Harawira relishes idea of escort duty

By AUDREY YOUNG
The woman who reduced Helen Clark to tears at Waitangi four years ago is preparing to accompany the Prime Minister back onto the same marae next week.

Titewhai Harawira was delighted last night at the prospect of the Prime Minister returning to the lower Te Tii Marae on Waitangi Day, saying she would offer to escort the official party.

The change strongly points to a successful outcome of a quiet plan by the Minister of Maori Affairs, Parekura Horomia, to broker a truce between the two women.

Neither woman would confirm she had had talks with the other this week. But neither denied it.

Helen Clark said: "I'm not getting into who I have spoken to and who I haven't, but I'm very confident that people want to move on and there's a desire for engagement. I think it's going to work."

When Mrs Harawira was asked if she had spoken to Helen Clark, she laughed and said: "Did you ask her that question?

"She has decided to accept the invitation as extended by Ngapuhi.

"I'm saying that's wonderful. You've done the right thing.

"As a woman, I just know that is it the right thing and it will work."

Helen Clark announced three weeks ago that she would return to Waitangi this year, her first trip as Prime Minister since the incident in 1998. Her decision was largely the result of efforts by Te Tai Tokerau MP Dover Samuels and Te Tai Tokerau leader Sir Graham Latimer.

In the 1998 incident, Mrs Harawira challenged Helen Clark's right to speak during the powhiri because Maori women were not allowed to.

She blames Mr Samuels for the result, saying he had badly advised his leader that she could speak.

"I'm the one who has been fingered over this period of time as being the bitch that did all that stuff. This year I'm not going to take that nonsense."

Initially, Helen Clark's plans for a return, with Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright, had been limited to the ceremonial meeting house on the Treaty Grounds for events organised by the Te Tai Tokerau District Council and the Waitangi Day organising committee.

She had not planned to return to Te Tii, the working marae down the road.

Mrs Harawira said kaumatua from the lower marae wrote to Helen Clark expressing concern that the Government and the Governor-General "would be walking past Te Tii Marae, past Ngapuhi ... and that the invitation to come to Te Tii Marae still stands."

Mrs Harawira said it would be up to the kaumatua to decide whether to take up her offer of escorting Helen Clark onto the marae, as she had done with former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.

"If they say 'No' that's fine," she said. "It doesn't make a difference."

Helen Clark said it was "very likely" she would go to Te Tii.

"What's changed is that everyone just wants to put it [the 1998 incident] behind them, at the level that you deal with at the marae."

She was not looking to rake over past events. "I'm not interested in an apology."