One man's poll: Maori in the new millennium

By SIMON COLLINS

Whatever kind of future Maori people build in this country is going to need room in it for complicated characters like 7-year-old Adrian Tairua.

Adrian's father, Calvin Tairua, is a Ngapuhi from the Bay of Islands, with a dash of Scottish blood somewhere in his ancestry.

Adrian's mother is Tongan. The family live in Sandringham, Auckland, far from the traditional chieftainship or "tino rangatiratanga" of either Ngapuhi or Tonga.

Tino rangatiratanga, often loosely translated as "Maori sovereignty", has become the core demand of many Maori protest groups and at times a political punchbag for mainstream parties.

At February's commemoration of the Treaty of Waitangi signing, Green MP Sue Bradford said the Greens "support the Maori version of the treaty, te tino rangatiratanga in the country and all implications of that".

Since then, the right-of-centre parties - National, Act and NZ First - have tried to make Treaty of Waitangi settlements and perceptions of preferential treatment for Maori a major campaign issue.

Yesterday the Herald reported that many Pakeha voters felt angry and resentful about these topics (even though they still rank behind traditional big issues such as the economy, education, crime and health).

But the 110 Maori interviewed for this series from Te Hapua to Invercargill also have very mixed views on the issue in general and self-government in particular.

"Ninety per cent of the Ngapuhi live in Auckland, and they have never had tino rangatiratanga because they don't have any tribal leaders. We haven't had any paramount chiefs since the late 1800s," said Calvin Tairua.

"Tino rangatiratanga is an anachronism. I don't think it is a reality, especially when you see the younger people. My son is a New Zealander of Maori and Tongan descent."

None of those interviewed advocated Maori control of the country, and only two social workers thought Maori were entitled to half the country's resources.

But the interviews with more than 600 people of all races did raise four very difficult racial issues:

* Many Maori do want more say at all levels, from local schools and district councils through iwi healthcare bodies and businesses to national Government. So, for that matter, do many other New Zealanders.

* The country has embarked on hearing claims for compensation for the loss of Maori land and resources since the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Only 14 of the 870 claims lodged by October 2000 have been settled so far, and the Waitangi Tribunal does not expect to finish hearing remaining claims until 2012.

* Successive Governments over many decades have brought in special measures for Maori, and to a lesser degree for Pacific Islanders, to help with education, healthcare, language and political representation. Many Pakeha resent these measures bitterly.

* Waves of immigration, first from the Pacific and now from Asia, have created new racial tensions over jobs, housing, land and culture. In the past 30 years, the number of Pacific Islanders, Asians and other non-Europeans has jumped from the equivalent of 33 per cent of the Maori population to 94 per cent, and already they outnumber Maori in Auckland by 2.5 to one.

So what do Maori mean by wanting more say in how the country is run?

The idea stems from Article Two of the treaty, which guaranteed to the Maori chiefs and people "te tino rangatiratanga or ratou whenua, o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa" - officially translated by Sir Hugh Kawharu as "the unqualified exercise of their chieftainship over their lands, villages and all their treasures".

Of the minority of 38 Maori who favoured it in this survey, fewer than half (16) actually meant some form of separate government, house of parliament, iwi authorities or specific bodies for iwi health, education and so on.

"Maori should be given the opportunity to control things for themselves," said Erena Tomoana, 22, a teachers college student in Hastings.

"Maori should be working with Maori people because they know best how we think. Maori health provision is happening. In terms of things like education and the Special Education Service, for example, they have a lot of psychologists that are not Maori working with Maori kids."

Penny King, who works for a Manukau private tertiary institute, said: "I think it's in the pipeline. In Ngapuhi they are actually forming a body along those lines."

Nine others, like Kaitaia bilingual unit teacher Toma Pomare and his Pakeha wife, Bronwyn, meant a "partnership" which they felt was lacking in their own work.

"You still get that knockback - not every week, it's every day," said Toma Pomare. "Who makes the decisions? It's the Government, every time. They don't even ask - they just make that decision, 'This is it.'

"In our bilingual unit, the school said, 'Hey, fill this in.' I said, 'No, let's have a go at this way.' You are supposed to work together - not someone up the top saying 'This is what you have to do'."

Eric Hiku, who works at a Justice Ministry youth facility in Manurewa, said: "If you go back to the treaty, it was share and share alike, just as one people. As to the laws, if tino rangatiratanga is to work properly, they should be written hand in hand with the Pakeha."

But four of those questioned meant something much more individual.

"Tino rangatiratanga for me will always be with me," said Waitai Petera, chief executive of the Far North's Te Aupouri Maori Trust Board.

"I have to have my own mana in everything, but not to the point where I would shove it down someone else's throat.

"To me it means when you are somebody and somebody else accepts you as you are - just being accepted, not as a better but as an equal."

Nine others supported an even looser idea of tino rangatiratanga.

