Opinion piece for the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

by Navanethem Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights


More than a symbolic celebration


The estimated 370 million indigenous peoples need and deserve more than just symbolic celebrations on 9 August, when they commemorate everywhere the International Day devoted to the reaffirmation of the value and resilience of indigenous life and cultures. After centuries of repression, they need comprehensive tools to defend their human rights, their way of life, and their aspirations.

One such tool is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among other provisions, the Declaration emphasized human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination for indigenous peoples. It established their right to self-determination and to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully in public life. Crucially, this document underscored indigenous peoples’ right to preserve or freely dispose of and trade their traditional lands and resources.

Following negotiations that spanned more than two decades, the Declaration was adopted in September 2007 by the General Assembly with the support of 143 member states. This support keeps expanding. Significantly, Australia and Columbia—two of the countries that originally did not approve the text—have now endorsed the Declaration. These developments are encouraging, but we must continue to strive for universal acceptance of this crucial document.

Such acceptance is key to counter the daily hardship and discrimination that indigenous peoples endure. It is estimated that at least one in every ten indigenous peoples in the world is facing extreme poverty. These peoples are more likely to receive inadequate health services and poor education—if any at all. Economic development plans often bypass them or do not take into sufficient consideration their particular needs and traditions. Other decision-making processes are often equally contemptuous of or indifferent to their contribution and customs. As a result, laws and policies designed by majorities with little regard to indigenous concerns frequently lead to land disputes and conflicts over natural resources that threaten the way of life and very survival of indigenous peoples.

We must step up our common efforts to make the Declaration something more than a mere pledge of intent. We must translate its letter and spirit into concrete change, change that can be felt in indigenous peoples’ daily life.

In line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other human rights instruments, States, indigenous peoples, the United Nations system and others concerned must join their efforts and reach solutions based on true dialogue, mutual understanding, tolerance and respect for human rights.

I am confident that giving indigenous peoples a true voice and say in decision-making would benefit not only them, but also our whole societies, as we look for answers to address major challenges. Consider, for example, the impact of climate change. Indigenous peoples, such as indigenous reindeer herders in the Arctic or the pastoralist Maasai community in East Africa, face the risk of bearing the brunt of climate change. But their cultures, experience and knowledge of the environment can—and ought to—provide solutions to address this and other common global threats. When we defend indigenous peoples’ rights in the face of land grabs and expropriation, we are also likely to protect biodiversity. This is evident in places, such as the Amazon region, where sustainable forestry methods mastered by indigenous peoples can help to address the serious problem of deforestation.

Ways to promote indigenous peoples’ rights in policy development and their participation in public life must be found primarily at the national level. But governments can also benefit from the human rights expertise, legislative savvy and advocacy of UN human rights mechanisms, as well as contributions from civil society. These partners in indigenous rights can help refine reforms according to international standards and make indigenous peoples’ concerns resonate at the international level. These mechanisms include the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues, which gathers hundreds of indigenous representatives annually, and the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, who has helped to advance their human rights in a range of country situations. In addition, the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is tasked to formulate advice on their entitlement to education, a key theme for indigenous peoples around the world.

There is still a long way to go. No doubt the road ahead will be bumpy. But let us work together to move the principles of the Declaration from paper into practice. We need to act now to ensure that indigenous peoples live in dignity and prosper. They have waited a long time. They expect nothing less.
- - -

Hikoi ki Tamaki

Yesterday around 10,000 people took to the streets of Auckland to oppose the National-ACT place governance of Auckland under the control of one 'Super City'.

We want the Crown to honour its exisiting agreements with Tangata Whenua.

To create better and more diverse representation in local government
To protect mana whenua rights

To protect the land, sea and people

http://ihiaotearoa.wordpress.com/

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/77311/index.php

Special thanks to Ngahiwi Apanui for the use of Stand Up for your People & Resistance photography for the images

Tinopai Wahi Tapu 2009

BATTLEGROUND NORTHLAND: Te Uri O Hau Waiotea Marae representative Mikaera Miru stands on a piece of cleared land at Sandy Beach, Tinopai

Lifestyle blocks the new land war battleground

Mine workers attacked by PNG locals

THREE Chinese workers at Papua New Guinea's controversial Ramu nickel mine have been attacked by 100 armed local landowners.

The workers from China's state-owned Metallurgical Construction Company Ramu nickel mine at Basamuk Bay in Madang province, on PNG's northwest coast, are now recovering in Madang's Modilon General Hospital.

In a separate incident PNG workers at MCC's Kurumbukari mine site, 150km east of Basamuk Bay, had stopped work over a pay dispute, PNG's The National newspaper reported.

MCC had evacuated its other Chinese workers amid fears of more attacks.

Police were investigating Sunday's attack at the Ramu mine, but it was unclear what provoked the incident.

PNG's $US1.2 billion ($1.41 billion) agreement with MCC to build the Ramu mine is expected to yield 143 million tonnes of nickel over 20 years.

The mine also will pump 100 million tonnes of waste slurry into the province's pristine Astrolabe Bay during the next 20 years.

As well as environmental concerns, the PNG government has been accused of breaking the country's own laws by allowing mining work to go ahead, despite an ongoing dispute among local landowners about who has traditional ownership of the site.

