Author Archives: Admin

AGENDA 16 May 2015 for next NKKWTB Hui

AGENDA 16 May 2015

SUBJECT: Agenda

VENUE: Otangaroa Marae

DATE: 16 May 2015 TIME: 10.00 am

________________________________________________________________________

  1. General Business
  2. Treasurer – Financial Report: See attached – Bills to be paid – Budget (claimant funding)
  3. Outwards Correspondence: See attached
  4. Inward Correspondence: See attached
  5. Matters Arising
  6. Minutes of Previous Meeting The minutes of the hui held at Waihapa Marae on the 21 March 2015
  7. Apologies
  8. Mihimihi
  9. Karakia
    1. Consideration to accept draft PSGE Constitution
    2. Report of meeting with OTS  DOC Covenants  Stony Creek  Redress of Kowhairoa
    3. Report of the Overlapping Claims meeting with Ngati Kahu (Chair)
    4. Trustees Travel (Manaaki)

What’s happening?

Well, the Crown have done a 180% on their offer back in July 2014, and will be giving everything back to the NKKWTB, despite numerous objections.

NKKWTB continue to make a joke of their mandate by not meeting their mandate obligations; which OTS support.

OTS continue to enable NKKWTB rather than pro-actively encouraging an amicable resolution between our Iwi.

The NKKWTB refuse to provide open and transparent communication. There have been questions raised on this site; however the NKKWTB have failed to take the opportunity to openly engage with the people they claim to represent.

A PSGE Constitution has been drafted, this is despite our Iwi not having voted on the AIP. On May 16, the NKKWTB will be seeking acceptance of the PSGE Constitution without proper consultation with our Iwi. Ella Henry is somehow running the PSGE, but I don’t remember reading that being voted on either.

The NKKWTB are planning to sign away our lands and future this June, despite the Crown’s latest offer not being presented or voted on by our Iwi.

What do we know about law firm Jackson Russell?

The gallery on the Jackson Russell website shows Richard Hawke. This is the person who is the legal advisor to the Trust Board, and has been since Peter Pangari introduced him to the Trust Board.

What relationship does Jackson Russell have to the Trust Board, or is their relationship only restricted to Richard Hawke? What are the terms of engagement between the TB and JR?

The JR website arrogantly declares “we’re almost as old as New Zealand itself”; white NZ that is, and the staff makeup reflects this. It also proudly states in its history summary:

“1865 – 1890s: For the next 20 years or so the firm, like others in Auckland at that time, was much engaged in legal work connected with land speculation and gold mining.”

The JR website boasts, their support in the legalized theft of Maori land on a scale unprecedented either before or since! It was a time of unbridled greed on the part of white settlers to ‘disengage’ Maori from their land by whatever means necessary. Legal firms of the time assisted in this ‘disengagement’ making it legal.

No doubt some of the funds that have found there way into the coffers of this firm were derived at the expense of our people. How much of the $800,000+ funding received from OTS has flowed to JR over the years?

How can our people sanction such a firm as this to be our advisors?

Who is this guy Hawke ? Where does he come from ? Who are his people ? Who does he belong to ? These are valid questions for they give us an ‘insight’ into the man.

Were these questions ever asked before engaging this man?

Similar scrutiny is required for Pangari.

It is time to bring these two in from ‘the cold’.

The Possum Diaries

28 September 2014

The Possum Diaries

By Edwin Emery

Once upon a time, on the road between Waitaruke and Waimahana, there lived a whanau of brown possums. They would come out at dusk, onto the tar-sealed road. Here they would soak up the heat from the asphalt, as possums do.

Unbeknownst to this whanau ,hurtling down this road, toward them, was a white SUV. It came round a corner at a blistering pace. Bright shinning lights – ahhh! Jesus had come to save us – the possums thought. They all looked up & yelled out in unison : “Working Party!”, as the white SUV ran them over. The white SUV receded into the distance, the dying light caught the number plate :  ‘OTS’ !

