Angry voices won't be far from foreshore hui

By RUTH BERRY

Former Te Kawariki activist Hone Harawira often tells the story of how Sir Graham Latimer used to ring up urging him and his mates to turn up the volume.

As Maori Council chairman, Sir Graham would say, how was he to sit at the table trying to push the Crown during negotiations if there wasn't someone banging loudly on the door?

Times have moved on, but as the Government embarks on its round of consultation hui over the foreshore and seabed which begin today, it can expect similar scenarios to unfold.

This does not mean iwi and hapu around the country, struggling to prepare for the hastily arranged hui, will be picking up the phone to dial-a-mob. They won't have to go looking for angry voices.

Neither does it mean that leaders who call for talks with the Government are less frustrated with it or less determined to change its course than those who may yell and scream with an eye on the 6 o'clock news.

The Government has been intent on portraying many of the voices emanating from the two national Maori hui as those of extremists.

That has irked many iwi leaders who believe the Government has seriously underestimated the strength of feeling out there.

Prime Minister Helen Clark may be forced into an embarrassing backdown on those assertions as the hui continue.

But her pooh-poohs, while arguably ill-pitched, have to be seen as part of the Government's negotiation strategy just as confrontation and protest - also being used by farmers fighting the Fart Tax - are to opponents of Government policy.

Helen Clark is likely to talk less about extremists and more about wanting pragmatic negotiations as hui after hui decry the proposals.

The Government will be extended that olive branch at hui, even if it doesn't make the television news.

Neither iwi nor the Government want the consultation process to result in a worst-case scenario - a complete communication breakdown - and are already singing a good cop, bad cop tune.

Iwi leaders have been engaged in meetings across the country and Te Ope Mana a Tai, already in talks with the Government, is focused and strategic.

The group was set up by the Waitangi Fisheries Commission, which is bankrolling it, and the iwi which took the Court of Appeal case.

It has been broadening its support and hopes to continue to do so.

The commission has had more than 10 tough years trying to bring iwi together over its allocation model and is a formidable behind-the scenes force in this debate, despite its problems overcoming iwi and hapu suspicions.

The inclusion of people such as staunch, articulate tribal traditionalist Margaret Mutu on Te Ope Mana a Tai at the national hui last week may help to appease those concerned by what they see as the overly friendly signals being made to the Government from commission chairman Shane Jones.

The pair had titanic battles during past Muriwhenua settlement negotiations.

Te Ope Mana a Tai's representatives will attend all consultation hui, spreading information and, like the Government, threading together the specific issues raised by iwi over the next three weeks for a big-picture analysis.

The key question is: What is the Government's olive branch?

What has it been holding in reserve to negotiate with, how substantial is it and can it gain political support in the House?

One compromise, being floated by Te Ope Mana a Tai, is the reinsertion of the Maori Land Court's ability to recognise customary title over some pieces of foreshore and seabed, not freehold title, into the debate.

The concept could be at least partially renamed to avoid the now politically tainted phrase - and to better reflect a tikanga Maori view of whanau and hapu understandings of their relationship with the coast. Tupuna title is one phrase being mooted.



The Greens have already extended the Government that lifeline, by asserting that the retention of customary title is their bottom line.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen has already appeared to open room for negotiation on that, by suggesting that customary rights, which he has promised to protect, are the same as customary title.

Iwi leaders are unanimous in their view that this is a "defining moment" in terms of their broader relationship with the Government.



The Crown/Maori relationship is as much about process as outcomes and requires Maori to be able to assert a sense of ownership around the outcomes.

Today at Whangara, on the coast near Gisborne, Government MPs, as a first step, will be expected to stay longer than the four hours they've set aside for each hui.

Ironically, or perhaps symbolically, the tiny settlement is known to many New Zealanders as where the movie Whale Rider was filmed.

The people of Ngati Porou, the second biggest tribe in the country, collectively own about 90 per cent of land running along the East Coast.

Since the arrival of their ancestor Paikea, made famous by the film, they have exercised their mana over the foreshore and seabed there.

They want to tell the Government about that and, although it may take time, find a solution.