"I don’t think so. The main issue in regards to the Foreshore and Seabed is title. Maori don’t like the idea of “public domain” that National is pushing and that is the sticking point. The fundamentals of the Foreshore and Seabed are rather agreeable except for the matter of title. You and Marty G and most on the left fundamentally misunderstand Maori’s position on the Foreshore and Seabed. In the end the Maori Party will agree to the solution ultimately made because it delivers more than what they would ever get via court process only and is better than what they’ll get with Labour which is shite.
You also make the huge mistake and this seems to be rather consistent amongst all “Standard” writers. In that what you see as irrelevant such as DRIP and whanau ora etc that you classify as meaningless is wholly important to the Maori Party. You lot can feel free to dismiss them but they’re not being dismissed by the Maori Party.
Look at how your article is positioned. Its basically the same crap you and Marty G have been doing week in and week out. Its a misconception that what you see as betrayal for Maori and what you see as meaningless wins for the Maori Party is somehow the same view held by the Maori Party. When its not. Its fantasy bullshit writing of two people who don’t want National and the Maori Party working together (never wanted them to work together). Who fundamentally misunderstand who the Maori Party are and what the Maori Party wants. You barely cover the issue of Tuhoe because you actually don’t care about it. Instead, you just want to repeat the same set of lies, the same set of mistruths and the same fantasy left-wing view of what you believe the Maori Party should be about.
That’s why you include this paragraph: Then we have to add all the times the Nats have openly gone against the Maori Party’s position – the Fire at Will Bill, minimum wage, ETS (how humiliating that was), tertiary education, GST increase. The Maori Party has even had to vote for some of these policies, which it fundamentally opposes, or sacrifice its confidence and supply deal.. When in reality it actually has nothing to do with the Maori Party and one can’t imagine they the Maori Party didn’t understand where National came from on many of those issues. Also in regards to the ETS. The Maori Party got their forestry deal so how that can embarassing to them is beyond me.
In essence what John Key did in regards to Tuhoe was stupid and no doubt does put real pressure on the relationship with the Maori Party. They’ve been spooked when they should have given what Tuhoe wanted despite how acrimonious that is amongst National Party members. That they didn’t showed political opportunism of the worst kind. The real sadness of it all is that Labour and the left aren’t even screaming against it. Phil Goff basically agrees with John Key.
What the whole thing shows is that no matter who is in government. Whether that is Labour or National. Both of the big parties will actively agitate and dog-whistle Maori for politics sake. Of course you’ll deny that. That’s no big surprise but its real and its unfortunate. Therefore, no matter who the Maori Party goes with and what happens in 2011. They’re always going to face opposition as both parties will continue to have progress and then back-track for white/pakeha New Zealand will always be murmuring in the background.It is a good thread with lots of interesting comments.
"... the idea that its chiefs surrendered their mana to Queen Victoria defies belief, the Waitangi Tribunal was told yesterday.
Northern leader Erima Henare said chiefs rose to power through merit by proving themselves in war. Every single one present in 1840 at the signing of the Treaty was a battle-hardened warrior.
Each would have been clear that under the treaty - which was explained to them by missionaries - their tino rangatiratanga, chieftainship, was guaranteed to them under article two of the treaty.
"To suggest then, that men from that cultural milieu would, or could, surrender their personal and hapu sovereignty without a fight is again absurd.
"Every rangatira present would have not merely been offended by unjustified suggestions for them to surrender sovereignty, but would have been outraged and would have acted accordingly."
Ejection from the country or worse would have followed, he said. "The fact that Te Tiriti was signed and that the foreigners were not annihilated is the best evidence that no demand to cede sovereignty was made."That is such a great point that is hardly ever raised. Mana was/is everything and many maori were killed all around this country when someone's mana was attacked or reduced. To think that maori would have laid down their mana is nonsense and stupid - it actually does defy belief.
"The government has made it clear to negotiators embroiled in discussions over Urewera National Park that its vesting in local iwi is ''unacceptable''.
Prime Minister John Key today broke with convention by announcing the government's position part way through negotiations, apparently to head-off the idea gaining traction at a hui this weekend bringing together Tuhoe.
Mr Key insisted yesterday the reason for ruling Urewera out of negotiations was because it fell outside the broad principles in operation for other treaty negotiations.
Tuhoe had proposed vesting the park in the iwi in return for universal access and universal rights.UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND RIGHTS - not too scary key I would have thought. This is not the end of this story - in fact i believe this, if actually followed through, will be a major major point of contention that will cause untold division and conflict.
"Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says she's extremely disappointed the Government has ruled out vesting ownership of the Urewera National Park in the people of Tuhoe.
Prime Minister John Key says to do so would not fit within the generally accepted principles of other settlements.
Mrs Turia says the decision is devastating and the Crown is creating a fresh grievance.
Tuhoe says the Government has succumbed to fears about a public backlash.Unfortunately because the gnats are really thick, especially pinocchiokey - they do not realise what they have started rolling with this - Tariana knows.
"The Maori Party is furious with the Government for ruling out handing over Urewera National Park to Tuhoe and has accused it of acting dishonourably."
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said last night the announcement was an outrage and issued a strongly worded statement saying that the Government should reconsider its position and Tuhoe had behaved with honour throughout the negotiating process only to face an 11th hour rejection of their key claim.
Speaking on Radio New Zealand this morning she went further.
"To have the rug pulled and take them back to square one I don't think is very honourable actions, it doesn't meet the fairness, equity and justice issues - it's appalling and I am extremely disappointed... I just don't really know the Crown which has committed these injustices in the past can actually create another one."This may drop this government.
"South Africa's sport and recreation minister, Rev Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile, has officially apologised to Maori players left out of All Blacks tours to the republic in 1928, 1949 and 1960 because of their race.
Stofile also praises the Kiwi "heroes and heroines" who put their bodies on the line in the bloody protests against the 1981 Springbok tour.NZRU said no comment - as usual they are as, if not more, guilty that SARU. That world cup is coming so I'd advise you to sort out your skeletons NZRU. I have to say that I have no time for rugby - the '84 tour was when we parted company and bugger all has changed since then.
"Resource consent has been sought for an alluvial gold mining operation in the Nevis Valley in an area classified as an outstanding landscape.
Golden Bush Mining Ltd has sought land use consent from the Central Otago District Council to extract gold from a previously mined area at Schoolhouse Creek Flats. It already holds a mining permit for a 785ha block and planned to mine three strips of land within that block.
The council's landscape assessment maps identify the area as outstanding landscape.
As part of the operation, the mining company has also sought resource consent from the Otago Regional Council to take water from a mining pit next to a watercourse, for land use consent to alter the bed of a watercourse and to obtain a discharge permit.
The proposed mine was in a remote area. The closest dwelling was kilometres away so the possibility of dust being a nuisance was "practically nil".
A report prepared by ecologist and botanist Neill Simpson said the operation could be carried out over much of the site with minimal effect on the long-term ecological values of the area, providing places containing threatened plants were excluded.There is a bit more to protect up the Nevis Valley than just threatened plants - although obviously they should be protected. This area has a rich history before they began digging for gold as evidenced by the large moa hunter sites found and subsequently lost. This valley was a lifeway for maori. And this area is very important for maori. It is an outstanding landscape with a outstanding history and future - if we protect it.
"The operation would comprise an open pit of "modest size" with the gold recovery plant on pontoons, floating in the mine pond."It's a dirty business mining for gold - even on 'modest'scales.
"Tainui and the Crown will jointly govern, restore and protect the Waikato River under the terms of a Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement enacted by Parliament yesterday.
The public galleries of the debating chamber were packed with iwi members and the Maori King, Tuheitia, was seated beside Speaker Lockwood Smith as the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill was passed on a voice vote.
It had cross-party support with the exception of the Act Party.Working together is the way to go. Actualising kaitiaki responsibility to tangata whenua is the way to go. Creating a celebration that binds people together is the way to go. Congratulations to all who worked for the kaupapa.
One of the report’s authors, Philip Woollaston, today publicly released the statement because of his anger at the Government’s refusal to release it.
"Forest & Bird calls on the Minister of Conservation to better protect New Zealand’s coastline by following up on a report the Government refuses to release."
Forest & Bird North Island Conservation Manager Mark Bellingham says “The Government is not properly managing coastal planning. We need the Department of Conservation and local government to be more active in taking care of our coastlines,”
“Poor coastal planning is about to drive the New Zealand fairy tern in Auckland and Northland to extinction as coastal developments encroach on this bird’s last few breeding sites.
“On the Hauraki Plains, nutrients from dairy farming are threatening to unleash a major algal bloom on to the Firth of Thames, the Miranda bird coast and aquaculture areas.