Locals claim they were not consulted about the project and have been left out of royalty deals

Source

Maori group puts up Pou Whenua on Stolen land

A Northland Maori group has erected pou, or boundary markers, on disputed beachfront land at Matapouri.

The group is taking action in the High Court against the Department of Conservation, the Department of Land and Survey Information and the Attorney-General in a bid to have the land designated a reserve.

Te Whanau o Rangi Whakaahu say they sold the Otito Block to the Government in 1970 as a scenic reserve in the belief that reserve status would safeguard it for all time.

However, they say part of the land was wrongly included in a freehold title by private survey in 1999.

The hapu says the five manuka posts it has erected on the land are to
make a statement, and watch over wahi tapu.

continues here

Hikoi ki Aokautere

click to enlarge

At lunch time on Saturday in Palmerston North Nga Uri o Te Rangiaranaki marched to Aokautere, ANZAC park to occupy, saying they would like to rebuild a Marae on their tupuna land. There was a police escort from The Square to Aokautere with the for warning that they will be arrested if they continue to occupy after 4pm.

click to enlarge

The group of about 20 yesterday marched from The Square to the bush-covered hill reserve on the edge of the Manawatu River.However, the protest ended when police arrested leader Carwyn Kawana for trespass. The rest of the group dispersed.

click to enlarge

Mr Kawana vowed he would be back every day till his bloodlines got the land back.He said a marae once stood on the land and it was also an old pa site and the "young warriors" wanted a marae to be built again to honour their ancestors.He was arrested after Palmerston North City Council representative Peter Eathorne asked them to leave and then read a trespass notice.Mr Eathorne said Anzac Park would be shut to the public this weekend to manage the "issue".Last Friday, Mr Kawana's group erected a carving in The Square but it was removed by the council.

thanx to T.I.A for the pics

Ruatahuna Kakahu Mauku - Whakawatea

Tutemohuta - Fires burning

Related:

Party Calls for Iwi to Exercise Rangatiratanga
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/06/maori-land-protests-to-go-on-after-13.html

Taame talks Mana-motu-hake @Waitangi 2008

Taame talks Mana-motu-hake @Waitangi 2008

thanks again TinoRangatiratangaTV

The Maori resistance

Most outsiders think that New Zealand's indigenous people are well integrated into a liberal state. But the arrest of an alleged terrorist cell has put the focus on the injustices suffered by the Maori. Jon Henley reports

Tuesday November 6, 2007
The Guardian

The Maori activist Tame Iti.

Henry Williams (b February 11 1782, Nottingham, d July 16 1867, Pakaraka, Bay of Islands) is as good a place to start as any. A rotund, bespectacled and doubtless well-intentioned former navy man, the Rev Williams was a missionary who had been busy winning antipodean souls for Jesus since 1822. By February 1840, when the first lieutenant-governor of what would very soon become Britain's newest colony landed in New Zealand, Williams was leader of the Church of England's mission there. He must have seemed like just the man to translate a landmark treaty between the Crown and the Maori chiefs.

Article continues

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Unfortunately, he was not. Or at least, he may have been from the British point of view, but he most definitely was not from the Maori's. And if last month, more than 140 years after his death, a shocked New Zealand woke up to the news that 17 Maori rights activists had been arrested on weapons and terrorism offences following the discovery of "paramilitary training camps" in the remote mountain ranges of North Island, it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that the late reverend should bear at least some of the blame.

Sixteen people are on trial in Auckland district court following the raids, the culmination of a year-long police undercover operation that involved up to 300 officers and was centred on the isolated North Island hamlet of Ruatoki, gateway to the Urewera mountains that are home to the fiercely independent Tuhoe tribe. The raids followed sightings of "armed men in camouflage and balaclavas moving through forests carrying heavy packs and firearms". There are unconfirmed claims that among the weapons seized was a napalm bomb, or perhaps some molotov cocktails, and rumours that the prime minister, Helen Clark, may have been a target.

One of the men arrested has reportedly told police he was training to be "a vicious, dangerous commando", would "declare war on this country very soon", and that "white men are going to die here". Another, a colourful Maori and Tuhoe activist called Tame Iti - previously best known for baring his buttocks at public protests and shooting at the New Zealand flag - is said to have been preparing an IRA-style "war on New Zealand" aimed at establishing an independent state on his tribe's land. One New Zealand paper, the Dominion Post, has claimed Iti's 20-strong group was known as Rama - the Maori word for enlightenment - and included ex-New Zealand army Vietnam war veterans as well as several teenaged recruits. It had adopted the IRA's Green Book as its training manual, the paper claimed.

Quite how much of all this will ever be proved true is anyone's guess. Claims and counter-claims have been flying furiously since the first raid a fortnight ago: Maori leaders are livid at what they say is police heavy-handedness; some have suggested that the camps (if they exist at all) were harmless bushcraft retreats. Pita Sharples, leader of the country's Maori party, says the raids have "set race relations back 100 years". Meanwhile, the rightwing NZ First party has called on moderate Maori to "disown their subversive and divisive sub-culture".

