Flash programme, budget programme or no programme at all - Whanganui Maori must go to Pakaitore/Moutoa Gardens on February 28 every year, to mark the anniversary of the first day of the occupation, MC Piri Cribb says.
As she made her way to the dawn karakia (prayers) yesterday by the Whanganui River her mind went back to the occupation of the gardens in 1995. When people of the iwi (tribe) left there after 79 days, not all of them wanted to go. Kaumatua John Maihi stayed at the gardens and talked to them until they could all leave together.
He was like the captain of the Titanic, she said, and not like the captain who failed to stay aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia when it wrecked off the coast of Italy last year.
Mr Maihi stayed to talk on the last day of the occupation, so that the iwi could say it had moved collectively.
The first day, February 28, has been remembered at the gardens every year since then. "You just come back to Pakaitore every year on the 28th because that's where you belong, and you encourage your children to come back, too, because that's where they belong," Ms Cribb said.