“This report recognises the threats to coastal landscapes and biodiversity. It offers solutions to water pollution from the land affecting coastal areas, and encourages a bigger role for iwi and hapu in coastal planning and management. Forest & Bird wants to see it put into action.”As would I.
"Establishing new relationships between iwi/hapū and the Crown is a vital part of the Treaty settlement process. Without such new relationships it is impossible to move towards any form of reconciliation."I agree that we must find the way through and that will mean thinking and acting in new ways. But those new ways are also old ways.
"The much-anticipated Whanau Ora programme has been scaled back to a $134 million programme over the next four years - well short of the $1 billion cost bandied around in its early stages.
There will be 20 Whanau Ora "providers" contracted in the first round and Mr Key said they would be held accountable for results.
Mrs Turia said the $134 million in funding over four years would enable Te Puni Kokiri, the Social Development Ministry and the Health Ministry working together to help families.
While the government shied away from labelling its initial investment a pilot programme, Mrs Turia confirmed that up to $20 million over four years would be spent researching, evaluating and monitoring the implementation and results.This is a good approach because the only way to make it work it is to be flexible and adjust where necessary. You can only do that if you know what's going on.
"The French National Assembly decided to adopt a law so toi moko (mummified Maori heads) held in French institutions can be returned to New Zealand.
Since 2003, New Zealand has sought to repatriate Toi Moko and koiwi tangata Maori (Maori ancestral remains) from museums around the world.
Toi moko and koiwi tangata form part of some museum collections of Pacific artefacts dating from the 19th century. Almost 40 institutions worldwide have collaborated in similar repatriations so far.
"This is a matter of great significance to Maori," said Dr Sharples. "Maori believe that, through their ancestors' return to their original homeland, their dignity is restored, and they can be put to rest in peace among their families."
Toi moko and koiwi tangata are repatriated to Te Papa on an interim basis, and Te Papa works closely with iwi to determine their attributed place of origin, for eventual burial where possible on ancestral lands.This is the way to do it, well done to Te Papa.
"Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has conceded he had to dramatically scale back plans to investigate mining on conservation land after the Cabinet rejected proposals to open up nearly half a million hectares.
The Government has proposed allowing prospecting on 7058ha of protected land, but Cabinet papers show Mr Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson originally recommended 467,517ha.That's right he wanted 467,517 hectares to be available for mining but they ended up with 7,058 hectares. Look at those two numbers - 467517 verses 7058 - they went for 1.5% of what they really wanted.
"Intensive farming is destroying native plants at the fastest rate since European colonisation, Landcare Research says.
"Analysis ... confirms that agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation," the Crown research institute's report said.
"Landcare ecologist Bill Lee said moves to intensive farming practices over the past decade had "dramatically" wiped out native plants and animals."
"The Canterbury Plains have probably suffered the highest level of biodiversity loss of any ecological region in New Zealand."
He said biodiversity losses included shrubs, herbs, lizards and large invertebrates.
Fish species had suffered from pollution and loss of habitat from water extraction.Once it's gone - it can't come back... when you're out of the blue and into the black.
"Labour has renewed its call for a halt to tenure review on the South Island's lakeside properties."
"The irony of Labour and the Greens criticising biodiversity loss from this report is that they were in government for nine of the last 10 years that it refers to,"
Killed (and approximate distance from the National Guard):
Jeffrey Glenn Miller; 20, 265 ft (81 m) shot through the mouth - killed instantly
Allison B. Krause; 19, 343 ft (105 m) fatal left chest wound - died later that day
William Knox Schroeder; 19, 382 ft (116 m) fatal chest wound - died almost an hour later in hospital while waiting for surgery
Sandra Lee Scheuer; 20, 390 ft (120 m) fatal neck wound - died a few minutes later from loss of blood
Wounded (and approximate distance from the National Guard):
Joseph Lewis Jr. 71 ft (22 m); hit twice in the right abdomen and left lower leg
John R. Cleary 110 ft (34 m); upper left chest wound
Thomas Mark Grace 225 ft (69 m); struck in left ankle
Alan Michael Canfora 225 ft (69 m); hit in his right wrist
Dean R. Kahler 300 ft (91 m); back wound fracturing the vertebrae - permanently paralyzed from the chest down
Douglas Alan Wrentmore 329 ft (100 m); hit in his right knee
James Dennis Russell 375 ft (114 m); hit in his right thigh from a bullet and in the right forehead by birdshot - both wounds minor (died 2007)
Robert Follis Stamps 495 ft (151 m); hit in his right buttock (died June 11, 2008)
Donald Scott MacKenzie 750 ft (230 m); neck wound
"CTU president Helen Kelly said the mineral value of Schedule 4 land had been exaggerated and it did not outweigh the potential damage to other industries and the environment.
