• Iwi protesters occupy for-sale Crafar farm

  Te Karere Ipurangi 20 Feb 2012 | 1:05 pm

  King Country Maori have occupied a former Crafar farm earmarked for possible sale to Chinese investors. Seven occupiers moved onto a property 22km east of Benneydale late yesterday afternoon. Rereahu iwi spokesman Edward Moana-Emery said the occupation was a “last-ditch effort” to stop the sale of two Crafar farms they say are ancestral land. Mr Moana-Emery said the properties on State Highway 30, totalling about 1900 hectares, were part of the iwi’s Treaty of Waitangi settlement negotiations. He expected occupiers’ ranks to swell when news of their occupation spread. “Our land was stolen from us in 1886 and we’ve been fighting for 126 years to get the land back. I hope this occupation will be over fast but if it...

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• Anger at Holmes’ Waitangi remarks

  Te Karere Ipurangi 18 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pm

  Broadcaster Paul Holmes’ role as presenter of TVNZ’s Q&A Sunday morning current affairs show is being questioned after a “racially offensive” column he wrote about Waitangi Day. AUT indigenous studies adjunct professor Dr Rawiri Taonui has joined Mana Party leader Hone Harawira and broadcaster Willie Jackson in questioning Holmes’ suitability for the role. “It’s a sad day when a great writer repeats the prejudices of the past, but Holmes’ offer on Waitangi Day is a fall from grace,” Taonui said. Taonui, a regular Sunday Star-Times columnist, said Holmes was an intelligent writer, but said his article in the Weekend Herald, contained a “staggering number of half-truths and stereotypes”. “In a tirade he depicted Maori as ghastly, smug, politically neurotic, uneducated,...

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• Tuhoe envoys plan Scotland trip

  Te Karere Ipurangi 17 Feb 2012 | 1:29 pm

  Treaty negotiators for Tuhoe who are pushing the Crown for “maximum autonomy” are planning a trip to Scotland as its Government considers independence. Britain is having the conversation now despite more than 300 years of political union because the Scottish National Party won last year’s election. Independence is a central tenet of the SNP’s ideology but until it came to power it had no mandate to push the issue. Last year Tuhoe and the New Zealand Government reopened negotiations which stalled when the Prime Minister took ownership of the Te Urewera National Park off the table in 2010. It was a defining plank in negotiations, as is “mana motuhake” or autonomy. Tuhoe’s Tamati Kruger said maximum autonomy was a long-term...

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• Urewera 4 Trial – Day 5: End of the 1st Week

  Te Karere Ipurangi 17 Feb 2012 | 4:28 am

  The trial of the four remaining people arrested as a result of Operation 8 will continue with a jury of only 11 after one juror was discharged due to a family tragedy. Today saw several CIB detectives give evidence about their gathering of evidence. The first was Adam Eltham, the officer in overall charge of the exhibits. He said that he had was responsible not just for recording the exhibits but also for tracking exhibits as they left his custody to be examined, for example, by ESR. Eltham said that he recorded all details of the exhibits and when and where they went. Prosecutor Ross Burns read through a series of texts from Tame Iti to a range of people...

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• Call for waterfront Maori cultural venue

  Te Karere Ipurangi 17 Feb 2012 | 4:27 am

  There’s a call for a permanent Maori cultural venue on Auckland’s waterfront. During ten days of the Rugby World Cup, 397,000 people went through the waka and artisan village at the viaduct. Ngati Whatua o Orakei says that’s 10,000 more than went through the giant rugby ball over four years. The iwi says the fact international and local people visited Waka Maori in large numbers shows both tourists and Aucklanders are interested in Maori culture. Maori Trust Board chairman Grant Hawke says it’s time for the Auckland Council and the Government to support the establishment of a Maori and Polynesian cultural centre on the waterfront.

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