Let women speak says Sharples

Protocol dictates women must not speak during powhiri. Picture / Wairarapa Times-Age

Pita Sharples is laying down a fresh challenge to Maori protocol, saying women should be free to speak during welcoming ceremonies.

The Maori Party co-leader also wants women dignitaries to sit in prominent positions during the powhiri ceremony.

"I believe it is time now for women to assume the talking roles [during powhiri] as well as men. The reasons for women not speaking may have gone and need not be enforced."

Dr Sharples also wants a review of powhiri in the state sector.

The Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, and Prime Minister Helen Clark have articulated similar views this year - the latter after probation officer Josie Bullock publicly refused to sit behind men at a Corrections Department powhiri.

Dr Sharples said the decision was up to individual marae and he was not trying to force his views on any of them, but the issue was worthy of debate.

While men had traditionally held the speaking (whaikorero or whaikupu) role, "it saddens me ... that they have stuck rigidly to that rule".

"I am finding men who are not very strong in Maori, not really fluent, and, secondly, I've found men who don't know the significance of the local history and sometimes of the event that is taking place.

"The third thing I see is Pakeha being able to speak in pakeha on the marae.

"And then I look at elderly women who might have the mana of age and knowledge and I see them with good reo Maori and a good knowledge of the local history and that they are au fait with the event that is taking place. And I think, well, why aren't they speaking as opposed to Pakeha who don't know anything?"

National MP Judith Collins recently complained about being asked to sit behind men at a school powhiri in Papakura. She said she would not have objected on a marae, but a state institution was different.

Dr Sharples said: "She was an honoured guest and she should be seated prominently."

But the terms front and back when referring to powhiri were Pakeha concepts, not Maori.

"There are special roles for left and right and there are names for that. But there are no names for front and back on the marae. What you do have, though, is names for positions. So what you do have is the paepae tapu [a sacred orator's bench]." Because the speakers embodied the sacredness or tapu of the ceremony, they had to sit separately from the rest of their group.

"In the old days the paepae had to be exposed and they were the speakers and they were men. That's how the idea of the 'front' came into being," said Dr Sharples.

"I remember times on the traditional marae where the paepae were actually along to the side of the multitudes, but separate. And that's what I think should happen."

He said this was normal practice at his own Hoani Waititi Marae and a good solution that protected the speakers but also enabled women and other non-speaking dignitaries to take prominent positions.

"I'm still not happy for the women to give up their role of karanga and I wouldn't want to see the men take up the role.

"It's to do with the women's role in childbirth and bearing the child into this world."