Bid for women's rights upsets Maori

Pita Sharples

A new Department of Corrections policy designed to balance women's rights with Maori protocol has been criticised for misunderstanding tradition.

The Maori cultural practices policy was created after probation officer Josie Bullock refused to sit behind men at a poroporoaki (farewell) ceremony, saying the tradition was sexist and treated women as second-class citizens.

The new policy aims to address her concerns by replacing powhiri and poroporoaki with a whakatau ceremony where men and women will be treated equally.

While that has pleased Ms Bullock, who was fired for repeatedly speaking to the media about the issue, it has upset some Maori.

Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples said he commended the department's efforts to protect the traditions of the powhiri. However, the department had "overstepped their role" by changing some traditions of the whakatau ceremony in its policy.

For example, giving men and women equal roles and allowing them to sit together went against tradition.

"If they want to use a Maori concept like whakatau, they need to be cognisant of all that goes with it - not just define a Maori term to suit their own purpose," said Dr Sharples.

Naida Glavish, a Ngati Whatua spokeswoman, said the ceremonies were partly to help Maori offenders but they needed to be done in the traditional way to be effective.

Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews said the department had been working on the policy for 12 months and consulted other Government departments and the Human Rights Commission.

Dr Sharples said the department needed to consider creating its own kind of welcoming that included Maori activity but was not necessarily a Maori ceremony.

Ms Bullock agreed, saying a more neutral ceremony was a good way to avoid offending anyone.

However, she was also happy with the new modified whakatau ceremony, as long as the roles for men and women remained equal.

Her only concern was the expectation that staff would comply with traditions when ceremonies were held at marae away from Corrections sites.

- additional reporting Ruth Berry