Influential iwi acts to prohibit tobacco

Ngahiwi Tomoana. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A large North Island iwi has adopted a bold strategy that will lead to a ban on bringing tobacco to events it controls.

Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana said yesterday that by helping people to quit smoking, the new smoke-free and tobacco-free strategy, which was adopted on Friday, was the most important thing the organisation could do.

"It's the greatest contribution we can make, greater than any Treaty claim: we can lengthen our people's lives by 10 years. If we can lengthen the lifespan of our people, that's better than any economic benefit."

The move by the country's third-most-populous iwi, which stretches from Wairoa to Wairarapa, follows last month's tobacco excise increase by Parliament, the first of three initiated by Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

It also reinforces the growing number of city and district councils that are posting signs asking people not to smoke at playgrounds and other public areas.

Smokefree group Te Reo Marama's director, Shane Bradbrook, who developed the strategy for Ngati Kahungunu, said the iwi was the first Maori tribe and possibly the first indigenous people in the world to adopt such a ban.

The strategy will prohibit tobacco from events under control of the iwi's governing body, including the annual general meeting, kapa haka, and various celebrations, tournaments and festivals.

The timeframe indicated by the strategy is within two years, although the exact date is yet to be set.

Four years is the suggested time for persuading the iwi's whanau and hapu to follow suit and ban tobacco from their marae, cemeteries, sacred places, ancestral mountains and rivers.

The bans on tobacco possession will be preceded by prohibitions on smoking.

These moves will be coupled with greater promotion of smoke-free homes and vehicles, and greater encouragement for smokers to make more attempts to quit.

Forty-seven per cent of Maori adults smoke - more than twice the all-ethnicity adult rate in New Zealand - and smoking kills about 600 Maori a year. Half of long-term smokers die from smoking-related diseases, and on average lose 14 years of life.

Mr Bradbrook said the strategy was a starting place for Ngati Kahungunu to establish a tikanga or custom of not smoking and not carrying tobacco, in the same way that people knew not to wear shoes in a marae meetinghouse.

And although the iwi had the right to prevent people entering its events with tobacco, which he likened to an alcohol ban, he did not envisage a legalistic approach.

"What we would try and do is move towards being tobacco free. We're not going to be going through everyone's bags."

The Ban:

* Not just a smoking ban.

* Tobacco to be prohibited from events under direct control of the iwi's governing body.

* The iwi will encourage members to ban tobacco from their marae and other places.