What is certain is that these events have exposed wounds that most people outside New Zealand could be forgiven for assuming had healed long ago. Disease and massacres, we sort of vaguely know, finished off most of the indigenous people of Australia, and many of the Aboriginals who survived now live on squalid reservations beset by problems of health, education, unemployment, crime and substance abuse. But the Maori? They had a hard time, no doubt. But nowadays their culture is all over New Zealand, isn't it? Maori do very well, don't they, in all walks of life? And look at the All Blacks! New Zealand and the Maori, they're pretty much OK, aren't they? No big issues there.

It turns out, though, that there are - and that feelings about them are starting to run dangerously high. Listen, for example, to Allan Hawea, a moderate, law-abiding Maori community worker from the Bay of Plenty. New Zealanders of European extraction, known in Maori as Pakeha, he warns, "can harp on all they like about how tired they are of Maori considering themselves above the law, or how sick and tired they are of hearing Maori bleat on about the race issue. Well, friends, get used to it. We will not have you tell us how we will respond to the issues that concern us. We will decide how we respond. We are not going away. If you find our response unreasonable, illogical, perhaps it is because we have been reasonable and logical for far too long."

Some facts. Just under 15% of New Zealand's four million-strong population are Maori. A survey last month from the ministry of social development showed that in all but four of 20 basic socio-economic indicators, they are worse off than European New Zealanders. Maori are three times more likely to die from a violent assault (and four times as likely to be arrested for violent assault) than non-Maori. They account for around 40% of all convictions in the courts, and 50% of the New Zealand prison population. Maori are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed, and their household income is roughly 70% of the national average. Healthwise, Maori life expectancy is nearly 10 years lower than non-Maori. They are four times more likely to live in an overcrowded house, and far more likely to have drug or alcohol problems.

A 2006 report by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, concluded that while some progress had been made, and New Zealand ranked pretty high on international human and social development indicators, "persistent disparities" continue between Maori and non-Maori in fields such as health, paid work, economic standard of living, housing and justice. Some of these, Stavenhagen added, were consistent with "a history of discrimination", and there was a need for "continued specific measures based on ethnicity" to "strengthen the social, economic and cultural rights" of the Maori. "While the standard of living of the Maori of New Zealand has improved and is better than that of indigenous peoples in poorer countries," Stavenhagen wrote in a separate statement, "there is widespread concern that the gap in social and economic conditions is actually growing larger and an increasing proportion of Maori are being left behind."

Some Maori have no hesitation in saying what they think this is all about. "It's quite obvious that underlying all this is a deeply entrenched racism," says Professor Margaret Mutu of the University of Auckland's Maori studies department, who is also actively involved with the Maori rights movement. "The European attitude is basically: we are superior, we are in charge, and that's just the way it is. It's really a huge problem here. And I do consider the patience of the Maori amazing. They could have taken up arms long ago, but they have not done so."

The roots of Maori resentment lie, of course, in the past, and more specifically in February 1840. Back, then, to the Rev Williams, who with the assistance of his son Edward - raised among Maori and deemed an even more able scholar of the Nga-Puhi dialect than his father - produced the Maori version of the three-clause treaty of Waitangi.

In article one of the treaty's English text, the Maori signatories apparently cede their "sovereignty" to the British Crown. Williams's Maori version of the text, however, which was the one the chiefs signed, used a missionary neologism, "kawanatanga", to translate this concept - the term means something akin to "governorship". This was curious, because a pretty good translation of "sovereignty" already existed in Maori: "tino rangatiratanga".

Even more curiously, article two of the Maori version expressly reserves "tino rangatiratanga", or full sovereign authority, over "their lands, forests, fisheries and everything they value" to the Maori chiefs. And since the only reason the chiefs were sitting down with the representative of the British Crown in the first place was because they had been obliged to asked for Britain's help in controlling the lawless, land-grabbing and violent band of European whalers, sealers and other settlers who had invaded their islands, it seems clear that what the Maori believed they were signing - what they did, in fact, sign - was a document granting the Crown a strictly limited authority over the non-Maori settlers.

What the British signed, on the other hand, was a document granting them full sovereignty over what, three months later, duly became the Crown colony of New Zealand. And thanks to a subsequent barrage of questionable land purchases and wholesale confiscations of vast tracts of New Zealand, between 1840 and 1890, the Maori lost approximately 95% of their territories. Over roughly the same period, meanwhile, the Maori population had shrunk from 100,000 to about 36,000, while the European population rose from 2,000 to more than 600,000.

"The land issue is the legal, cultural and spiritual focus of almost all Maori grievances today," says Dr Tracey McIntosh, a University of Auckland sociologist and member of the Tuhoe tribe. "Many tribes, including mine, never even signed the treaty, so we just view our land as having been stolen. And above and beyond the Maori's spiritual relationship with their lands, you can make a very strong evidence-based argument for saying that the alienation of our land removed our whole economic base and distorted the whole range of social relationships. That's why this history is so important: for Maori, the injustices of the past have real implications for our present lives. We're still seeing their consequences."

There has been some attempt to address the land issue, but not with any tremendous success: the Waitangi Tribunal, established in 1975 to hear complaints of alleged treaty violations, has in the 32 years of its existence registered 1,400 cases, heard around 150, issued 50 reports - and settled barely 20 claims, for a total value of just over NZ$700m (£258m). The tribunal's decisions, moreover, are non-binding. In recent years, Maori have had further cause to question their government's intentions when it passed the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act, giving the Crown ownership of coastal areas and overturning a court of appeal ruling that the islands' indigenous inhabitants enjoyed "customary title" or property rights. The UN is sufficiently unimpressed with this legislation, dubbed by many Maori "the last great land grab", to have formally recommended it be repealed, or at least significantly amended.

