{"id":9867,"date":"2017-02-06T16:22:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T03:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=9867"},"modified":"2017-02-06T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T03:22:13","slug":"te-tii-marae-a-personal-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=9867","title":{"rendered":"Te Tii Marae – A Personal Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We should all be concerned that the raruraru over our national day gets worse every year. \u00a0As a Maori I share that concern even though I’m from another rohe.<\/p>\n

The most sensible thing I heard during this year’s media circus at the Lower Marae was Gareth Morgan: \u00a0“It’s their marae so they can do what they like. \u00a0We need to find a way to work together and we’re not there yet.”<\/p>\n

That’s exactly what Te Tiriti is all about, so what’s gone wrong?<\/p>\n

I believe our media and politicians cause a lot of it. \u00a0Both seem to think it’s their event, and they only pay lip service to tikanga.<\/p>\n

The politicians see it as a place to gain personal advantage, almost as of right. \u00a0Bill English spat the dummy because he wasn’t allowed to talk politics during the powhiri. \u00a0Andrew Little used it as an occasion to launch Willie Jackson as Labour’s new star performer. \u00a0Winston Peters walked away because he couldn’t choose his own background for a media interview. \u00a0Shane Jones got in on the act because he’ll get more media attention there than anywhere else.<\/p>\n

The politicians say it’s a national occasion so tikanga should take second place to what they want. \u00a0The media say it’s a national occasion so they shouldn’t have to pay to film it, forgetting that the national occasion comes afterwards at the nearby Treaty Grounds and they pay filming rights for many other events. \u00a0Furthermore media crews are growing much bigger and the space they take up on a small marae is becoming a problem.<\/p>\n

We all see tikanga a bit differently, but I agree with Gareth. \u00a0Te Tii marae is not a public place. \u00a0No marae can ever be, in the sense that visitors can do whatever they please. \u00a0Not unlike a church, and for similar reasons – marae are the spiritual home of hapu and a place they share with their tupuna. \u00a0Of course all are welcome but exactly like guests in a private home or people at smoke-free events, manuhiri must respect the tikanga of the place where they are.<\/p>\n

It’s not fair to blame the marae trustees, who are in a difficult position and can’t solve it on their own. \u00a0This is a historic place where tikanga is everything, yet once a year it gets challenged by politicians, media and angry protesters who see it as secondary to their kaupapa. \u00a0Bill English would never attend his local church and demand political speaking rights during prayers because he’s the PM, but that analogy is lost on people who don’t understand tikanga.<\/p>\n

I’ll leave the last word to TV journalist Keith Slater on RNZ: \u00a0“It’s not about the Prime Minister. \u00a0It’s about Te Tiriti.” Not forgetting Gareth Morgan: \u00a0“We’re not there yet.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We should all be concerned that the raruraru over our national day gets worse every year. \u00a0As a Maori I share that concern even though I’m from another rohe. The most sensible thing I heard during this year’s media circus at the Lower Marae was Gareth Morgan: \u00a0“It’s their marae so they can do what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9867"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9872,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions\/9872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}