Nga Manga o Mangere

Mangere was hit with the death of two stalwart Kuia in a week, Mere Knight & Dell Wihongi both a staunch advocates and active in their support for the Mangere community.

Mere Knight

"She was one of those people that walked the roads and picked up kids an gave them food. She was deeply involved in community activities, an icon of our people in serving the community that she's been a part of for at least 50 years,"


“Mere was into every possible option for improving the lives of the people of the South. Since the 1950s, she fought for Maori rights, she supported women in the community, she was a staunch member of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, she promoted urban marae development, she advocated for children, and she campaigned against poverty."

I've had the privilege to see Auntie Mere in full flight engaging with what ever powers that be, to make sure that our our peoples rights were respected, Mangere has been a urban Maori/PI homeland for a while now. In the roughest, toughest times in Mangere you could count on women like Mere to be there, like the other woman warriors of Mangere fighting on the front-line for the well being of our whanau, our rights & our dignity.

E te whaea e Mere, kua hoki atu koe ki te kopu o te whenua, takoto mai, takoto mai, moe mai ra. Kua ngaro koe i te tirohanga tangata – ko wai hei tauira mo nga uri whakatipu? Me maumahara matou ki o mahi, ki to kaha, ki to manawanui ki te atawhai i to iwi. Haere ra, haere ra, haere ra.

Days later, it was devastating to hear of the passing of Te Rarawa kuia, Dell Wihongi. Dell is widley know for her fight to safe guard Indigenous Intellectual property rights highlighted in the Wai 262 Claim. She had also made Mangere her home and contributed to the life and vibrancy of that community. Her contribution to our Tino Rangatiratanga & the importance of her work on the Wai 262 claim can not be underestimated:

Hemanui-a-Tawhaki (Dell) Wihongi

As indigenous peoples who are experiencing a further wave of colonisation through global economic capitalism, and who as a result are hugely over-represented in all negative indices, the challenge is to seek ways of transforming these outcomes not only for Maori but for all who live within Aotearoa. Outstanding whaea such as Whina Cooper, Eva Rickard, Mira Szaszy, Sana Murray to name but a few, have led the way for the current endeavours by Maori women to combat the loss of Maori traditional values and the insidious forms of colonisation being asserted by economic globalisation.

Syd Jackson: Yes it is. In the Wai 262 claim, we say that we have always had ownership of this land and all its resources. This was confirmed in the Treaty of Waitangi (signed in 1840), which in the English translation said that we would have “full undisturbed and exclusive possession of the land, estates and forests”. The major cause for dispute between our two peoples since the Treaty was signed has been over what that meant. We have been clear -- it means what it says.

The Wai 262 claim, or the flora and fauna claim, is a reaffirmation by us of the right of tino rantatiratanga. We have the right to protect the flora and fauna within each of our tribal boundaries.

The best way of summarizing it, that I can think of, was first said by one of the original claimants, a man by the name of John Hippolite. He has since died, as unfortunately have many of the others. He said, that the claim cannot be just a matter of having the crown recognize our chieftainship over the forests but rather it must acknowledge why we seek it. This has to do with our understanding, even back then, that there were new things on the horizon like genetic engineering that might challenge both our understanding and our authority over what is important. That statement was made more than a decade ago when the claim was lodged. http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/sj1.html

Saana Murray, Maui Solomon , Del Wihongi and Hori Parata
Title: WAI262: Safeguarding intellectual and cultural rights

http://www.otago.ac.nz/titi/hui/Main/Talks2/Murray.htm

The Wai 262 claim was filed in 1991 on behalf of six claimant Iwi. The claim began as a vision of Maori elders including, Hemanui-a-Tawhaki (Dell) Wihongi (Te Rarawa), Saana Murray (Ngati Kuri), Witi McMath (Ngati Wai), John Hippolite (Ngati Koata) and Tama Poata (Te Whanau a Rua of Ngati Porou) and Christine Rimene (Ngati Kahungunu). These kaumatua were becoming concerned at the apparent loss of nativeflora and fauna to overseas interests and the lack of Maori involvement and participation regarding decision making concerning the granting of intellectual property rights over this flora and fauna.

“E Kui, kua whakarerea o tamariki, to whanau, to iwi, e tangi ana i te mokemoke.

“E te rangatira, hoki atu i te Ara Wairua, hoki atu ki te wa kainga, haere tonu atu ki te Rerenga Wairua, ki te Aka ki te Reinga, haere ki te Po! Haere ki te Po!

