
John Tamihere
Heading the list of present-day Māori challenges is still the apparently hopeless task of persuading the Crown to deliver on the promises it made in the 1840 Waitangi deal. But there are other issues well within the means of Māori to resolve. And one of those is mending the rift between iwi leaders and urban Māori authorities — particularly when it comes to sharing the Māori fisheries assets.
NUMA (the National Urban Māori Authority) has been under the impression that the assets have been for the benefit of all Māori — and that Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust was obliged (in the wake of the 2004 Māori Fisheries Act) to see that $20 million would go into the hands of the urban authorities.
John Tamihere, a former Labour MP (1999–2005) and now the chief executive of the Waipareira Trust, outlines the recent developments in the tussle, which includes a High Court ruling last month favouring the urban Māori argument.
In 1992, Māori unemployment was hitting 34 per cent, so we were all looking for ways of levering our people into jobs and new opportunities.
The Ohu Kaimoana Fisheries Settlement of that year was one of the first and biggest Treaty of Waitangi Settlements to take place. Overall, it amounted to $170 million.
Our urban Māori group said: “We are Māori and we are in the cities. We make up a large bunch of Māori, so we want to be participating in this economic opportunity.”
But that was denied, which is why urban Māori have had to fight for any sort of share in the settlement from Day One.
To cut a long story short, this went to the Privy Council twice and has been to the High Court and Court of Appeal countless times. From that, Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust was formed after significant litigation waged by urban Māori groups through the 1990s.
The fisheries settlement that was firstly signed off was a Māori-wide settlement — it wasn’t an iwi settlement.
But the people who got the muskets first did best initially. What the modern-day iwi chiefs did was line up their QCs as their new muskets. We had to play the same game and, even though we got muskets late and couldn’t afford as much ammunition, we did pretty well.
Then, in 1999, I went to parliament and helped write the law of the Māori Settlements Act 2004. In that legislation, I accepted and always have done, that the local people should have the major say over our assets. But that’s subject to them never forgetting us in the cities and suburbs.
So, in regards to the Pūtea Whakatupu Trust, I accepted that the Fisheries Commission could continue to appoint our directors, but it was clear in the Act that it was for urban Māori and that the directors should come from urban Māori.
Once that legislation was done — and I was gloriously thrown out of parliament — iwi interests seized on taking it over by appointing their iwi mates.
That meant we were always outvoted 2-1 on the three-person trust. They backdoored us and took back control of the trust money. And the $20 million earmarked for urban Māori has never come our way.
Māori rights in fishing were actually better when we never had any quota. Right now, in deep sea fishing, it is Koreans and Russians who fish our quota.
And inshore fishing? It ain’t Māori doing that either. The only jobs that Māori get after 25 years of this settlement is driving trucks and cleaning and skinning fish on a trawler. After 25 years of this settlement asset, we don’t know what the iwi have done with the money.
What we do know is that they own 44 per cent of the industry, but no Māori is allowed to go anywhere near middle or senior management — and no kids are given a cadetship to learn how big business works.
If you go to a Māori Fisheries Commission AGM, they are predominantly non-Māori there.
Basically, for a lesson in how NOT to use a settlement to advance a people, look at fishing.
As the one genuine urban Māori representative on the three-person trust, my approach was to destroy the quorum by walking out of meetings before votes could be taken. I didn’t like the way they were spending all our money on paying for scholarships for well-off kids.
In the 2004 legislation, we put in a twilight clause to allow us to review where things were in 10 years. That allowed us to try to get some common sense that this trust money would be deployed in the urban Māori population.
But we got locked out of the review. We never got any invites. We were excluded from the conversation about a trust that was only set up because of us!
And, instead of seeing that urban Māori had a say, they attempted to take over total control — even though 85 per cent of Māori don’t live in the homeland.
So that forced us to go to court. The end result of that court case is that the judge found the process of excluding us from the review was not fair or right — and that Te Ohu Kaimoana’s application of the law was wrong. The court said they must appoint directors with urban Māori experience — not just puppets for themselves.
So they are now obliged to consult with us. But they have a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal, so that is a possibility. And, given their propensity to spend money without any accountability, it becomes an even more distinct possibility.
The judge ruled that costs for the latest court case should be paid out of Te Pūtea trust. But that’s not fair. It should have come from the iwi, not from the urban Māori pocket. After all, we won the decision.
What happens next? We have already asked the Fisheries Commission whether we can meet them in light of the directions from the High Court. But they have their own little game in play. They will advise iwi about a report they will take to the minister to amend (or otherwise) the legislation. Once again we have been excluded from that.
If there is anything in that review that is prejudicial or discriminates against us again — then, of course, we will litigate that.
Every step of the way, these guys try as much as they can to make it very difficult for us.
But here’s their problem. Whether it was the Māori land marches, or the march to get an independent Māori Statutory Board, or the first kōhanga reo, or the first whare kura — everything came from the urban Māori activists. None of it came out of these guys who have seized the chequebook.
There is this new aristocracy that has arisen from these compensation chequebooks. And because they’ve been able to out-persevere and out-spend their own poorer cousin, they think they can beat us the same way.
Well, we’ll soon see. If they continue down this track you will see significant litigation against them for being so bad at being stewards of our assets. They have set up a distribution scheme that replicates social welfare rather than providing Māori with economic opportunity and advantage.
That’s exactly what they’ve done with the urban Māori money. And we can’t afford that any longer.
