FMG Great Native Title Swindle

Caught in the act - this is a record of a supposed 'native title' meeting staged by the iron ore miner, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). It shows how FMG, its agents, a lawyer and an opportunist splinter faction tried to destroy the unity of the Yindjibarndi people and give open slather to FMG for its Solomon Hub project. The video demonstrates the unscrupulous actions of a miner trying to bully traditional owners into a land use 'Agreement' that will see massive disturbance of country and will swindle several generations of Yindjibarndi people

See Also:

Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation

NIPS urges withdrawal of US patent application

President of the Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) Mr Donald Marahare has urged the Solomon Islands Government to demand the withdrawal of a patent application in the US involving genetic samples collected from indigenous Solomon Islanders.

The genetic samples were collected by a Taiwanese researcher, Dr. Ying-chin Ko of Kaohsiung Medical University in September 2006. Dr. Ko and three colleagues filed the patent application in the US on June 10 2010.

Mr. Marahare says he believes the individuals who supplied the samples are not aware of the patent application and would have not consented to taking part had they known the research would be used in this way.

The samples from 192 Solomon Islanders used in Dr. Ko’s US patent application 20100248253 entitled "Method and Kit for Assessing Risk of Gout and Hyperuricemia," were collected at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and two clinics in rural Guadalcanal province.
Mr Marahare adds that his organization strongly condemns such a deceitful act by Dr. Ko who has utilized the Taiwan-Solomon Islands diplomatic relationship for his personal gain and strongly recommends the Solomon Islands Government commence formalities to demand the immediate return of the samples.

The President of NIPS acknowledges his organization’s link with Mark Munsterhjelm of the University of Windsor in Canada, Neth Dano of the ETC Group in Philipines and Fiu Elisara of Samoa who alerted the NIPS about Dr. Ko’s application.

“Had we not been informed by Mr Munsterhjelm, Solomon Islands would not have the slightest idea of this application” said Mr. Marahare, who also demanded that, “such practice where Indigenous Solomon Islanders are used for commercial interests without obtaining their free, prior and full informed consent must be stopped.”

The Solomon Islands Research and Ethical Committee of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services earlier this week, has also strongly demanded Dr. Ko’s application be refused or quashed.
Meanwhile, a prominent Honiara lawyer requesting anonymity has called on the Solomon Islands Government to be ready to do more than simply requesting the US Patent and Trademark Office “quash or refuse” the patent application filed by Dr. Ko.

He said, “The government must be ready to bring about legal proceedings in the US to restrain relevant authorities from granting the patent. They have to back up requests with legal proceedings as requests is not enough.”

The Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) is currently working to raise awareness and is demanding the immediate return of the samples taken by Dr. Ko back to Solomon Islands and to have the US Patent and Trademark Office disqualify this patent application.

Blockade on Road to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust WILL CONTINUE

PRESS RELEASE – FRIDAY MARCH 11, 2011

Blockade on Road to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust WILL CONTINUE The BLOCKADE AT THE ENTRANCE OF LAKE TYERS ABORIGINAL TRUST TO STOP MANAGERS AND GOVERNMENT FROM ENTERING ABORIGINAL LAND WILL CONTINUE until our right to manage our own affairs and control our own destiny is recognized according to the UN Declaration on Indigenous peoples


On Tuesday evening Lake Tyers residents and shareholders met with representatives of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs Victoria. They requested that the management and workers be allowed to come back to work or they would stop the funding.

We feel that we are being put down and threatened. We have no rights and want to exercise our right of self-determination according to the UN Declaration on Indigenous People which will enable us to control and own lives and destiny. Our elders fought for the land so that Aboriginal people at Lake Tyers could live without government control of our lives and live with dignity and respect.


Government whose policies on us have once again failed and are AGAIN dictating us. We the shareholders, residents and supporters of the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust request the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the Honorable Jeanette Powell to STOP the control by the state government by removing the Administrator and handing control of our own affairs back to us. The interim committee will be reinstated to negotiate on our behalf to resolve this situation.

