Goldie sends smoke signals

The pipe was painted in later. He never smoked.

Removing the pipe from Goldie's famous portrait of Te Ahoterangi Wharepu would be a good way to start an anti-smoking revolution among Maori, Tariana Turia said yesterday.

"Charles Goldie has a lot to answer for," the Maori Party co-leader said at the anti-smoking hui in Auckland.

"The picture that he has conveyed of our tupuna, posing, sucking on their pipes, created an association between tangata whenua and smoking which has been hard to displace."

Mrs Turia said Ira Norman once gave evidence to a parliamentary committee that her great-great-grandfather, Te Ahoterangi Wharepu, had never smoked.

"It was her contention that Goldie had painted the pipe into the portrait in the 1930s, decades after her tupuna had passed away.

"Twinking out the introduced pipe, reframing the portrait and reprogramming our minds seems to me a wonderful way to celebrate this hui ... the time is right for a revolution."

Mrs Turia said Europeans bought land 160 years ago in exchange for goods - including tobacco.

"The effects of that transformation have been significant.

"Our people are dying of cancer and suffering strokes and heart attacks at a rate we can ill-afford."

She said that for many Maori smoking was a way of coping with stress, and it was up to whanau to help change the situation by looking after each other.

"This is an opportunity where the strength of tangata whenua models can be of benefit to the nation," she said.

Mrs Turia spoke only briefly about politics, when she said politicians were entering "the silly season".

"We do not need any more lectures about our problems in life. The focus for our future must be on well-being and investment, not disadvantage and deficits."

- NZPA