Tears well in emotional protest

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Hauraki Maori Trust Board chairman Toko Renata handed back his honours medals in an emotional and highly personal protest yesterday against the Government's foreshore and seabed proposal.

Tears welled in the eyes of the 72-year-old as he dropped the Queen's Service Medal and New Zealand Merit Award on the table in front of a taken-aback Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen.

At the fourth consultation hui at Mataiwhetu Marae near Thames, it was the most poignant message yet that Maori opposition has not softened.

In a separate tribal gesture, Mr Renata tore up the Government's policy paper in front of officials.

At a national Maori hui held at neighbouring Paeroa in July, the seabed and foreshore plans were turned down forcibly.

Mr Renata said that although the groundswell of feeling against the Crown had since "quietened down", a meeting of Hauraki iwi on Saturday had reiterated rejection of the document "in its entirety".

For the Crown to decide to legislate without consulting Hauraki and Maori as a whole was "the last straw", he said after yesterday's hui. "The only way to get the message across was to tear it up."

The personal decision to return his medals, known in advance only to his wife and family, was made for the sake of the children and the grandchildren's future, said Mr Renata.

The honours, awarded for services to the community - "Maori and Pakeha" - in 1990 and 1998 had been received with integrity and pride, he said.

But he could no longer sit back and watch the Government take yet more Hauraki land.

"We regard the foreshore and seabed as taonga. It is our land covered by water. It has always been ours."

Mr Renata said: "I thought we were progressing quite well with the relationship of both races."

But the foreshore and seabed issue was "food for racial disharmony".

Another speaker, Harry Mikaere, said the debate had New Zealand in a frenzy not seen since the 1981 Springbok tour. It had the potential to pitch family against family and race against race.

After the hui, attended by about 300 people, Dr Cullen played down the depth of feeling that showed through in speeches opposing the policy. "They were making strong points strongly."

He said it was not a surprise that Maori did not trust the Government because they had strong historical reasons not to.

But the present Government was not trying to confiscate Hauraki land.

"We will just have to prove our good faith," he said.

It was the Government's job to find a way through that left people feeling justice had been done.

Dr Cullen said the Government was committed to seven more consultation hui, with the next at the Omahu Marae at Hastings today.

Even if Maori were saying the same thing, it was important they said it to the Government face to face.

He said he hoped eventually to return Mr Renata's medals.

But Mr Renata said he doubted he would accept them. "I have made my decision."