Ae Marika!
A column published in the Northland Age
By Hone Harawira
MP for Tai Tokerau
30 November 2010

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

Last week the Maori Affairs Select Committee finally began hearing submissions into the Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutaimoana) Bill, and from all accounts the hearings have been a real doozy.

On one side you got the same crowd that ran Don Brash's racist campaign back in 2004, running the same racist campaign against this Bill in 2010, to the delight of the redneck Act-ors Inequity and the growing trepidation of the Nats. They reckon the Bill will give the beaches to Maori. And on the other side you got Maoris condemning the bill for not restoring Maori title!

Both sides are against the bill but for completely opposite reasons .. so who's right? Well, here's a couple of tips.

The Minister of Treaty Negotiations has already stated that to win title to the foreshore and seabed, Maori will have to show that they held "exclusive use and occupation of the area since 1840, without substantial interruption, and that the area in question was held in accordance with tikanga". And the Prime Minister himself also said that the test is so high that most Maori will not be able to meet it.

-----oo0oo-----

The White Ribbon has come to symbolise opposition to violence against women, and last week I got to go to a special Breakfast held for a couple of hundred guys in Wellington - politicians, police, social workers, judges, lawyers, sportsmen and a few general layabouts like me.

Pita Sharples laid down some very grim stats for us all to consider, some of the others told stories from families of daughters and sisters and mothers killed by their men, Mark Solomon talked about banning men from their iwi for mistreating their women, and Ruben Wiki reminded us all that it doesn't matter how hard we might think we are, or how strong and powerful we might be on the field or in the boardroom, none of that matters when you're just a little boy watching your mum get the bash ... very, very powerful stuff.

Oh yeah - there was also a group of 4 young men from Taita College who entertained us with some pretty awesome barbershop quartet tunes - which reminds me that while it's great to see our young men be so good at the haka, I think it'd also be great to see them singing a few sweet harmonies as well. I already know they can sing, but they tend to do most of it from a few rows back in the kapahaka group. Be nice to see them up the front too sometimes.

-----oo0oo-----

Heoi ano, hei whakakapi i taku korero mo tenei wiki, me poroporoakï atu ki te nga kaikeri o te Tai Poutini i mate atu ki roto i a Papatuanuku i tera wiki. Tangi ana te motu ki te rua tekau ma iwa i mate i te pahü nui kei roto i te maina, i hinga mai i roto i te köpü o te whenua.

No reira e nga mate, haere. Haere, hoki atu ki te okioki, hoki atu ki o tupuna, haere atu ki te ao wairua. Waihotia mätou te kanohi ora kia tangi tahi nei ki nga whanau e noho mokemoke ana i Te Waipounamu.

Koutou ra e nga whanau pani, e tika ana kia möhio, hakoa tawhiti atu, kotahi anake te whakaaro o te motu, tera kia hikitia te taimahatanga kei runga i a koutou i tenei wa. No reira, kia kaha, kia mäia, kia manawanui.

Ends

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