Maori leaders split on protests

Northland leaders remain divided over the prospects of protest action at this year's Waitangi Day commemorations.

Veteran activist and radio personality Titewhai Harawira, who with family members has previously protested at Waitangi Day, said yesterday that there would be no trouble at next month's celebration.

She said although Maori had little to celebrate after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, recent political developments had heralded a change.

"The day will be a day to celebrate the formation of the Maori Party. We will celebrate the party's march to winning all seven Maori seats at this year's elections."

The Maori Party's Te Tai Tokerau candidate will be revealed on Waitangi Day. Mrs Harawira's son Hone is frontrunner to take out the ballot.

"I am really looking forward to Waitangi. It's a day we can all come together," she said.

Mrs Harawira said Prime Minister Helen Clark's decision not to attend proceedings at Te Tii Marae, the source of most of last year's jostling and mud throwing, would further reduce tensions.

"The Taumata Kaumatua o Ngapuhi Nui Tonu [the Ngapuhi elders council] have sent no panui [notice] inviting politicians.

"They don't have a right to attend. What makes them think they can just walk on. Don Brash has said he is coming. Nobody invited him."

However, Mrs Harawira's claims of a peaceful day have been scoffed at by the head of the country's largest iwi, Northland-based Ngapuhi.

Ngapuhi council chairman Sonny Tau said anger over the Government's foreshore and seabed legislation was still fresh and was likely to be demonstrated on February 6. "This is an opportunity for Maori to show their frustration and the betrayal they feel.

Unrest for Waitangi Day was set when the foreshore and seabed was confiscated." Mr Tau, the leader of the Kaikohe-based iwi, said that although the Harawira clan were often seen as prominent in protest action, they did not speak for Maori.

"They don't speak for Ngapuhi. What they are saying would be a perfect situation, but as years gone by have shown, outside the marae gates there is no control over who protests.

"I know of Ngapuhi kaumatua who will make their disappointment heard at Waitangi.

"Maori and non-Maori are pissed off with the Government's move."

Treaty activist Mike Smith said it was impossible to predict the nature of the day's events.

He said many groups used the day as a platform to protest and voice their concerns, with the emotion of the day setting the tone of their demonstration.

Hone Harawira said that while Maori protest was justified it was time for change.

"Waitangi Day should be a day of protest. Maori have lost a lot, and to not protest is to assume that things are OK. They aren't.

"And while everyone is criticising the role of protest, violent or otherwise, I know, as does Helen Clark and many others, that protest is often the basis of positive change.

"But Waitangi Day should be more than just a day of protest. It should also be a day when we measure ourselves as a nation, when we can look back over the past 12 months to see where we have come, and to look ahead and lay down plans for the next 12 months."

Waitangi Day organiser and NZ First MP Pita Paraone said he would be "very pleasantly surprised" if there was no trouble at Waitangi on the country's national day.

"It would be nice to see the media forced to concentrate on positive stuff instead," he said.

"If [there is no protest], people coming to Waitangi will see what is happening, but more importantly what can happen, and we can really celebrate our nationhood."