Also, most mining industry operators were internationally owned so many of the benefits would "immediately flow overseas".
"Any move to alter the status of Schedule 4 areas would be unwelcome and against the wider interests of the country," Ms Kelly said.This was a 'bit of a surprise' for gerry - typically lazy and useless
"Mr Brownlee said while their comments were predictable it was still a surprise that they would oppose mines their members could work in.
"They don't like the Schedule 4 stuff but they support mining in general."gerry it is not that hard to follow - even someone as challenged as you should be able to grasp it.
"I think people are just reacting to what they understand the proposal to be. It is in fact a very very moderate and modest proposal to enable further exploration in those areas, it's not a commitment to mining in those areas, although we do want the mining sector in general to grow," Mr Brownlee told reporters.
"I don't want to be disrespecting about the position they're taking. We've said we're going into a consultation process, clearly the march forms part of that public expression."You are twisted brownlee - the 'stocktake' bullshit just doesn't fly - it is not modest or moderate when you initially wanted to put 90% of Rakiura National Park into mining. Your so called consultation is just a joke - guess what - we don't care about your consultation process - we are saying no and No again and thrice NO!!!
"The Environment Court has approved a large-scale dairy farm in the Upper Waitaki, rejecting a warning from regional councillors that the development would be too big for the area.
But the decision has already been criticised by the Aoraki Conservation Board and the Green Party because of the farm's impact on the environment.
The court has granted Little Ben Dairy effluent and land use consents to farm more than 1400 cows for 25 years, 6km from Lake Benmore, just north of Omarama.
Environment Court judge John Jackson said a decision was reached after mediation between ECan staff, Little Ben and the Department of Conservation.
DOC Twizel manager Rob Young said the department agreed to the consent after it was assured the owners would erect stock-proof fences 20m from the Ben Omar Swamp reserve, and there were appropriate penalties if nitrate levels were exceeded.This is just crazy - the figures put out recently show that a high percentage of dairy farms do not currently comply with the clean streams accord. These farmers cannot do the right thing now - why do you think they will change and do the right thing into the future - they won't.
"ECan wetland ecologist Mark Davis said the Ben Omar Swamp was "one of the most important remaining wetlands in the Waitaki and Mackenzie basins". The consent conditions require that the discharge area be 165 metres from the swamp.
At last year's hearings, the ECan panel said there was insufficient information about possible cumulative effects because dairying was new in the area.This wetland will be diminished, it will be compromised and it will be abused. And of course there is insufficient information - you aren't supposed to grow cows in that area - but when the cows do come in big numbers - there presence will certainly be felt.
"Little Ben is a subdivision of Buscott Station. Its directors are Mervyn McCabe and Richard Gloag.
The farm is near Ben Omar swamp, part of which was on conservation land.
The company initially applied for a 35-year consent to farm 1400 cows.
ECan was willing to approve a 750-cow operation for 10 years.
Little Ben went to the Environment Court, which has agreed to let the company farm 1400 cows for 25 years.
Up to 7560 litres of raw effluent a day would be produced by the proposed farm. It would be stored in two ponds and spread over 120 hectares on the farm.As Idiot/Savant says
"The government should not be allowing this. We should keep the MacKenzie brown, for the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders, not turn it into another cow paddock for the benefit of the few."I agree with that view entirely.
“The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untameable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.” - L. Frank BaumTo the Original Peoples of the Fourth World and all International Press Services:
At high noon today US Army helicopters of the US Seventh Cavalry air division attempted to land their Blackhawk aircraft upon Lakota Sacred Burial grounds in South Dakota. The presence of military aircraft from this unit is a sad and insulting reminder of the slaughter of more than 300 American Aboriginals on December 29,1890 when soldiers of the US 7th Cavalry gunned down more than 300 Aboriginal Minneconjou Lakota refugee children, women, infants and the elderly at what is now called Wounded Knee in South Dakota Indian Country. The military then left the bodies of their victims to decay unburied in the driving snow.