Contact: (E) latessa2006@yahoo.com

IFG_New Zealand_Protest

IFG_Protest_New Zealand
Mililani Trask, Indigenous Peoples' Caucus Pacific Basin Representative
Victor Menotti, The International Forum on Globalization
Andrew Erueti Maori Human Right & Maori Customary Law.
International Coalition of NGOs and Protest and The International Forum on Globalization Denounces Canada , New Zealand and Australia For "HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRISY" IN LEADING THE OPPOSITION UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous PeopleS .
(apoligies for the sound quality)

How the west was one ... but still got rolled in the United Nations on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The four rogue (failed settler) states...Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, United States of America President George W. Bush, Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clarke.

http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=12817

Show Support for U.N. Indigenous Rights Declaration

Les Malezer of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus addressing participants.


“According to the latest calculations, the Declaration just needs a handful of additional votes in the General Assembly. If it fails to win a majority, it may be years before the General Assembly will consider it again. It is imperative that the Declaration be approved in the next two weeks.” Blue Cloud

The Emergency Coalition of NGOs came together on Thursday, August 30th, to protest in support of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and against those countries who would try to block its adoption. The protest and subsequent march began at the Permanent Canadian Mission to the United Nations, followed by the Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the U.N. and ending in front of the Permanent Mission of Australia to the U.N. on a very busy 42nd Street in New York City.

The marchers and representatives of various NGOs were led by Les Malezer of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus and Claire Greensfelder of the International Forum on Globalization, along with others like Juanita Cabrera-Lopez of the Amazon Alliance who spoke through tears to onlookers in front of the Canadian Mission.

The goal was to send a message to the government of Canada, New Zealand and Australia, particularly Canada and New Zealand, whose long histories of supporting human rights has been well known. “With this in mind, we are stunned by the efforts of these governments, in particular, to derail and weaken one of the most important human rights documents to come before the United Nations since its founding in 1945 – The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People”, the Emergency Coalition of NGOs said in their press statement.

Their call to these nations to join the global NGO community and the majority of the global governmental community in support of the Declaration will never repair the unacceptable damage that has already been done to the Earth’s First Peoples, they said. But, at the very least, it will afford them the rights and future protections that will ensure that their essential governments, ways of life and relationships to the earth will endure on into the future generations.

The Declaration (if adopted) would provide moral and legal backing for several concepts seen as critical to the preservation of the collective rights of the world’s estimated 370 million Indigenous People who belong to 5,000 communities and nations, across 71 countries. These concepts include the rights to:

-Self-determination, autonomy and self-government
-Education in Indigenous languages
-Recognition of Indigenous laws, customs and traditions
-Ownership and control of Indigenous territories and natural resources.

The Declaration would also empower Indigenous Peoples to defend their ancestral lands, often home to some of the world’s most pristine eco-systems and rarest biodiversity, against the operations of the extractive industries, such as mining and gas drilling.

The Declaration is tentatively scheduled for a U.N. General Assembly vote on September 13th.

Elisa Burchett
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report

Please also see:

Draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples
http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.SUB.2.RES.1994.45.En

Amazon Alliance http://www.amazonalliance.org

Indigenous Peoples Caucus http://www.ipcaucus.net

International Forum on Globalization http://www.ifg.org

International Indian Treaty Council http://www.treatycouncil.org

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs – IWGIA
http://www.iwgia.org

Ogiek People http://www.ogiek.org

Western Shoshone Defense Project http://www.wsdp.org

The Return of the Whale Dreamers
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WhaleDreamers.php

International Demonstration Against Australia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 August 2007

Contact:
Claire Greensfelder
+1.510.917.5468


INTERNATIONAL COALITION OF NGOS CALLS FOR ADOPTION OF THE
UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

DENOUNCES CANADA, NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA
FOR "HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRISY" IN LEADING THE OPPOSITION
TO THE DECLARATION

PROTESTS AT THREE MISSIONS to the UN TO BE HELD ON
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30TH, 2007
PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY IN FRONT OF
CANADIAN MISSION TO THE UN
AT 12 NOON
1 - Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (885 2nd Avenue at 47th St)

TO BE FOLLOWED BY MARCH TO MISSIONS OF
NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA



New York, New York: In an urgent effort in support of the upcoming
vote (tentatively scheduled for September 13th) in the UN General
Assembly on United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, over two dozen national and international NGOs in the United
States and Canada have come to New York City to announce their support
for Indigenous peoples rights and to protest the opposition to the
Declaration being led by the governments of Canada, New Zealand and
Australia.

