City-dwelling Maori get their own voice

By ALAN PERROTT

City-dwelling Maori without iwi affiliations now have their own negotiating voice with the launch of the National Urban Maori Authority.

The umbrella organisation, led by the five largest urban Maori organisations in Auckland, Wellington, Waikato and Christchurch, was launched at a one-day hui in South Auckland on Saturday.

John Tamihere, Youth Affairs Minister and Associate Maori Affairs Minister, announced the new body as the former chief executive of the Waipareira Trust and long-time lobbyist for the national authority.

The authority hopes to secure some of the money and assets paid out on Treaty of Waitangi settlements which has gone to the generally rural-based iwi and has called for a review of iwi-based model for handing out money from the $700 million fisheries assets.

Mr Tamihere told the iwi and authority representatives at Mangere's Nga Whare Waatea Marae that the new body would finally give recognition to the 86 per cent of Maori who live outside their iwi homelands and the thousands without any tribal allegiance.

"There is no greater acknowledgment than representing the mana and authority of our people," said Mr Tamihere. "They can now get representation with some integrity." The minister said urban Maori were doing much to maintain Maori culture through the creation of language schools.

He dismissed claims of a conflict of interest between his role in establishing the authority and his position as chairman of the Maori Affairs select committee, saying he had campaigned in support of the authority for two elections.

"When elected I didn't go down to Wellington to shut up and zip up. I actually did what I said I'd do."

Newly elected authority chairman and former MP Willie Jackson said urban Maori needed a voice they could relate to and which related to them.

"For Maori living in Mangere or Porirua, they don't know who the Maori Council is or the Maori Congress, they want to be recognised in their own right. And that is what today is all about."

One of the few dissenting voices came from New Zealand Maori Council representative Titiwhai Harawira.

She doubted the authority's mandate to represent all urban Maori and said traditional bodies such as the council were already carrying out that role.

"When a question is asked, [the council] is there for us all. Setting up another body without full consultation ... well some people may have worries about it. You need to be sure, when you put your hand up, that you represent all."