Paradoxically, Maori language and culture have come to occupy a significant, even a fundamental place in New Zealand life. Thirty years ago, speaking Maori in school was liable to get you caned. These days, Maori is an official national language and is taught, along with Maori history and culture, in creches and at primary and secondary school. Maori place names have been restored, and their correct pronunciation is seen as important; there is Maori-language TV and radio; a Maori party exists and seats are reserved for Maori in New Zealand's parliament; much of the very iconography of the state is now Maori. "It's true we now have a real consciousness, an awareness of Maori issues that many other countries with indigenous peoples do not have," says McIntosh. "It's pretty difficult to be in this country and not to be aware of it. Partly as a result, everything around Maori is political."

Much of this has been accomplished as a result of the so-called Maori revival, started in the 1960s and 70s. Fuelled by almost invariably peaceful protest - essentially sit-ins, occupations and marches - the Maori protest movement has been highly successful in raising their profile and achieving concrete, if limited progress in areas such as land rights, the Maori language and culture, and racism. "The problem," says McIntosh, "is that there may now be a great deal of recognition of Maori issues, but that certain practices are very deeply embedded here. Plus, there's a lot of tolerance for ignorance around Maori issues. This is a country, remember, that in the 1960s firmly believed it had the best race relations in the world. It simply did not believe it had a race issue."

It is an environment, many Maori feel, in which "it can all too easily seem as if most non-Maori in the land are saying: 'We know, we care - but we don't really understand, so don't expect us to do anything about it,'" says one contributor to a popular New Zealand chat community. "It's as if their efforts on the cultural front can excuse them from taking the underlying historical grievances and social and economic problems seriously." Mutu adds that New Zealand is "very, very good at the propaganda it puts out, and has been for years. It's so successful, in fact, that it has convinced most of its own population. There's a real perception among many Pakeha that Maori are now a privileged group, that we already get way too much preferential treatment."

But paramilitary training camps? Police raids? molotov cocktails and napalm? War on the streets of Wellington? Few Maori seem to believe a word of it, preferring instead to talk of "ignorance and misunderstanding" and a "huge overreaction" by the police. There is, though, a wary acknowledgement that tensions are building. "The powerlessness and disenfranchisement some Maori feel may lead people to explore different ways of articulating power," says McIntosh. "There may be a significant few who feel that way. My worry is that this incident will do a great deal of damage to a group that already feels very alienated. I worry about the response it may provoke."

Mutu also doubts there was "anything remotely threatening going on up in those mountains", in part because "if there was, I think I would have heard about it". But, she concurs, "the whole of Maoridom has been traumatised by these raids. Attitudes are certainly hardening. Eventually, I think, we will get together, and we will discuss how to handle it. And yes, I can see a day we will go back to our land and reclaim it. There will not be military action, because that is not our way, but we will go on to the state-owned farms, into the forests, to the wild places where very few people live, and we will say: 'This is ours, now try and stop us taking it. We've been patient, we've believed your fine words, for too long. We know what is right'".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2205852,00.html

Hegemonic Post-Colonial Discourse (Contemporary Colonisation)

What is terrorism? What does it mean to act in the name of peace, or to find arms in places where they don’t exist? Are they copying hegemonic discourse? All of these questions are valid and apply to violations that many people of the world suffer, above all indigenous people.


In my opinion, when culture is managed irresponsibly, and we see others judged in an irresponsible way, with no evidence, with comments that are racist and which are placed in a context as if they were made by wise elders, claiming things such as “I decide if you are worthy of your culture or not”, “you are violent and vengeful”, these people are hypocrites, because they say they are working for our people and are offering “recognition to those men and women who iron our clothes, watch over us, wash our cars, and make our handicrafts”. They do not see that this is not the way, not the right path.


We as indigenous are not only those things. We are the ones who, through our ancestors, have kept society together to the present, we are the ones who have diverse ways of expressing ourselves as daily witnesses to the idea that it is possible to live in peace with others and with mother earth, we champion the responsible use of culture, which does away with preconceptions and ideas promoted by ignorance and lack of understanding by others. We are the ones as a people who have given up so much at such a high and unfortunate cost, such as our most valued legacy, the greatness of the past, our faith, our culture, our food. What kind of sin is it to have self-determination? What kind of sin is it to protest? What sin have we committed when we accept the new nationality of peoples living on our soil? What sin have indigenous committed when we recognise each other as human beings? Why do they mistreat us when we state that something does not look right to us?


In other words, people who practice what they criticise, who judge you in the name of democracy, who say they are offering tribute, are just like the colonisers, they keep exchanging gold for trinkets and want us to give away our wealth for shiny mirrors. Amparo Ochoa has a song that expresses this very well:


And we open our homes and call them friends
But if an Indian comes back tired from working in the highlands
We humiliate him and see him as a stranger throughout his land.


