A column published in the Northland Age
By Hone Harawira
MP for Tai Tokerau
22 June 2010

To comment on this column please go to my website www.hone.co.nz

Last week the PM announced the Foreshore and Seabed deal, and what I said last week was pretty much on the button. I won’t rehash it here (go to the website and check it out for yourself).

And as I predicted, the reaction has come from right across the spectrum as well. We’ve had a bunch of emails from people who are stoked that the Act has been repealed, but at the other end of the line, my bro’ turned up at parliament the other day - slaggin’ off the deal, the Maori Party for signing it, and me for not walkin’ out over it!

Now, I can roll with criticism, but the bro turning up really made me stop and think hard about what I was doing (not something MPs are comfortable doing at any time).

So I had a closer look at the deal, I talked it over with my electorate committee, and I spoke to a few people I’m close to, and what they’re telling me is that ‘our rights to the foreshore and seabed are determined by our status as tangata whenua; those rights are guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and by the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and the Maori Party must take every step to ensure those rights are formally recognised in legislation’.

So I’m gonna bounce a few of these ideas off some of the more hard-line kaupapa types, then I’m gonna draft a pamphlet outlining my views, and then I’m goin’ out on the road again to get the views of the people I represent.

Then I’ll bottle what I’ve heard and take it back to see whether what I’ve been hearing fits with the caucus view. Hopefully we’ll all be on the same page.

By the time you read this, Tai Tokerau will have chosen 5 kapahaka groups from the Regionals at Whangarei, to go through to Te Matatini, the 2011 National Maori Kapa Haka Championships being held down Gisborne. Now I shouldn’t be trying to second-guess who’s gonna get through, but, what the heck – I reckon 3 of the groups will be Hatea, Te Puu Ao and Muriwhenua. But the really great thing about the weekend was that more than 15 groups took to the stage. I can remember not so long ago when we only had three groups. Kapahaka is making a comeback.

Big ups to Bronson Murray and the rest of the Maori All Blacks! An awesome free-running game in Whangarei and a last minute win over an equally free-running Barbarians side. And another close win on Friday – this one a three tries to one win over Ireland down in Rotorua. Roll on England and KIA KAHA MAORI!!

Ends

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