'Reconciliation' a Great Way to Start the Parliamentary Year says Maori Party;

Dr Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia; Co-leaders of the Maori Party Tuesday 13 February 2007

Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party, today gave credit to the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Helen Clark, for signalling commitment to the process of reconciliation.

"I was heartened to see the line, "reconciliation at home between Maori and Crown matters too" in the Prime Minister's Statement", said Mrs Turia.

"Reconciliation is a very important concept to Indigenous Peoples, with many First Nations People across the globe, leading and participating in movements of reconciliation" said Mrs Turia.

"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, has established an international precedent in the way in which it has encouraged the potential for forgiveness by those who suffered most under apartheid" said Mrs Turia.

"The Truth telling, or as they say in Australia, the 'sorry business', is an ongoing process which acknowledges the insidious and wide-ranging impacts of colonisation" said Mrs Turia.

Dr Pita Sharples also shared his thoughts on the process of reconciliation. "In the year 2000, more than one million Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Melbourne Bridge and other bridges across Australia as part of the People's Movement for Reconciliation" said Dr Sharples.

"Reconciliation can be a first-step, a foundation, for movement towards social justice - and indeed in the case of Aotearoa, towards Treaty justice. It has the ability to restore a sense of pride and strength in people who are frequently represented in every level of disadvantage" said Dr Sharples.

"What the Prime Minister's address failed to do, of course, was to provide any detail of the ongoing disadvantage that we know to be the lived reality for so many Maori in this land" said Dr Sharples.

"We must be bold and brave enough to face this situation, and to all work together to ensure positive outcomes can be a real possibility for all New Zealanders" said Mrs Turia. "But we, the Maori Party, are optimistic, that her support for reconciliation and the process of flag-flying and bridge-building, is a very significant step forward" ended Mrs Turia.

Background: In Australia there has been a formal national process of reconciliation, which was started in 1991. The Council for National Reconciliation Act was passed to promote a deeper understanding by all Australians of the history, cultures, past dispossession and continuing disadvantage of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. An independent entity, Reconciliation Australia, has been established as part of this process.

NB: Mrs Turia will be speaking in the Prime Minister's Debate today, Tuesday 13 February, at approximately 3.45pm.

ENDS

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