Annette Sykes

This week in the realm of Maori Politics has been extraordinary. While the Crown boxes on with Sky City Deals that give Ngati Whatua lands(which prices have escalated two fold since the backroom deal was negotiated) upon which gambling dens are to function to the benefit of third party corporate entities Maori are being confronted with the reality of the tyranny of the majority in the context of seeking direct representation in their own right in local government in Taranaki and Te Tai Tokerau and the denial of the need for Maori to consent to the questions of who should represent them in Treaty Settlement contexts. If we look at the forced Terms of Negotiation signing sprung on Nga Puhi by Minister Findlayson we see clearly his behaviours mirror all the best of the earlier violence of colonial administrations that kept imposing what they said would be good for Maori while all the while pressing on with colonial agendas which seized assets land and taonga for the benefit of the free trade marauders and third party immigrants who made enormous profits at the expense of the true owners and guardians of those matters. Maori are reminded in all the benevolence of the silent assassin Key that settlements after all are all good for Maori because of course Ngai Tahu and Tainui have accomplished so much in the past twenty years of their efforts. But has the Maori World really benefitted from this fixation with corporatism that the ILG and others proclaim is the panacea to all of our ills.

What is even more disconcerting is the decontextualisation of these discussions from the reality on the ground. The past 20 years has not been good for ALL Maori. Nor I suggest has it been for ALL Ngai Tahu and Tainui. To their credit the leaders of Ngai Tahu Mark Solomon and Tainui Kingi Tuheitia have never suggested otherwise either. If we are to confine success measures merely to bottom line acheivements in investment strategies in corporate development then we are blind to the reality of child poverty; homelessness; the increased reality of youth unemployment; the rising levels of poverty generally and consequent increase in social disease as epitomised in suicide rates in domestic violence and in the mass dislocation whanau face moving from rural communities to even more isolated Australian mining realities as immigrants without the same rights as Australian citizens.

I watched from afar the rise of Te Arawa yesterday to challenge in their own way the tyranny of this discourse when they rallied their communities hit the streets, waited impatiently for a vote that delivered at least the recognition of the right of independent representation for Maori in local government affairs but by any measure the model that was agreed to is a far cry from the expectations first articulated in the Fentons Agreement and guaranteed in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. But it is a beginning.

Two seats to be selected from 14 representatives to be drawn from Te Arawa and its stakeholder communities is hardly the equivalent to an equal right of representation in the territories of the peoples of Te Arawa that they have occupied since time immemorial. But yes it is a beginning and as Mayor Chadwick and Bishop Kingi both were quick to point out this is but a beginning to the development of Maori wards locally as was contemplated in the Fentons Agreement and Te Tiriti o Waitangi visions of coexistence upon which Rotorua was built.

I wonder too is there to be an investment so that Te Arawa near and far can participate democratically in the selection of whom these representatives are to be. My heart is hoping that those that participated in developing the compromise that passed yesterday are also now developing appropriate mechanisms of support to enable voting via the internet for Te Arawa representatives who will fill the vacancies of the promised two seats. It would be such a shame if the fight that was lead by an emerging youthful vanguard of Te Arawa leaders will be denied the right of representation that their leadership on this issue so clearly achieved. There are too many to mention but they know who they are and I have publicly acknowledged their valliant efforts for Te Arawa in the past few months. This is a time for Te Arawa to congratulate itself but not a time to sit back and bask in the euphoria of what is still less than an ideal outcome. Select our representatives but use the next three years to guarantee Maori wards for Te Arawa peoples as our ancestors contemplated and negotiated in the earliest beginnings of the modern Aotearoa New Zealand state.

Remember too that their are other forces afoot as we fight for this right of representation. Our resources beneath Tarawera Maunga are being licensed off to prospecting companies and granting right of investigation without landowners consent. Water rights are being negotiated and granted to third party corporates with no benefits to those that own it and of course Crown leaders are smiling all the while telling us that this is all good for us…. Yeah right