Government position on Maori language support: missionary, 69, or doggie?

Love this from a spokesperson for Dr Sharples (okay, the article refers to 'spokesman', so we assume it is a tane...) reminded us all (Maori and Pakeha) what Standard Operating Procedure is for the State, namely the co-ordination of, quote, "an overarching Government response. " Endquote.

Exactly.

It wasn't always so, bro.

No, our ancestors once were bourgeoisie, that is owners of capital, proud of it, and as holistic as we needed to be.

Now, with rangatahi unemployment still running at about 30% (twice what it was in the midst of the neoliberal reforms of the early 90s), support services stretched to breaking point in Otautahi and around the motu, the opposition parties unable to reach a consensus on what to do (the paucity of the left in Aotearoa/NZ is quite remarkable, given what we once were, Maori and Pakeha), we go into yet another winter of discontent.

Love how The Man finds new ways to fuck us over, like an endlessly creative lover ;)

If I have one hope its that such crap brings us one day closer to the revolution.

[Footnote ... The picture is a reproduction poster for the movie "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," starring Milena Vukotic, Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Bulle Ogier, and Michel Piccoli. Check this collection of essays, edited by Marsha Kinder]

Maori slavers?

Several years ago, Maori (rightly) proclaimed a report from the UN Rapporteur on Racism about the perfidious Pakeha.

Now we have to face the music on our own complicity in slave labour with the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking fingering Maori fishing quota as using slave labour in the joint venture fishing industry who are vulnerable to sinkings, drownings, industrial accidents, reports of violence and abuse, health and safety violations, ship jumpings, appalling work conditions and failures to honour employment and wage agreements.

Labour MP Shane Jones (a former chair of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission), thinks some iwi are working through shady agents.

“I don’t think anyone, when we conceived and executed the Sealord fisheries settlement, ever imagined that Maori quota would be swooped upon and used by unscrupulous agents as a basis for enriching themselves but treating Ukranians and Asians as a form of slave labour and unless the iwi quota owners can hop on top of their days of flicking the quota on for a quick buck may be very well coming to an end.”

With relevant National Ministers (Kate Wilkinson, Minister of Labour, and Phil Heatley, Minister of Fisheries) denying any issues, it is a challenge to Maori leaders to accept there's an issue and act to remedy it as a matter of priority for the industry.

Te Pae Tawhiti

Kia ora mai.

I've been waiting and wondering what tone to strike, given the disastrous earthquake that has 'munted' (Kiwi speak for fucked) many parts of the city of Christchurch, where I have been domiciled for too long. But since the even more disastrous Japanese event, I realise I just plug on, turn up to work, write my wee papers and postings, and whistle a merry tune.

Anyways...last night I attended the launch of Nga Pae o te Maramatanga's Maori Economic Development research funding, won by Te Wananga o Awanuiarangi and Ngati Awa. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Shaun Awatere, an economist working for Manaaki Whenua/LandCare Research Ltd. Many sly glances we exchanged...

l-r Maui 'Pretty Boy' Hudson, Jamie 'Pukana' Ataria, Marino 'Book it up' Tahi, Shaun 'Lenin' Awatere.

The 'elephant in the room', pointed out over cocktails in The Library was that 'we're moving beyond the redistribution of wealth'...Hmmm, how would we be moving past that then? Not by some of us being much richer than others!

Aw, the Maori class-system may well have had its most public airing since Ranginui was a Marxist.

Enjoyed a morning with Josie McClutchie and Paul Whitinui, with Josie photgraphing Paul and I for the upcoming Nga Pae report. Unlucky for me, as Paul is better looking, better published, and better connected.

Paul Whitinui hiding beyond large wooden sea-going craft.

I was then interviewed by Chelsea Grootveld for her doctoral research, very interesting and for me quite an emotional interview. A lots been happening lately, and Chelsea's topic (aspects of the Maori middle-class, particularly education) brought out a lot of stories from my past and some concerns for the present and future.

And, being Irish, we met up in The Green Man before flying out. I took a couple of quiet pints of Murphy's stout and a double Bushmills Black on the rocks. Delightful.

Tina and Josie, The Green Man

Back to the job...

Ngai Tahu go into dairying

Ngai Tahu have now formally announced their commitment to dairying, a policy I reported several months ago when privy to a presentation by a Ngai Tahu development person in a meeting in Wellington.

The intent is to develop three dairy farms, the three pilot farms will cover 300 ha. with 700 kau’s near the Eyrewell Forest, North Canterbury - actually, not near but in, as the trees have been cut down, and should be operating by 2013. If successful, this would open a further 6,000 and 9,000 ha of Ngai Tahu-owned forest at Balmoral for dairy expansion. The iwi-corporation can draw on 4 cubic metres/second of Waimakariri water for their agribusiness venture in this district.

Ngai Tahu have pledged to sustainable dairying, working in collaboration with Lincoln University who will provide technologies to measure leachates from the farms. While sustainable dairying is an unobtainable Utopia to many ecologists (and many tribal members are not supportive of this venture), it certainly provides a fascinating case study of the development and diffusion of new agricultural technologies and practices.

The internal debate is very interesting. Yes, many Ngai Tahu have been opposed to dairying through personal experiences - as kaitiaki - of the negative environmental effects. The latest issue of Te Karaka has some important viewpoints:

I know for a fact dairying has been a polluter because of the way people have farmed. And it has been encouraged by government in fact – the farming and the polluting. They’ve allowed cows in the rivers and effluent straight into waterways – and although there is compliance on paper, there is no compliance in reality.
Raewyn Solomon.

Latest musings on (original) Maori migration

Just when it seemed safe to go back in the water...

Recent and ongoing research into just exactly when Maori arrived here in Aotearoa/New Zealand provided a little lite relief over the traditional Summer Shutdown here. Only a few of the usual Maori commentariat could be bothered responding, and by responding I mean dissing Paul Moon's rather strange comments that this would reopen a number of Waitangi claims as it threatens recorded versions of whakapapa, history and occupation. Um, well, probably not but hey, its summertime. Personally, I preferred it when we were the 13th (and lost) tribe of Israel.



Anyways, plenty of others have bagged Moon, so check them out. I just marvel at his luck in Hohepa Kereopa talk to him at length...

Moon and Margaret Mutu, TV1 debate