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Good reading all these
Good reading all these comments but for me the real problem i.e. everyone is looking at putea. Forget about putea and concentrate things that are really Maori Tikanga hui mihi kanohi ki te kanohi whakatau
Pakeha ‘ Trickery’ When
Pakeha ‘ Trickery’ When Dictating Maori Livli-Hood and Maori ‘Get-Go” “Aue taukiri e” So Boorish’ so Bull-shittish..For Goodness sake…’Give us a Break”..I not interested in joining this ‘We and They’..Us and Them’ Debate..No I sooner Fight the real Fight ‘Thats already out in the Town Square..Maori has the Kai mahi ringa-ringa Just give us equal share of the Kai Putea…So we can show our Countryfolk ‘What we can accomplish..”Post Haste”.
The term/ label ‘Māori’ has
The term/ label ‘Māori’ has become somewhat ambiguous and divisive so further segmenting or fractioning an already fractured people only harks back to the whakataukī “he totara wāhi rua, he kai nā te ahi”. Iwi authorities and Urban Māori authorities are the same thing talking about the same people locked in the same unequal system trying to play money games with an economic taniwhā that doesn’t belong to us but has tricked us into believing that we need it if we are to survive. Just look already NZ superannuation is sending us into a potential financial crisis… you think they are gonna want to listen to a bunch urban or iwi māori putting their hand out??? kei te kai tonu tātou i a tātou.
Great read john food for
Great read john food for thought as we progress our takutaimoana mahi.
John tamihere should be the
John tamihere should be the prime minister if that’s what he can do with 20million imagine what he could do with 20 billion, an honest and caring man that has fought for us voiceless and unrepresented Maori folk.
He kākano ahau i ruia mai i
He kākano ahau i ruia mai i Rangiātea
I am a seed which was sewn in the heavens of Rangiatea
A famous proverb from the Aotea waka, which shows the importance of Whakapapa (Spiritual and Cultural identity)
For me personally the answer is simple, If you cannot work together with a common goal which is – ‘Future Generations’ then all is lost;
‘Choose you this day, whom you will serve’ I choose God.
This urban maori thing is
This urban maori thing is turning into an urban myth. Why did we drift into the urban areas in the 1st place? Jobs jobs jobs. We left iwi to keep the fires burning. Now we want what Iwi have and continue to remain in the urban areas. No maori urban authority speaks for me and there numbers are dwindling. Since Maori health, education and social services have grown, so has the numbers of Maori reconnecting with their hapu and iwi. Time to wake up and stop the bullshit about who really represents maori.
Jt i seen the mahi u done at
Jt i seen the mahi u done at the bottom of the pile..u have bought prosperity to thise that had nothing. Your economic efforts at the micro level r awesome. Your much more lik ngata then those so called rangatira…he never trusted those types either and could see their failings or kino.
Keep the presssure on e hoa..whanaunga hoki.
its our future generations
its our future generations who will miss out if our appointed maori leaders dont resolve or come to a compromise and unite all maori. kia tere koutou, sort it out!
Thank you John for your
Thank you John for your explanation . You are a good guy and you will win in the end!
As Ta Tipene O’Regan them at
As Ta Tipene O’Regan them at at Te Ohu hui- the fisheries agreement was hammered out between IWI and the Crown but that any and ALL Maori had an opportunity to benefit from that 1992 deal; he also pointed out that living in a city did not abrogate an individual from engaging or discovering their IWI links. Just an aside – if urban Maori is that important to JT and Willie how about excommunicating yourselves from your respective IWI that you always stand up and whakapapa to!?
As much as these two get up
As much as these two get up my nose. They are advocating in the interests of fairness, & of a collective – many iho ngaro. Not simply their own. Colonisation, and urbanisation are things, and an ongoing phenomenon. Why shouldn’t all get a fair share of Settlement largesse ahakoa he aha? At least have the conversations to thrash out how it looks. The Iwi-only buzz is just another form of trickle-down economics, with v.little trickle.
I have lived in Wellington
I have lived in Wellington for over 50years and never have I assumed that because Im an urban Maori it is my right to be entitled to money or someone say he is doing it on behalf of urban Maori. Whakapapa and what you do for your iwi is what counts not urbanization. Those who don’t know their whakapapa shouldn’t have access to funds, that way that will make them go out and research. The colour of your skin does not give you an open door access to money. Education and a positive attitude does.
Many Māori don’t know their
Many Māori don’t know their whakapapa because of urbanisation, lack of whanau support, lack of role models, matriarchal or patriarchal figures, adoption, breakdown in the family unit, all sorts of reasons. The majority of street homeless are in the cities. It’s wrong in my book to exclude these people because of their unfortunate circumstances. They need a helping hand! They are our people and need a decent living standard! Not everybody comes from close loving whanau filled with aroha! Not everybody is supported into education or a decent career! There are people at the top who are too busy to help themselves rather than the people – and urban Māori should and must be involved in these processes!
Who are these people? Why are
Who are these people? Why are they getting away with it, keep going JT! Weed them out!
It’s all mine I say.
It’s all mine I say.
………a process with
………a process with connections between urban and…………the rest of us …………..I say …………some interesting views today to think about
What I love about my relation
What I love about my relation JT is how is an actual advocate for the rights of urban Māori who are dispossessed, not doing well, and not likely to see a brass razoo of the settlement process. I’m unsure about his facts, and he likes to play the angles. But even so he has a real point: how are real (not corporate) Māori getting any benefits of settlements. I think there are a whole range of good examples. And I think Iwi would do well to report these. And I think we need to try harder. But again, JT does well to ask the question and prod IMHO.
Who are the governance people
Who are the governance people
The Government love what’s
The Government love what’s going between NUMA and the Iwi Authorities, divide and conquer, nothing has changed. Sad to see we can’t be one, the key is unity and until we are one we will never overcome the insidiousness of colonialism