Dulcie Pairama, an 18-year-old unemployed woman in Wiri, saw it simply as a way of advancing Maori prosperity.

"I'm not being mean to all the Pakehas, but they've got a lot of stuff," she said. "We don't, because we come from a poor land up north."

Far more, 49 of those questioned, opposed seeking tino rangatiratanga at all. Most (25) felt it would be racist and divisive.

"It should be a joint government, not solely one or the other. Both together is right," said Riana Pou, of Papatoetoe, interviewed at the Otara Market with her partner, Adam Nathan, and their year-old son, also Adam.

A further 13 people, including Calvin Tairua, thought the idea would be impractical because of intermarriage, immigration and pure politics.

"I don't think that will ever happen because I don't think the Government is going to give up that power," said Rangimarie Paterson-Mahuika, Maori liaison co-ordinator at Waikato University's law school.

"A better option is better Maori representation, better education on both sides about NZ history, and the Government needs to be more open to Maori ways of doing things.

"The court system is a good example of monoculturalism. It doesn't allow for rehabilitation of criminals or victims. I think the way the courts try criminals is not always the best way for criminals to be conscious of the effects of their actions, not only on the specific victims but on the community and their own families."

To many Maori, treaty settlements are almost a distraction in the process of seeking a more genuine partnership of this kind.

"Some of our ancestors got dealt a bad deal. But we have got to get over it. Let's hurry up and get it all sorted and move on," said a 39-year-old South Auckland process operator, W. Matthews.

Amor Te Nahu, a first-time voter at Hastings' Flaxmere College, said: "It's in the past now, that's how I feel. We should leave things in the past and move on."

A quarter of the Maori questioned for this series agreed with her. Almost a further quarter felt the claims process was dragging on too long and should be speeded up.

But just over half wanted the remaining claims to be heard, even though only five people mentioned any involvement in the process such as attending hui on the issues.

Only Far North oyster farmers Nutana and Moekauri Wiki mentioned seeing any economic benefit from the process so far - in their case, loans from the Maori Fisheries Commission to people in Te Hapua to help finance new oyster farms.

Joan Te Wheoro, a Tauranga chutney maker with a stall at Takapuna's Sunday market, comes from Tainui but does not expect she will ever see any benefit from its $170 million settlement.

"You have the top people running around in very flash cars. It should have been made like a benefit and spread out to everyone," she said.

But most thought the process should continue. In the words of Gisborne bushman George Harris: "I think they are on to itand I hope they get it."

Tawni Kahukore, a 19-year-old mother in Hastings, said: "I definitely think the Maori deserve some sort of compensation for what they have lost. They haven't just lost land, but heritage and a sense of belonging."

Waiuku electrotechnology student Daniel Arthur-Worsop, 20, said: "In some cases where Maori people have had their land taken off them by the Crown and the Crown is still in ownership, I believe the Maoris should have it back.

"As far as farmers owning the land goes, you can't take something like that off honest, law-abiding people."

This survey did not ask specifically about racially exclusive scholarships and other measures to "close the gaps", apart from extra funds for poorer schools, which Maori overwhelmingly supported (72 per cent).

The only Maori who complained about such measures was Penny King in Manukau, because her tertiary institute misses out on extra money as its owner is not Maori.

But Maori and Pacific Islanders did complain more than Europeans about immigration.

"I'm fed up with foreigners coming into our country and getting Housing Corporation houses when we can't even get one," said a nurse in Te Atatu who did not want to give her name.

"I'm a New Zealander and we have been waiting for more than a year. We are classed as not desperate, even though we have four children. I get so enraged that people can walk into our country and just get houses just like that."

Another unnamed couple in Otara said: "There are no jobs. Immigration is taking away the people of New Zealand's ability to go to work."

Rose Te Whau, who is training to be a teacher at Whakatane's Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, said: "We don't want to overpopulate the country like everyone else is doing, allowing a lot of overseas buyers into the country, such as the sale in Gisborne [Young Nick's Head], where an American is buying land with a Maori cemetery on it."

However, Margaret Fon-Lowe, a kuia in her 70s who has sold rewena bread at the Otara Market for 25 years, has taken Asian stallholders at the market under her wing and is a great supporter of "closing the gaps".

"There are a lot of new immigrants that need help. I think New Zealanders can provide that help," she said.

"I think the 'gaps' that are created are because of the non-mixing of the different races, the races that are squabbling.

"They will eventually mix. It will take time.

"These people that don't know Asians and are upset when you go down Queen St and it's Chinatown like Hong Kong - they need to get past that."

A Housing NZ spokesman confirmed that people accepted in New Zealand as refugees are put in the highest priority category for state houses because they arrive with nowhere to live.

In the year to June, Housing NZ housed 151 families under New Zealand's refugee quota, 55 per cent of them in Auckland. But this was just 1.5 per cent of its total 9645 lettings during the year, and 9 per cent of the lettings to the highest priority applicants.

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