreement. It does not look good for the maori party although prime minister key has tossed out that he will have coalition party negotiations with his mates no matter how many votes they get. But how many will they get? Solomon Tipene has just echoed what Hone has said - this dysfunction within the maori party is systemic and is detremental to Māori self determination aspirations. Time for the sea anchor to be cut.

Hat tip The Standard

open letter from Hone

This open letter from Hone to the maori party is a sign of strength from him. I wish that Tariana, Pita, Te Ururoa and Rahui would just accept the truth that they are wrong, I wish they would listen to Hone.

OPEN LETTER TO THE MAORI PARTY CAUCUS

Dear Tariana, Pete, Te Ururoa and Rahui,

I know you guys are probably still pissed off with me, but this Marine and Coastal Area Bill is bigger than all of us, so I’m writing to ask you to withdraw your support for it, for the very simple reason that it is bad for Maori.

I know it, I know that you guys know it too – because all of you at one time or another has said that “we know it’s not what our people want”, and that “our kids will have to fix it when they come along” and that “it’s the best that we can get”. And that’s no reason to support it.

And I know Chris Finlayson has put a lot of time and energy into drafting this bill, but so what? It still doesn’t include any of the things our people really want in it.

I had a look at the bill, and sure, I saw things like mana tuku iho and tikanga and all that, but when you look a bit deeper, the bill actually limits those principles rather than validates them, and locks them into a pakeha legal framework where they will die.

And it’s not just that. It’s the fact that the big stuff, like tupuna title, is missing.

I remember when Moana Jackson told us about it, how you smiled like “that’s what we’ve been lookin’ for”. I remember because I was grinning like an idiot, because it was so simple and yet I didn’t even see it, and I looked around to see if I was the only one, and I saw that you’d got it too.

And that’s where that stupid ‘burden of proof’ argument should have ended, because tupuna title is based on the simple line that “if the whole world knows we were here first, how come we have to go to court to prove it?”

But we let our useless bloody officials take tupuna title off the table, and next thing you know, we’re having to go to court to prove that we’re tangata whenua and that the takutaimoana was ours.

Yes, there’s a whole bunch of concessions in the bill, but that’s not we marched for. We marched for the big stuff. We marched to get our title to the foreshore and seabed back.

And that’s why I’m appealing to you guys to please, please let this go.

Go and see John Key and tell him -

“Sorry mate, but we just can’t do this. It’s not what we marched for in 2004, and it’s not what our people want in 2011. Our iwi leaders don’t like it, 95% of Maori submissions were against it, and truth be told John, we’re having a hell of a time getting anybody apart from Api to say anything nice about it at all. And if you want us to be around for the next coalition, then you got to let us off the hook on this one.”

And then give the man an out too -

“Tell you what John. Let’s announce that we will repeal the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act? Everyone will love us for that. And then we announce a moratorium on all foreshore and seabed development for 2 years to give Maori the opportunity to come up with a better deal than this. That way, the issue gets taken off the table in election year, everybody gets something out of it, and nobody has to back down.”

Repeal, moratorium, 2 year conversation.

C’mon team. That’s a decent compromise for everyone, and one that just might help you come election time.

See you in the house …
Yours sincerely,
Hone Harawira
Te Reo Motuhake o Te Tai Tokerau

Good words and a solution that's worth considering - leadership we need, in action.

the distance between

I am impressed with the way Hone is handling the turmoil at the moment. His press release was masterful. Hone is continuing to focus on kaupapa maori and the fact that he has a right and obligation to speak out. I was particulary impressed by his ideas expressed in the second release

This suspension though, coming right over the top of the disciplinary procedures suggests that the constitution is really just a smokescreen to stop me from raising issues which are close to our people’s hearts and pockets, but which threaten to derail our cozy relationship with National.

But I simply cannot do that.