Jerry Mander, Founder and Co-Director of the International Forum on
Globalization (IFG) of San Francisco, the convening organization and
secretariat of The Emergency Coalition of NGOs in Support of the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said:

"We are appalled by this action of human rights hypocrisy-especially
coming from the governments of Canada and New Zealand, countries that
are traditionally considered global leaders for human rights." Mander
continued, "We call upon them to immediately stop their unprincipled
campaign against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples."

Among the signers to the statement of the Emergency Coalition are some
of the world's largest human rights, development, environmental and
indigenous rights organizations including Oxfam America and Oxfam
Australia, Friends of the Earth-US, Transafrica Forum, Survival
International, the Sierra Club, Earth Rights International, Rainforest
Action Network, International Rivers Network, Amazon Watch and the
International Funders of Indigenous Peoples (complete list attached).

Amnesty International - Canada has been waging its own energetic
campaign in support of the Declaration and will participate in the
press conference and protest in front of the Canadian Mission to the UN
on Thursday August 30th. Amnesty Canada's international petition for
the Declaration has been signed by 22,382 individuals from around the
world, and states:

"Either the international community will move ahead with final
adoption [of the Declaration] as has been urged by Indigenous peoples
and their supporters worldwide, or adoption of the Declaration will
once again be delayed due to the demands of a small, yet vocal group of
states."

In an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, released
on August 9th, the UN International Day of Indigenous Peoples, seven
major Canadian non-governmental and First Nations' organizations,
declared the Harper government's "efforts to block the adoption [of the
Declaration] as a clear reversal of Canadian policy."

The letter continued: "We are outraged that this reversal of policy
was undertaken without meaningful consultation with Indigenous Peoples,
despite a clear requirement under Canadian law" [to do so].

"Canada's Prime Minister Harper is risking not only his country's
long-fought legacy as a human rights champion but also the future of
the new UN human rights body that his country helped establish. Now
more than ever, the world needs a strong Canada to stand up for
indigenous rights," said Victor Menotti, IFG program director.

After 22 years of negotiations, the UN Declaration was adopted by the
UN Human Rights Council during its inaugural session in June 2006, and
recommended to the UN General Assembly for final passage. If the UN
General Assembly fails to adopt the Declaration, it will represent a
failure of the authority of the newly formed Human Rights Council and
marks an uncertain start of this new body.

"The Emergency Coalition of NGOs in Support of the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is standing with Indigenous nations
around the world," said Rainy Blue Cloud, IFG's Emergency Coalition
Campaigner, "we absolutely support their demand that all governments
vote in favor of the Declaration and we call on Canada, New Zealand and
Australia, in particular, to cease their efforts to derail the process
and to step up to their duty to protect the human rights of all
peoples."

The Declaration represents a significant recognition of the rights and
fundamental freedoms of hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples
around the world who suffer from human rights abuses such as forced
relocation, seizure and exploitation of lands and resources and an
adverse amount of poverty and discrimination. Indigenous languages,
cultures and ways of life continue to be threatened without
international legal protections.

The Declaration would provide moral and legal backing for several
concepts seen as critical to the preservation of the collective rights
of the world's estimated 370 million indigenous peoples, who belong to
5,000 groups spread out across 71 countries. These concepts include the
rights to:

o Self-determination, autonomy and self government
o Education in indigenous languages
o Recognition of indigenous laws, customs and traditions
o Ownership and control of indigenous territories and natural
resources

The Declaration would also empower indigenous peoples to defend their
ancestral lands, often home to some of the world's most pristine
ecosystems and rarest biodiversity, against the operations of the
extractive industries such as mining and oil and gas drilling.

Claire Greensfelder, IFG's Communications Director stated: "According
to the latest calculations, the Declaration just needs a handful of
additional votes in the General Assembly. If it fails to win a
majority, it may be years before the General Assembly will consider it
again. It is imperative that the Declaration be approved in the next
two weeks."