You hypocrite acting like a humble person in front of a foreigner
You become arrogant with your own poor brothers
Oh, Malinche’s curse, illness of our age,
When will you leave my land….when will you free my people.


I dedicate this to all the indigenous peoples of the world, especially to my Maori brothers and sisters in Aotearoa New Zealand, my Wayuu people and to the Wichi people.


I want to share information about what is happening to our Maori brothers and sisters in Aotearoa. Please read this letter and send it on, for once make the voice heard of THOSE WHO HAVE NO VOICE.

--

David Hernández Palmar. Indígena Wayuu. Clan IIPUANA

0414 632 1312
0416 370 3539
+ 58 414 632 1312
+ 58 416 370 3539
shiaakua (at) gmail.com

"La tradición es como una anciana que sentada en el camino de los días, cuenta a las generaciones venideras lo que ha vivido".
RAMON PAZ IIPUANA 1.938

La tradition, c'est comme une vieille dame qui, assise sur le chemin des jours qui passent, raconte aux générations à venir ce qui lui a été donné de vivre.
RAMON PAZ IIPUANA, 1938

“Tradition is like a wise elder, as she sits on the road of days, she tells future generations what she has lived.”
RAMON PAZ IIPUANA 1938

The Terrorism Suppression Act and Maori Self-Determination in Aotearoa New Zealand

On 15 October, 2007, 300 police officers began a series of raids across Aotearoa, New Zealand, arresting 17 people in the cities of Ruatoki, Whakatane, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Palmerston North for the first time using warrants issued under the new "Terrorism Suppression Act (TPA)”, an amendment of which is currently being debated by Parliament.

The majority of those arrested are of the Tuhoe iwi or tribe, a people who have long struggled for their recognition as a people and for their historical grievances against the New Zealand Government, also known as the Crown. The remaining detainees have been active in Anarchist, peace and environmental movements and in their communities. Name suppression has been imposed, so that only three names of detainees have been released. Tame Iti is well known in Aotearoa, New Zealand for his activism in bringing an expression of Maori self-determination before the public. The other two names released are those of Iti’s nephew Rawiri Iti and Jamie Beattie Lockett. Bail was denied for Tame Iti and Lockett due to their being considered a “significant danger to the public”.

Reports by witnesses and lawyers of the Tuhoe detainees have expressed outrage at the aggressive and violent tactics used during the raids. The police dressed in commando-style military uniforms, broke down doors, arrested suspects in front of children and in their communities, boarded school buses, and took personal property such as computers. Due to the secretive nature of the raids, important information about the charges has been suppressed.

Maori Party Co-Leader Pita Sharples stated that these actions have set back race relations 100 years. The Tuhoe Reverand Wayne Manaaki Rihari Te Kaawa states that the “events in Ruatoki during the last 48 hours are nothing new to the Tuhoe people. In the mid to late 1800s colonial forces invaded the Urewera searching for the religious leader Te Kooti employing the scorched earth policy that forced Tuhoe into starvation and subsequently confiscated much of their lands. In 1916 the Urewera was again invaded by armed police who shot and killed two people while arresting the Tuhoe religious leader Rua Kenana. Growing up in Tuhoe country as children we would often hear stories of those times, today our children will now grow up telling stories of when armed police invaded the Tuhoe Nation in 2007 and held guns frightening children and old people. These atrocities and terrorists acts by the police and the Government upon Tuhoe sovereignty must stop.”

Generally, this Act was designed to bring New Zealand law into line with Australia and other nations which have sharply curtailed basic civil liberties in the name of the fight against terrorism.

The Law Society has stated that all charges currently known fall under normal criminal law (Crimes Act) and that usage the TSA is confusing because it sets up a parallel legal process. The Green Party has issued similar statements since the TSA was first approved in 2002, arguing that this Act has a chilling effect for those involved in protest action.
The Civil Rights Defense Committee has set up a website to describe in detail what the implications of the Act and the new amendment are, to support the prisoners and their families, and to organize protest. For updated information from a Civil Rights perspective, see:

www.civilrightsdefence.org.nz

Dr. Kathryn Lehman

Related

• http://www.civilrightsdefence.org.nz

He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene

"He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene (the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand) was adopted at Waitangi on the 28^th October 1835.

What were the aspirations and intentions of these rangatira who sought to assert mana motuhake for the tribal nations of Aotearoa?

Would they be satisfied with the progress we have made some 172 years later, in our journey towards the rangatiratanga of Maori?

We have withstood challenge, we have resisted the oppressive powers of those who seek to undermine our authority; and we will continue in our ultimate transformation."
Tariana Turia

.

Maori group to appeal against trespass ruling

Thursday September 06, 2007

A group of Maori found guilty of trespassing on land they believe is
their own will fight the decision in the High Court.

Phillip Habib, Brock Marumaru, Doreen Ngawhika, Laurayno Ngawhika, Te
Awhina Ngawhika, Patrina Ritete, Samara Ritete, Shane Wall, William
Wallace and Georgina Whitu appeared in the Taupo District Court.

After a two-day defended hearing, Judge Chris McGuire found the group
guilty of one charge of wilful trespass each. He discharged Doreen
Ngawhika without a conviction because of evidence that the weight on
her shoulders to protect the land was even stronger than the other
nine as she was entrusted with the guardianship of the land.