According to reports from Indigenous Rights Movement Radio host Wanblee this afternoon, Lakota resident Theresa TwoBulls was given less than 24 hrs notice that three US Army 7th Cavalry helicopters would make a landing on the sacred burial grounds at Wounded Knee. As of this writing, the US military was confronted by angry but peaceful and steadfast community resistance as the Aboriginal people of the area have so far, according to reports from Lakota people on the ground, managed to prevent the aircraft from touching Indigenous ground.
For all American Aboriginals of the Americas, this is a sacred area. This is the place where the promise of a people died while fleeing from a genocidal US military unit hell-bent on liquidating the continent of its Indigenous population. There has never been any official apology offered for this massacre and the military awards bestowed upon the genocidal aggressors involved in this conflict still stand, as does a physical monument in honour of the US Army killed during Custer’s “last stand” against a defiant and united Indigenous resistance to their own demise.
The history of the US Army 7th Cavalry is important to understanding the level of violence used against Indigenous peoples. It is important to remember that after the US Seventh Cavalry officially ended the "Indian Wars" at home, they were then dispatched to do battle against Indigenous Filipinos struggling to maintain their hard-won national independence from the colonialist Spanish. In other words, the US War Department sent this very same unit to do overseas what was done here to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. In this historical light, it is only logical for Indigenous peoples to assume that the Obama administration is attempting to make a political point out of this spectacle. Only, what sort of message are you sending by insulting and humiliating a people already suffering from five centuries of continuous pro-Europocentric, anti-Indigenous genocide?
This domestic military action is a deliberate insult and an obvious message of ongoing colonialism, state-sponsored racism and apathetic Indigenous genocide to all Indigenous peoples across the Fourth World; to the whole of the Lakota/Dakota Nation; and to the Indigenous residents of Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee. The symbolism of dispatching the Seventh Cavalry to Wounded Knee in an attempt to land weapons of mass destruction on Aboriginal sacred ground tells us how little this government, and this particular administration, respects the people of Indian Country and our significant historical perspective as survivors of the racist Euro-settler xenophobic purges waged against the Indian in the Americas.
To make matters worse, this action comes on the heels of newly-passed legislation in Arizona state that requires law officers to racially-profile anyone they believe “looks”, “sounds” or “dresses” like an illegal immigrant, a thinly veiled “race law” that directly effects both our Indigenous sisters and brothers native to Occupied Mexico as well as the Native American population of Arizona in the United States. Given that most Indigenous peoples of the Americas share the same general physiotype and more often than not, similar Spanish last names, the passage of this guideline will without a doubt lead to widespread abuses against that state’s brown-skinned population. The legal door now opened, Texas and other states led by neo-confederate constituencies are moving to pass their own anti-immigrant/anti-Indigenous directives that will broadly effect anyone and everyone who could be perceived by the colonial European majority as a “foreign invader”.
The Obama administration has shown America and the world that they are no different than any other previous US government in their view that the American Indian on both sides of the US border is nothing more than a prop or a tool to be displayed only when it is useful to promote the “contemporary” 21st century neo-colonialist capitalist agenda. The Obama administration, an office headed by a man of African descent, has shamed itself and all those who have supported his candidacy in arrogantly dismissing the memory of our people interred at Wounded Knee by rubbing the military might of the historically anti-Indigenous 7th Cavalry in our faces by forcibly entering Indian Country in an attempt to land their machines of war on top of the bodies of our ancestral dead.
Clearly, the culture war against the American Indian is not over. Welcome to the new American century.- The Aboriginal News Group
"Tuhoe leaders say a Crown apology for 19th century injustices would be meaningless unless tribes, namely Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu and Te Arawa, who fought with colonial forces also say sorry."
"Te Arawa representative Toby Curtis would say only that the iwi-to-iwi matter was extremely sensitive."First and foremost this matter would have to be discussed by Te Arawa."
"AUT University pro vice-chancellor Maori Pare Keiha has Rongowhakaata tribal links to Te Kooti and had ancestors who were killed by the religious and guerrilla leader.
But he was wary of the concept of an apology.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that our own people were not all kind and caring - but that's also the history of humankind.
"I'm always very cautious to revise history because whether you call it civil wars or internecine fighting, none of us were there."This question of apologies from iwi who worked with government forces to oust other iwi from their homelands is a complicated and senstive issue. I think that all iwi have come to the realisation that during those times the nature of the forces against maori meant that the divide approach worked and that the coloniser forces used maori for their own ends - to get the land.