* * *



SCHEDULE OF PROTEST / PRESS EVENTS
THURSDAY 30 AUGUST 2007
NEW YORK CITY

12:00 noon Rally & Press Conference
Outside the Permanent Canadian Mission to the United Nations
1 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza - 885 2nd Avenue at 47th Street

Statements by Canadians and other International NGO's
Delivery of letter from the Emergency Coalition to the Canadian
Ambassador

12:45 PM March to The Permanent Mission of New Zealand

1:00 PM Rally & press statements
Outside of the Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the UN
One UN Plaza at 44th Street

Statements by Pacific Islander representatives and Intl NGO's
Delivery of Emergency Coalition letter to New Zealand's Ambassador

1:30 PM March to the Australian Mission to the UN

1:45 PM Rally & Press Statements
Outside the Permanent Mission of Australia to the UN
150 East 42nd Street (between Lexington & 3rd)

Statements by Australian and International NGO's
Delivery of Emergency Coalition letter to Australia's Ambassador

2:30 PM end of action



* * *




Emergency NGO Coalition in Support of the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples


Emergency Coalition Secretariat:
The International Forum on Globalization

Emergency Coalition Partners:
ACODE-Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, Uganda
Africa International Foundation - USA, Kenya, Ghana, East Africa
Chapters
Amazon Alliance
Amazon Watch, USA
Arid Lands, Institute, Kenya
Cultural Survival
Earth Rights International
Flying Eagle Woman Fund, USA
Four Freedoms Foundation, USA
Friends of the Earth, USA
Global Exchange
Hawai'i Institute for Human Rights, USA
INOCHI/Plutonium Free Future, USA/Japan
Indigenous Environmental Network, USA
International Funders of Indigenous Peoples
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
International Rivers Network
Missionary Oblates, Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Ministry,
USA/Italy
Oceania Human Rights, USA
Oil Change International

Oxfam America
Oxfam Australia
Rainforest Action Network
Rigoberta Menchu Fund
Sierra Club, USA
Solidarity Foundation, USA
Survival International
Transafrica Forum, USA
United Nations Association - USA, East Bay Chapter, California
(partial list-still in formation)





-- END --

West Papua Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples

The source of the human rights problems in West Papua is the colonisation and subsequent dispossession of the lands and resources of the ... all » indigenous peoples. They have been prevented from exercising their fundamental freedoms, including their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.

A frequent and pervasive cause of dispute has been over land rights. The appropriation of tribal or clan land for development projects, from forestry, mining or road construction to Transmigration settlements, has resulted in large numbers of indigenous people being removed from their traditional land, invariably leading to conflict with the armed forces as well as physical and emotional harm for the people affected. Since the takeover of West Papua by Indonesia in 1963, violations of human rights have been widespread.

Many of the violations have occurred in the context of on-going conflict between the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or Free Papua Movement) and the Indonesian forces.

http://ngoblog.org/Home.html

TRADITIONAL OWNERS PROTEST ACT OF DISPOSSESSION

Aboriginal elders and community members will protest against
the new Aboriginal Heritage Act at this year’s May Day March

Sunday 6 May 2pm Trades Hall

Victoria's new Aboriginal Heritage Act is just another act of dispossession, says Wurundjeri elder and traditional owner, Annette Xiberras.

Indigenous Victorians are furious about new State government laws that will restrict Traditional Owners from exercising their rights over land under the Aboriginal Heritage Act.

"Victoria's new Aboriginal Heritage Act is supposed to protect Aboriginal rights. What a joke. As a Wurundjeri elder, entitled to speak for the land around Melbourne, I won't have the same rights that I have to do that any more under the new laws," said Ms Xiberras.

Under the current legislation, the Wurundjeri people have the right to say yes or no to the disturbance of their cultural places. This right is being taken away under the new Act as developers will be able to challenge an Aboriginal organisation’s decision in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

"Our people suffered some of the most severe and intense genocide in this country. Not a single Aboriginal person in Victoria today has been brought up in the traditional way, knowing their traditional language and having access to their sacred lands. That's because of invasion, agriculture, gold mining -- our people were taken from our lands and brought up in missions, our children were stolen and lied to about their heritage.

"Despite that, our elders have managed to hold onto significant, living traditions. Wurundjeri people know who they are, Yota Yota people know who they are, Gournditchmara people know who they are. It seems the only people who don't know that are the State Government..

