It's our civil rights struggle, says Huata

Wi Huata and Donna Awatere Huata

Convicted fraudster Wi Huata has compared the odium heaped on him and his wife, Donna Awatere Huata, with the oppression faced by black American civil rights leaders.

Huata recited a poem, "Still I rise", outside the Court of Appeal in Wellington this week as a parting shot to his critics.

It was written in 1978 by celebrated black writer and activist Maya Angelou, and is a call to assertiveness and black pride.

Musician Ben Harper performed the work on his album Welcome to the Cruel World. In performance, Harper often tags it onto his song Like a King, which contrasts Martin Luther King's legacy with the horror of the Rodney King beating, which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Huata told the Herald last night that he and his wife, both convicted last year on fraud counts, were being victimised.

"The moment a Maori gets into that field of leadership it comes as a hefty price. Donna was not the first Maori to go through this and certainly won't be the last."

Huata said Angelou's poem was also indicative of the times he and his wife had endured over the past few years.

"I have always found that it was appropriate in our circumstances through the incarceration and reading all the shitty stuff which was all about condemnation and ridicule of us."

He said he and his wife were often subjected to unfair criticism because of the way they appeared in public.

Huata quoted from the poem: "Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise? That I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs?"

He said: "When I think of the jury and how they found us guilty, a lot of it had to do with how we looked and that was what probably pissed a lot of people off, but I just thought 'damn! my wife's attractive'."

"I have always felt the attacks by the media were always unbalanced. There was just this real hatefulness coming through but still like air I'll rise."

Huata said he was relaxed about the court's pending decision. Judgment was reserved in the couple's appeals against their convictions on charges arising from the management of money belonging to the Pipi Foundation Trust.

"If I lose I go back to jail but if I win we have a chance for a retrial next year."

>> Read the poem in full