Judge McGuire convicted the nine others and ordered them to come up
for sentence if called upon within 12 months.

The group were charged after they failed to leave an Acacia Bay site
on June 27. The site is leased to Auckland-based developers Symphony
Group for a residential development by trustees of the Hiruharama
Ponui Inc Trust.


However, the trespassers do not believe the lease is valid. They say
it was leased to the developers by trustees who had no authority to
sign the lease. They say they went on to the land to monitor it after
koiwi, or remains, were found and say it is wahi tapu, or sacred land.

Judge McGuire said the group had raised a significant number of issues
he was ill equipped to deal with as a district court judge. He
accepted the group had genuine and heartfelt concerns after koiwi were
found on the site and had decided as a hapu to go on to the site to
take on a monitoring role. He also recognised transgressions in the
trust but said the Maori Land Court and Maori Appellant Court both
upheld the lease as being legal, so he too had to. He hoped the group
would keep talking with the trustees, and the trustees with the
developers, in a bid to find some way to move forward.

Outside the court, Georgina Whitu said the group would now go to the
High Court to appeal the decision.

She said they didn't want to be stuck with the conviction because they
believed that they owned the land.

Whitu said she was pleased in some ways that the decision now gave
them the opportunity to air their grievances, especially those
regarding the validity of the lease, in the High Court, which might
have the jurisdiction to review it.

Whitu said the wahi tapu was still over the land and stopped anyone,
including themselves, from going on the site and they would take
action if anyone did.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10461875&ref=rss

Te Kotahi A Tuhoe

As Treaty Settlement Claims have gathered momentum so too has the country's politician call for "one law for all".

For the people of ... all » Tühoe though, they say their authority and their law casts the stronger shadow over their ancestral lands. This belief forms the foundations of their Treaty Claims as Tahuri Tumoana reveals.

Aloha Is Our Intelligence - Manu Aluli Meyer

Manu reveals what quantum physics and indigenous culture have in common, as well as her vision of a Free Hawai`i few of us have ever imagined. We promise this is one Hawai`i Maoli wahine (native woman) you'll remember for a long time to come.

Wahi Tapu

Tenei he mihi aroha ki nga Tangata Whenua-Ahi Kaa ki Taupo nui a Tia.
How do we protect Waahi Tapu?

I am part of a collective of whanau situated around the rohe of Ngati
Tuwharetoa who have been occupying and opposing a development on a
Waahi tapu site known as Otuparae. 2 years ago as well as 2 months ago
skeletal remains from our burial grounds were dug up from contractors
building Parawera Development. Our whanau had been through all the
legal avenues to try to stop it,apart from high court which would cost
thousands. We protested and occupied and have been arressted and
removed of our land and still went back and are still continuing to
occupy. And now the contractors are back to keep developing.


Without using physical violence we are at a wait and pray stage. Our other
whanau have been upholding Mana Whenua by occupying Wharewaka.
Both of our occupations were raided by police in Taupo 2 weeks ago.
11 whanau were arressted from Otuparae. The oldest a Kuia the youngest
a 2mth old baby. 2 were arressted from Wharewaka.

Our Kuia from Otuparae laid down a Karanga envoking Tupuna to be there
as she was being arressted. As we were being held back at the gate by
3 rows of police men having to watch the representative for the
developers and the police raid our Noho they made 2 of our kaumatua
carry stack full of chairs down the driveway without assisstance from
Senjo Security, who were hired by the developers to secure their
buildings,police or the developers representative.
But we haven't given up.

11 July 2007 appearing in Taupo District Court are those who were
arrested from their ancestaral lands just as in the days of our
Tupuna. Haere Mai.

It still exsists the pen and paper turmoil that has corrupted us into
a system of land-grabing descecrators who cares not for the Tangata
Whenua-Ahi Kaa ancestoral and human rights. But cares more for bread
and butter on their table at the expense of hanging the Maori.
How do we protect Waahi Tapu without getting violent?
This question I leave open for reply to........

tuhi mai.
Wahinewhenua

It's the land we want - Haapu

By RICHARD WOODD - Taranaki Daily News | Friday, 29 June 2007

A hapu claiming an ancestral right to the old Hawera Hospital site
says it's not interested in the buildings, only the land, which was
its Nga Tupaea tribal marae in pre-European times.

"We don't want the buildings because they are full of asbestos and
will be difficult and expensive to remove for demolition," hapu
spokesman Chris Turahui said.

Commenting on Ngati Ruanui chairman Sid Kahuranui's statement that the
hospital land was part of the $41 million treaty claim settlement
package in 2001, Mr Turahui said: "Tupaea were shut out of that
settlement and we've received nothing from it, even though all the
local marae have been given $100,000 each. We did not give Ngati
Ruanui the right to settle on our behalf. We were out-manoeuvred and
not properly advised. There's been friction between us and Ruanui ever
since."

He said the hapu's objective was to interfere with the tendering
process to sell the hospital property, by the Taranaki District Health
Board. Tenders close on August 1. He had been unable to make contact
with the board.

"I hope we are achieving that," he said. "Whoever puts in a tender
must realise that they are really only buying the buildings, because
it's our land and we want the title to it."

