Leave our customs alone, says Te Arawa

By MEGAN LACEY in Rotorua
A call by the Governor-General for Maori girls and women to take a more prominent role in powhiri has received little support from Te Arawa.

Dame Silvia Cartwright made it clear in her official Waitangi Day speech at the weekend that she believed customs should change.

"There is no excuse in the year 2005 for [the toleration of] customs that seek to limit the participation of women or people of other ethnicities any more than we can tolerate the notion that one ethnic group is superior to another," she said.



Dame Silvia is well known in Rotorua, where she worked as a lawyer early in her career.

Her call follows similar comments from Prime Minister Helen Clark and Race Relations Minister Trevor Mallard, who last year criticised the lack of girls' involvement in powhiri at schools.

Most members of Te Arawa spoken to by The Daily Post have not taken kindly to the suggestions.

Outspoken Te Arawa member Tuhipo Kereopa said Dame Silvia should not be giving Maori advice about their customs.

"One cannot cross cultural boundaries without cleaning up their own whakapapa. The worst are those that do it in the name of cultural liberation in the pursuit of intellectualism."

Tepora Emery, programme manager for tertiary teaching at Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Rotorua, said the powhiri was only one part of the rituals of a marae encounter.

"Women are involved at all levels of powhiri. If Dame Silvia Cartwright is advocating for my right to speak on marae, forget it. If I wanted to do that I could advocate on my own behalf thank you very much."

Ms Emery said she had enough to do without taking on the men's speaking roles as well.

She said those roles, or kaikorero, were "a huge job and one that I don't want".

"Leave it for the men I reckon. On the other hand, if Silvia and Helen want speaking rights on the marae, they'd better kill the sheep and cook the hangi first."

Talei Morrison, a teacher at Rotorua Girls' High School, recently led the powhiri at the opening of Rotorua's Arena, with permission from Te Arawa kaumatua. She said Dame Silvia did not appear to fully understand the culture.

"She's not encompassing the entire powhiri process where women have a very important role, such as karanga, such as waiata tautoko.

"As Maori in 2005, we need to uphold the kawa of our iwi."

Rotorua's deputy mayor Trevor Maxwell said Saturday night's Lakeside concert featuring a mass Te Arawa powhiri highlighted the contribution both men and women could make.

"We had a combined Te Arawa group welcome everyone at the big concert on Saturday night. More women participated than men. It was huge - 150 people."

Mr Maxwell said Maori were trying to retain as many of their traditions as possible. However, change was occurring, which he supported.

"I'm not against change, but let it be for the right reasons.

"I would like us to retain as much of the protocol as possible.

"I wouldn't like to see [a] female do the wero or [a] male do a karanga," he said.

Rotorua District Council's Kaupapa Maori director Mauriora Kingi said he did not have a problem with Dame Silvia's comments, but said Maori from different tribal areas had their own protocol, tikanga and kawa.

"The Governor-General has her opinion, but at the end of the day it's entirely up to the tangata whenua ...

"I'm a great believer of respecting different iwi tikanga."