• We should recognise that Maori people are simply not happy to support a relationship with National while food prices go up, petrol prices go up, electricity goes up, house prices go up, rents go up, and GST gets whacked on top of everything, while this government gives millions of dollars in tax breaks to the rich.

• We should acknowledge the reality that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and that our people are getting hammered every step of the way, and not because I say so, but because every single economic commentator is saying so.

• We should not only be saying we want GST to be taken off food in the next budget, we should also tell the PM publicly that we did not support the last GST increase, and that any further increase in GST will be a coalition-breaker.

• When Tariana Turia’s voters say that the most important issue for them is the Maori language, then we should be calling for Maori to be compulsory in all primary schools.

• When government says that 60,000 children started school last week, 12,000 of them will leave without being able to read and write, and that most of them will be Maori, we should be demanding that government cancel any further bailouts for big business, and instead spend the money on ensuring that all Maori kids can read well, write well, count well and speak well by the time they’re 10, and that we will achieve that by 2014.

• We should oppose the government’s Marine and Coastal Areas Bill because it does not give us the title that our people marched for, and because most of our people do not support it. We should instead ask that the 2004 Bill be repealed and a moratorium be put on the FSSB for a couple of years to see if we can come up with a deal acceptable to Maori, while accommodating the wishes of other New Zealanders This bill does not do that and we should not feel embarrassed about opposing it.

• We should come out hard against the privatisation of the nation’s assets. Privatisation of the telecommunications industry has put billions of dollars of hard earned kiwi dollars into the hands of overseas interests every single year while thousands of Kiwi workers, many of them Maori, have been simply dumped at the roadside. NZ Rail is the same, NZ forestry, NZ banks – this government’s plans to sell of the rest of the nations assets must be stopped, and we must lead the charge to stop them.

The fact of the matter is that although there have been some small gains, Maori communities have been heavily hit all round the country by this government’s policies, and our people want us to step away from National and look at whats happening.

We have been swallowed up by the National juggernaut, we are seen as merely the Maori face of a government that is hurting Maori people, and we are no longer being seen as active defenders of the faith.

I agree with all that and that is why I believe Hone is a true leader and showing his leadership qualities daily - he is expressing the views of many maori - not dictating what they should believe. And to cap it all off he shows humility and that is why the people will follow him.

I know I don’t have all the answers. I know my colleagues have just as much to offer as I do, but I also know that our people are crying out for us to reconnect with them, with their lives, with their situations and with their hopes and dreams.

I know that I have been wrong with some of the things I have said, and some of things that I have done. I do struggle with authority and I know that I could handle my relationships with my co-leaders and my colleagues better than I have, but I have been selected by the Tai Tokerau to be the Maori Party candidate for the 2011 election, and I am ready to be that candidate

Hone is showing his quality as the pressure increases, there is still a wee way to go and I hope he continues to stand strong and stay controlled.

Te Hononga - the joining

In an article entitled “Nga Pumanawa e Waru” written by Himiona Tikitu of Ngati Awa in 1897, and published by Elsdon Best, eight talents or pumanawa required and expected of chiefs were noted. Number 7 was, "He mohio ki te hanga whare rimu, waka ranei, clever at building houses, fortified sites or canoes." That pumanawa was intrepreted/modified as 'Talents for today' by Professor H. Mead for a scoping paper and number 7 became "The leader is able to lead the community to undertake and successfully complete big projects such as building a marae, a wharekai, a wharenui, or a waka ama, or a waka hourua, establish a kohanga reo, or a kura kaupapa."

Whichever way you look at it, our kaiwhakahaere can take credit as the leader who brought this project to completion.

From The Press

"The new Christchurch civic building was given its new Maori name at a dawn blessing ceremony this morning. The building was named Te Hononga. The literal translation of Te Hononga is "the joining". The name was chosen to mark the deal between Ngai Tahu and the Christchurch City Council to build the new civic headquarters.

I'm not sure about PPP's but i am sure that we need more joining and working together, where the maori worldview is respected.