He said Tupaea was a barely functional organisation "because we have
no money. We have been given the Turuturumokai marae by Ngati Ruanui
and we are waiting for the transfer of title. But we have no funds for
development and improvements there."

Saana Waitai Murray-Wahine Toa

Saana Waitai Murray is a pint-sized old lady with a twinkle in her
eye. She takes an arm to steady her on the walk to where her
photograph is to be taken.

She wears a long red dress and laughs away with the photographer as
she stands outside the imposing Orakei Marae. Then she touches the
large coiled white shell she has worn around her neck every day for
the 16 years since this historic Waitangi Tribunal claim began.

The shell is a fossilised pupuharakeke, a flax snail. Once abundant in
Mrs Murray's Far North homeland, the pupuharakeke is now a threatened
native species.

The snail is why - in part - the old lady has made the journey from Te
Hapua to this Auckland marae for the final days of one of the biggest,
and potentially most explosive, of the Treaty claims.

Mrs Murray is Ngati Kuri. Her people want control of the endangered
pupuharakeke - the guardianship of a taonga [treasure] which links
their present to ancestors of 1000 years ago.

But they don't want guardianship, or kaitiakitanga, of just the
pupuharakeke. In Mrs Murray's words, this claim is about "Maori
control of things Maori".

Known as the flora and fauna claim, six Maori tribes are seeking
rights to all New Zealand's indigenous flora and fauna. And much more.
The claim covers the guardianship of all taonga, and taonga can
include anything from traditional knowledge and intellectual property
rights over cultural ideas and designs to the protection of language
and waiata.

The tribes believe the Crown has breached Article Two of the Treaty by
failing to actively protect the exercise of tino rangatiratanga
(sovereignty) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) over flora and fauna
and other taonga.

Further, they say the Crown has failed to protect the taonga itself.
The tribes want the Maori world view to be acknowledged and respected
and the true partnership between Maori and Pakeha, as declared in the
Treaty, to be enacted.

At 81, Mrs Murray is one of only two of the original claimants who are
still alive.

The other is Del Wihongi of Te Rarawa, who is ill and could not come.
But these old ladies were the initial driving forces behind this
massive claim.

Elders from Ngati Kuri, Ngati Wai, Te Rarawa, Ngati Porou, Ngati
Kahungunu and Ngati Koata first lodged the claim in 1991. It has been
a long journey to get to this point, the final two weeks of submissions.

Today is the turn of Tai Tokerau, the Northland tribes, to be heard.

Outside the marae Mrs Murray explains what the pupuharakeke means to
Ngati Kuri. The snail lives in the flax and Ngati Kuri ancestor Kupe
first heard its cry 1000 years ago, she says. The pupuharakeke is the
tribe's guardian: "It took care of our people."

She says when war parties came threatening Ngati Kuri the warriors
crushed the snails underfoot and when the snails are crushed they send
out "this weird wailing sound".

"Pupuharakeke were more or less their warning system that war parties
were coming so they were able to get on their canoes and get away to
the islands."

Now her people are barred from the scientific reserve on Poor Knights
Island where a remnant of the pupuharakeke population survives, she says.

Yet Ngati Kuri have been the guardians of this taonga for 1000 years.
Kaitiakitanga of such a precious taonga should not be taken away: "We
have a whakapapa [genealogical relationship] to this one."

Inside Orakei Marae in three rows of seats are the claimants' lawyers,
a sea of grey suits and dark socks amid the rich reds and oranges of
the panels and carvings.

At the front is another row of five: the chief judge for claim Wai
262, Joe Williams, who is flanked by tribunal members.

Moriori lawyer Maui Solomon speaks at the makeshift podium as a gas
heater hums nearby. Solomon is representing the Tai Tokerau tribes.

The tribunal has raised with him Crown fears that Maori control of
everything would exclude non-Maori.

Solomon replies by saying the well-being of one of the Treaty partners
has been put to one side since 1840.

"There was an expectation when the Treaty was signed that there would
be two peoples living together in one nation and they would respect
one another's laws and world views."

This had not happened. Tangata whenua had been sidelined. This claim
was a way of restoring their well-being, says Solomon.

He holds up a pupuharakeke and says that for Mrs Murray it is
important that her relationship with the taonga is maintained, that
she has full access to it and thus the ability to pass on knowledge to
her mokopuna.

He explains to the tribunal his submission is trying to portray
complex issues from a tikanga Maori perspective rather than a tikanga
Pakeha perspective.

Later, outside the meeting house, he says the claim was brought about
by a group of elders concerned that indigenous flora and fauna were
being taken offshore. Foreign countries were gaining access without
Maori interests being consulted or their consent sought.

"This claim started with Mrs Wihongi travelling to Japan to bring back
four native varieties of kumara because of the relationship through
whakapapa that her people have with the kumara and the importance of
the kumara to sustaining human life in New Zealand for 1000 years."

The claim is about acknowledging Maori do have rights and interests to
flora and fauna and that if taonga is to be taken offshore, or
genetically modified, Maori need to be actively engaged in the
discussion and involved in the decision-making.

The claim is also about an increasing "misappropriation and offensive"
use of Maori words, images and designs by national and international
companies.

Suddenly, the international community is waking up to the importance
of indigenous cultures and indigenous knowledge and how this can be
used to add value to their commercial products, says Solomon.