A major concern to traditional owners across the state is the ability of Aboriginal people with non-traditional connections to country successfully obtaining Registered Aboriginal party status under the new Act:

"What is the point of being a Traditional Owner with native title rights if there's no way to exercise those rights? If the State Government really supports Aboriginal rights why did they fight the Yota Yota people in a court case that told those people they'd been washed away by history?

Ms Xiberras has also slammed the Government for not consulting with Aboriginal people, industry and local government over the new Act:

“The Government has not asked Victorian Aboriginal people what they want from the Act. Instead they have given us information sessions telling us what they are going to do and then calling that consultation.

She said that the Act is not realistic and that industry, farmers and small landowners will suffer under the unnecessary red tape and complex assessment processes.
"Even small battlers in the bush who want to put a new shed up will have to pay for an official cultural heritage assessment, which will cost them around $6,000 every time.

"The problem is not farmers and small landowners. The problem is that the Act does nothing to redress the real injustices for Victorian Aboriginal people.

"Bracks needs a rocket up him to take note of Aboriginal issues, and that is exactly what he's going to get on May Day and ongoing. The Victorian government is on notice to respect the rights of traditional owners, as our protest will tell him."

Annette Xiberras, Wurundjeri elder, is available for comment or interviews about this issue by calling 0410 44 04 64.

Privatisation of Water

Tena koutou katoa

Before we consider this issue....... lets put it into the wider context
of government policy

At Waitangi this year Dr David Williams professor of Law, Spoke at the
"State of the Pakeha Nation" forum at Te Tii Marae on Waitangi Day

As part of his address he presented his "scorecard" on recent
developments as follows:

"The quiet implementation by the Labour-led government of many of the
ideas featured in Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa ‘Nationhood’ speech continues
apace.

National may still be in opposition, and Dr Brash may no longer be its
leader, but many planks of the ‘Nationhood’ speech - for which it now
seems (courtesy of Nicky Hager) some of the “credit” must go to Michael
Bassett - are being implemented by the current ‘centre-left government.

On ‘nationhood’ issues it is mighty hard to distinguish ‘centre-left’
from Brash’s ‘mainstream’. The ‘iwi’ has indeed been taken out of the
‘kiwi’ as National campaign hoardings urged in 2005. For example:

Following the passage of the Mäori Purposes Bill late last year, the
law now requires that all historic Treaty claims must be lodged by 1st
September 2008 and that no further such claims will be able to be made
after that.

The government argued that this will provide “certainty” for Mäori, the
Tribunal and the general public. It said nothing about “justice” or
“truth and reconciliation.” As Räwiri Taonui put it: “Justice is
righting wrongs, however long that takes” but in Parliament only the
Mäori Party and the Green Party voted against that Bill.

The new draft curriculum for schools has proposed the elimination of
Treaty issues from the education of young New Zealanders. For 13 years
Treaty issues have been part of the curriculum – not well taught
necessarily, but a necessary part of the curriculum for all our future
citizens.

When many questions began to be asked about this, the government’s
response was that there would be Treaty content in a new Mäori studies
curriculum yet to be developed. The notion that the Treaty is the basis
of the constitution of the nation that is important for all NZers is
thus rejected – the Treaty is marginalized as a Mäori issue only, and
one that is not relevant for ‘mainstream’ education.

The budget in May 2006 saw the axing of 7 Mäori development funding
programmes specifically aimed at whänau, hapü and iwi. These programmes
of capacity building, local level solutions and whänau development came
from that ‘distant’ past of 2000 [Closing the gaps] and 2001 [Reducing
social inequalities] when Mäori were funded to develop and implement
their own development priorities. Such self-determination is no longer
on the agenda.

Any Treaty-based relationships developed in the past are now
re-interpreted as needs-based arrangements to attend to socio-economic
disadvantage suffered by citizens who just happen to be Mäori.

Proposals for constitutional change reflecting the legal status of the
Treaty have been put on a permanent back-burner. Thoughtful comments on
this issue came from Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous
People, in March 2006.