Our love and esteemed respect to these warrior kuia and their whanau.




Whiti te marama – Song by Hirini Melbourne
Kia Ora http://podcasts.tewhanake.maori.nz/

The Death Of Maori Medicine?

Monday, 25 June 2007, 12:22 pm
Opinion: NZ Health Trust
The Death Of Maori Medicine?


For thousands of years Maori have accessed the botanical flora of this country to use in traditional healing. Yet just as such indigenous healing is undergoing a renaissance in popularity and use, Maori say their herbal medicine is under serious threat.

Maori liken the effects of the proposed Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill to the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act that tried to end traditional Maori healing and language.

They say the Bill sells sovereignty of New Zealand flora to foreign rule and fails to recognise the value of Maori indigenous healing systems.

Kaiwaka man Pene Hita is a representative for the Ngati Whatua ote Kaipara and over the past two years he has rallied Maori across the country to fight the Bill.

What has particularly irked Maori such as Pene is the rushed nature of the introduction of the Bill and what they say is a “sham” consultation process.

“I understand for consultation to have actually taken place the Minister must have demonstrated an open mind at the time the consultation commenced. This clearly did not occur,” says Pene.

“Contrary to the views of the Select Committee then considering the issue, Annette King (then Health Minister) signed an agreement with Australia in 2003 under which New Zealand was committed to the process now contained in the Therapeutics Bill.

“The so-called `consultation process’ which followed was merely a sham. There was never any opportunity given to us to be meaningfully involved in any discussion on the issues covered in the Bill, rather we, like others, were talked at by officials who just were not interested in modifying their position at all.

“I have no doubt that this was always a given in the minds of both the Minister and her officials. It is little wonder that Annette King is now fighting for her survival as the true nature of what she has signed us into becomes exposed.

“This has all the appearances of games being played to rush through this legislation and not giving New Zealanders proper access to their democratic rights.”

Background

When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1769 the Tohunga or priest/healer played a central role in Maori culture. It was the Tohunga who gave edicts for reasons of health and safety of the tribe and the Tohunga who knew the herbal uses of plants and how they were to be used in conjunction with karakia (prayer) for healing.

This herbal lore was highly valued and passed down by the older members of the tribe who continue to use ancient and proven remedies to the present day.

Western academics have written extensively about the special healing nature of New Zealand flora that they say is due “particularly to the long period in which plants have been isolated from other floras’. Early Europeans recorded sophisticated healing by Maori, including an English sailor who was wounded by a spear in his thigh.

`The spear was cut out by two Maori women with an oyster shell which left a wound as large as a teacup. Then green herbs were applied to the wound which immediately stopped bleeding and provided significant pain relief’ wrote observers.

It was known that the first European medical practitioners turned to Maori traditional remedies when their own scanty stock of drugs failed.

In 1907 the Tohunga Suppression Act worked to try and decimate traditional Maori healing by making it illegal. The tradition survived, but in secret.

“Now when there is noticeable resurgence in Rongoa Maori and of Maori interest in traditional methods of healing, it is not acceptable for some offshore body relying on the Western `scientific’ model of medicine to have any role in determining how Maori seek to use or develop a part of their culture,” says Pene, “… especially given Australians dire history regarding treatment of their own indigenous culture.

“Rongoa Maori healing is still practiced and valued in New Zealand today. It sits alongside orthodox European medicine and is a precious resource that plays an important part in the growing attention our young people are paying to our culture.

“It is accepted worldwide that indigenous people have rights to special protection for the exploitation and knowledge of the useful properties of fauna and flora. Maori understand that commercial interests cannot be allowed to trample over such rights.

“Our Rongoa Maori is part of the indigenous culture, knowledge and beliefs of this country. It is of vital concern that Parliament must recognise the need to respect, preserve and maintain this system – not just for Maori, but for all New Zealanders.”

Pene says Maori experience of contacting the Prime Minister and government officials over the Bill has shown “not only a lack of interest in any concern we as Maori express, but a determination to rush this legislation through come what may”.

“I do not know what the real motivating issues are behind this Bill. The process that has surrounded it means that it is something quite distinct from the claimed issue of public safety. I have heard this is really driven by trade considerations and foreign policy issues - especially with Australia and the United States.

“It seems our precious indigenous culture and our spiritual values don’t even get a look in when some foreign policy or trade issues compete.”

ENDS

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