Maori design is turning up on plastic toys and in restaurants in
foreign countries, but no one has asked permission, he says.

And while Pakeha may think there is financial motivation behind claims
like this, Solomon says the elders have not talked about money at all.

During the hearings a young woman with a moko and a red hibiscus in
her hair sits in the audience and takes notes.

This is Catherine Davis of Te Rarawa. She says the claim began with
the kumara and expanded to issues relating to traditional knowledge,
knowledge of the world, the environment, genetics, culture, language.

The haka is an example of the inappropriate use of taonga. Davis says
everyone is proud of the haka "and we know why, it's an awesome,
powerful thing".

But she says the haka was created by the ancestors and when performed
incorrectly or without understanding of the story behind it, or with a
beer in hand, it was disrespected.

When people are drunk they lose their mana and lose their control "and
you just don't want one of your taonga associated and dirtied with
that kind of behaviour".

Saana Waitai Murray acknowledges the judge has a tough job in sorting
through this claim. He has to be fair to all the nationalities now
living in New Zealand, as he must be, she says.

"But we originally signed the Treaty with the British, and strangely
enough I'm a great-granddaughter of a British soldier and here am I
fighting for my Maori survival."

Maori had not been in control since the Treaty was signed.
Kawanatanga, or governorship, was given to the Queen of England so she
could control her own people in the new colony. It was never about
taking away Maori sovereignty, says the kuia.

Maori chiefs were already the rangatira of this country but they never
owned the country, she says. They were the caretakers on behalf of all
who survived here. "That's how I see it anyway."

Another week of submissions into Wai 262 will be heard this week in
Wellington, where the Crown will have its say. It will probably take
at least another year for a report to be written.

The question is, will resolution come in Mrs Murray's lifetime?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10444420&pnum=0


Nga Ringa Whakahaere o te Iwi Maori is a national network representing more than 40 Maori traditional healing practitioners or Whare Oranga. Our people are very much dependent on the use and development of natural therapeutic products for Rongoa Maori or traditional health and healing applications. These products derive from our forests and mountains, from our lakes and waterways, and from our coastal and geothermal areas. Any regulation of these things must be in agreement with Maori as Tangata Whenua under The Treaty of Waitangi, regardless of whether they are prepared for koha or commercial purposes

http://www.nrw.co.nz/pdf/ANZTPA_NRW_Sub_10_jul_06.pdf

Ngati Tamaahuroa Haapu Reclamation

STAYING PUT: Sandra Ngatai and her three-year-old daughter - also Sandra - with other occupiers at Te Kiri School in Taranaki. Resolution of the dispute through giving the occupiers free land leases has upset National MPs.

The occupation was no more illegal than the Crown's unlawful confiscation in 1863, she said.

Friday, 27 Apr 2007
Taranaki school occupiers told 'stay for free'

Maori involved in the illegal occupation of two schools, including alleged vandalism and apparent theft of thousands of litres of water, are set to be rewarded with free land leases.
The proposed deal has outraged the National Party, which says it sets a precedent for ''bullying'' protesters who take over disputed Government property, trash it then get their way.

Leaked Education Ministry documents show the Treaty Settlements Office is prepared to lease Taranaki's disused Pihama and Te Kiri schools to two occupying hapu at no cost.

The schools have allegedly suffered $23,000 damage, including broken locks and windows, graffiti and stolen fittings.

Titahi and Ngati Tamaahuroa hapu moved into the schools in March amid claims the classrooms were built on confiscated land.

Though the occupation was illegal, the ministry decided not to act because previous efforts to evict illegal occupiers from Crown land had taken up to nine months, the documents show. Officials wanted the matter resolved through negotiation, not confrontation, a spokesman said.

Though one school was earmarked for sale, the Government had put both aside for potential use in settlement claims with local iwi.

National's Taranaki-King Country MP, Shane Ardern, said up to 20 protesters had taken over buildings and were still living illegally at Te Kiri School.

The ministry disconnected water and electricity supplies but they used utilities from a nearby house till the owner cut them off and made a burglary complaint to police.

Protesters had broken windows, graffitied buildings and filled a school swimming pool for use ''like a bloody bathtub'', Mr Ardern said.

He was angry the Government planned to reward their behaviour and said the occupation had sparked widespread concern.

National's education spokeswoman Katherine Rich said the proposed deal showed Maori could illegally circumvent the Treaty settlement process to their benefit, and set a dangerous example.

Hawera Senior Sergeant Michael Hannah confirmed police had received complaints over water and electricity theft, burglary and a dogbiting incident involving Mr Ardern's heifer, which was grazing nearby. No charges had been laid.

Hapu spokeswoman Sandra Ngatai conceded the occupation was illegal ? but denied protesters had caused $23,000 damage.

Government officials met hapu leaders last week to offer them the lease deal. The hapu were considering the offer but were more interested in outright ownership than a lease arrangement, she said.

''They came to where we were occupying and they offered us the buildings with nil rent.

''We're sort of deciding whether to do that because it's not really what we want. We want the land back at no cost.''

The occupation was no more illegal than the Crown's unlawful confiscation in 1863, she said.

Treaty Settlements Office director Paul James said officials were working with the ministry to find a resolution.