One of his recommendations read: “The Treaty of Waitangi should be
entrenched constitutionally in a form that respects the pluralism of
New Zealand society, creating positive recognition and meaningful
provision for Mäori as a distinct people.” His report was peremptorily
dismissed by the Prime Minister as “unbalanced”. In August Dr Cullen as
Attorney-General complained that “critics (such as the United Nations)
do not understand the importance New Zealanders as a whole attach to
Parliamentary sovereignty.” In other words, Parliament should always be
free to trample on the fundamental rights of tangata whenua and of any
minority.
We do not believe in ‘fundamental rights’ in this country – we just
trust our politicians to do what is ”for the best”, which now seems to
mean what focus groups tell them will help them to be re-elected.

The NZ government position in the United Nations is that the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is ‘fundamentally
flawed’ and is the product of ‘a deeply unsatisfactory process’. What
was ‘deeply unsatisfactory’ in the process from 1982, and the promotion
of the Draft Declaration from 1993 till now, is that delegations of
indigenous peoples contributed directly to the drafting of a
declaration about their own rights, rather than leaving it to the
nation states like New Zealand, USA, and Russia who know best on these
matters as to what sort of ‘self-determination’ indigenous peoples are
to be allowed.

New Treaty-based relationships between Crown and Mäori have ceased,
except in the fraught context of the settlement of historic Treaty
claims. Even there, it is the mandating and ratification policies
developed by the Crown in relation to its own definitions of ‘large
natural groupings’ that determine the format of the Treaty
relationship.

Desperate to make progress in bringing all this Treaty-claims stuff to
an end as soon as possible, rather than to take the time to deal with
all claimants fairly, the government has come up with some short cuts.
The lakes deal with Te Arawa saw the innovation of the ‘Crown-owned
stratum’ in the water above the allegedly ‘returned’ lakebed lands.
Then, rather than work with the entire ‘large natural grouping’ as one
might have thought its own policy required, the government engaged in
picking and choosing between hapü and rangatira who were prepared to
sign off a ‘Te Arawa settlement’ for land grievances and those who did
not. Amazingly, the Crown negotiators were willing to exclude Ngäti
Whakaue and many other hapü of Te Arawa. To implement this deal, the
government will legislate to allow it to over-ride the Crown forest
assets statutory regime in a scenario that will enable the government
to ‘steal from Peter to pay Paul’. So FoMA and the NZMC are back in
court yet again to defend their 1989 forest assets deal against what
they see as Crown depredations. “We are critical of the Crown,” said
FoMA “acting as Judge, Jury and determining themselves as a confirmed
beneficiary to receive $63 million in CFRT funds.”

Treaty clauses no longer appear in government Bills. Moreover,
Government members voted for the first reading of the NZ First Party’s
‘Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill’. This has caused
some of us some heart-searching about whether we ought to come to the
defence of the ‘principles of the Treaty’ because we know that the
underlying approach of NZ First (despite their rhetoric) is to bury the
Treaty entirely as of no relevance to modern New Zealand. Many of us
have spent some years arguing for the paramountcy of Te Tiriti o
Waitangi over the English text, and we have expressed grave misgivings
about many of the modern inventions known as ‘principles of the Treaty’
in which te Tiriti o Waitangi itself is utterly invisible.

On balance, though, I believe that the ‘principles of the Treaty’
clauses in many laws have been positive factors in keeping Treaty
issues to the forefront of decision-making processes. Their deletion
would only increase the pace of implementing the ‘Nationhood’ programme
of Drs Brash & Bassett."

Thank you David Williams......

So.... at a domestic and international level the process of erosion of
the status of Te Tiriti and of Maori people continues unabated.

The State control and then eventual privatisation of Water is the
latest front in the ongoing battle to protect Maori rights

The insidious and relatively silent nature of these policies aims to
implement these injustices in a way that minimises Maori understandings
of the governments programmes and therefore hopefully reduces the
inclination and ability of Maori to organise against these modern day
treaty breaches.

PREPARE TO DEFEND YOURSELVES AND YOU RIGHTS

NEXT TIME WE MARCH TO WELLINGTON, WE"RE NOT LEAVING UNTIL WE RECEIVE
ASSURANCES THAT THE RACIST POLICIES OF GOVERNMENT WILL BE ABANDONED AND
MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE BETWEEN MAORI AND THE STATE ARE AGREED UPON.


Mike Smith