Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, August 18, 2008

Wai part of Ngai Tahu town planning

Ngai Tahu is planning a giant new subdivision for Christchurch.

The Prestons Road project for 2500 sections and a commercial area is a joint venture between Ngai Tahu, supermarket giant Foodstuffs South Island and the largely Singapore-owned CDL Land New Zealand.

The parties have all been buying farmland in the area on the northern fringe of the city.

David Schwartfeger, Ngai Tahu Property's development manager, says the Maori elements in the design will be subtle but crucial.

“Ngai Tahu takes the waterways very seriously and great care is being taken in protecting the waterways, recycling the water where possible, keeping the waterways in the same areas and probably returning areas that have been scoured out and drained and channeled into wetlands and waterways that are more traditional
Mr Schwartfeger says.

Prestons Road is being thought of as a 20 year project, so the developers aren't concerned at the current state of the property market.

MAORI CONTRIBUTION TO TARANAKI ECONOMY MEASURED

Maori contribute more than $450 million dollars to the Taranaki economy, and they're looking to contribute more.

The figure came out in a Business and Economic Research Limited report commissioned by Maori development organisation Tui Ora and Venture Taranaki.

Hayden Wano, the chief executive of Tui Ora, says the report shows the measurable Maori asset base in the province is more than $750 million dollars.

He says the challenge now is to turn around a fragmented approach to development which has limited Maori business.

“It hopefully is a galvanizing point. It hopefully is a place that Maori leaders and leaders in the wider community also can use as a reference point for helping them develop plans and also create opportunities through collaboration across sectors and across businesses and across iwi boundaries to work together,” Mr Wano says.

The report found most Maori employers in Taranaki are in primary industry, mainly agriculture, followed by construction, retail, property and business services.

HONORARY DOCTORATE FOR SCHOLAR WHO DROVE CHANGE

A distinguished Rangitane scholar and psychiatrist has added another qualification to an already brimming collection.

Mason Durie, the Professor of Maori research and development at Massey University and the university's deputy vice-chancellor Maori, was this weekend made an honorary doctor of laws by Otago University.

Darren Russell, Otago's director of Maori Development, says since graduating from medical school in Dunedin in 1963, Professor Durie has changed the way health is delivered, not just to Maori.

He has also changed the way universities work.

“His work at Massey and his support of Maori education across the tertiary sector beyond Massey into every university is undeniable and he continues to impassion Maori studying but also impassion non-Maori in issues associated with Maori and I think that’s a success across the tertiary sector, not just for Massey,” Mr Russell says.

PIPITEA MARAE FUTURE KEY ASPECT OF TARANAKI WHANUI SETTLEMENT
The Port Nicholson settlement, which is due to be signed tomorrow, could face a last minute hitch over the future of Pipitea Marae.

The marae by Wellington's railway yards has been home to Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club since it was built with Crown and Maori Trustee funding in the 1970s, but now Taranaki Whanui claimants want it to come home.

While Ngati Poneke no longer fields a kapa haka team in competitions, the club wants the Maori Trustee to renew its lease of the marae, for which it pays a peppercorn rental and collects revenue from an underground carpark.

Ngatata Love, the chief negotiator for Port Nicholson Block claimants, says the land should come back to Taranaki Whanui without conditions.

“We want to work with the people that are there now but more particularly we want to work with the people who are coming forward now. The growth of our young people in terms of numbers, their desire to learn, to participate in all of the cultural activities, it’s the ideal venue for that and we want to use that. I’d like to see it used 15, 16 hours a day every day of the week because it can be a home for so many,” Professor Love says.

MONEY AVAILABLE FOR MARAE WATER SCHEMES

Marae are lining up for a government fund aimed at improving water supplies in rural communities.

Mita Ririnui, the associate minister of health, says the $1.5 million putea for marae is part of this year's $7 million spend nationwide on the Drinking Water Assistance Programme.

Half the money is already committed to projects in the Bay of Plenty, with Taneatua, Matata, Murupara and Torere-Ngaitai set to benefit.

“Some communities who have real serious problems in terms of water quality, many of them on the old septic tank systems and get a lot of seepage into the underground water supply, it’s all linked to community health, primary health, and the health of families, because the best water quality we can provide to families is essential in terms of their health status,” Mr Ririnui says.

Safe, clean water is central to the principle of manaakitanga.

PARIHAKA PEACE FESTIVAL AIMING AT FAMILY AUDIENCE

The Parihaka Peace Festival aims to make its next outing more whanau friendly.

Organiser Te Miringa Hohaia says acts are firming up for the January event.

In respect for the Taranaki settlement's history as the home of non-violent resistance to land confiscation, the festival has rejected alcohol sales and sponsorship to balance its books.

Mr Hohaia says it's a place people come to learn new things.

“We're more than just another summertime music even because our speaking forums, eco forums, children’s forums, the film and poetry and the healing forums all take an important place in the festival and that way we’re creating a family atmosphere at our event, which is in keeping with the whole Parihaka ethos,” he says.

To emphasise the family approach, entry is $10 for children, $20 for kaumatua and $150 for everyone else.

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