Moral of the story :

Possum Rules

  1. Make up your mind what kind of possum you are, possums.
  2. You can scream as much as you like – those in the white SUV will never hear you.
  3. Study & learn the Road Code.
  4. The SUV, like your feet, gets you along the road – just faster.
  5. Control the Road & You will control Your Destiny & the Destiny of those in the SUV.

SUV Rules

  1. Never get out of the vehicle.
  2. If a possum is in your way – bowl it.
  3. Occasionally you may stop and let a possum in – they must know the password :“Uncle Tom”.
  4. Now & again throw your fast food scraps out the window. Some possums love it and say “Thank you, Bwana.”
  5. Remember – if you lose control of the road – you, in turn, will become a possum.

Letter from David Tapsell (Crown Facilitator OTS) 22-September 2014

David Tapsell’s (OTS) response to the letter from the Ngati Aukiwa Working Group dated 12 September 2014.

In summary, the Ngati Aukiwa Working Group told the Crown that the NKWTB no longer had the mandate and that the Crown needed to negotiate with them not just for Stoney Creek Farm but the Thompson and Clarke blocks as well. The Crown’s response was very blunt as per the attached letter. David Tapsell (Crown Facilitator) told the Working Group that the Crown only recognized the NKWTB as holding the mandate to negotiate, and that he would need to seek the Minister’s direction.

Letter to Moana Tuwhare

Open Letter to the Hon. Christopher Finlayson from Edwin Emery

Edwin Donald Emery

Email : edwin.emery@gmail.com

08 September 2014

Open Letter to the Hon. Christopher Finlayson

Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations
Email : c.finlayson@ministers.govt.nz

Ref : 1. letter from David Manuel, Chairperson, Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board(NKKWTB) to David Tapsell, Office of Treaty Settlements dated 11 August 2014.
Ref : 2. (attachment) assessment of letter

Tena Koe Minister,

This communication to David Tapsell is embarrassing to say the least.

I can hear the guffaws from Wellington as I write.

1. I had the letter assessed by two people, qualified in the presentation of English in written form, both educated at tertiary level. One ,an English teacher at secondary level and the other a qualified medical professional who ,on occasion , presents research papers. (see attachment)

2. Both concluded, the writer to be ‘uneducated’, operating at a year 6/7 level (10-11 year old), with no format or structure, unable to articulate a position and lacking in the requisite skills associated with that.

3. This referenced communication has the disturbing effect of undermining the tribe, its authority and genuine desire to resolve the ‘mamae’ of its colonial past.

4. Quite apart from this I would say to Mr. Manuel he needs to improve as well as, up skill his literacy skills. There is no shame in this :

  • My mother’s native tongue was neither English or Maori, she took herself back to high school in her 50’s to learn to speak and write in ‘proper English’, despite being bilingual.
  • My father had a tattered ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ never far from his grasp.
  • A friend (Chairperson of a Tribal Trust Board), educated, fluent and articulate in both Maori and English always had his written communications proofread and vetted to ensure those who received his communications understood exactly what he was saying and that he had articulated the position of his tribe.

5. This brings to the fore the skill set of those who make up the Trust Board and the administration processes they had in place. Was there not someone to vet this communication? Did administration staff not have this role? What about other Board members? Surely there existed among the Board members someone knowledgeable in written communication. If not, did they attempt to acquire the necessary skill set themselves or hire those that had them? To have these processes in place would be a given and would indicate the Board not only understood its mandate but manifested it in its day to day running. The Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board did not. The inadequacy of the Board in its so called ‘mandated’ role has long been documented, in communications to the Crown. This was flagged by the 2007 signing of an Agreement in Principle (AIP) on a tarmac at Kerikeri. The intended signing was to be at Taemaro, ancestral home of the tribe. It moved owing to significant tribal dissent at what was being agreed on by The Board and the Crown. The communication of that dissent, the lack of confidence in the Trust board, has been consistent over the last 9 years.

6. For all this the Crown still maintains the viewpoint that the Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board (NKKWTB) is the mandated body. It is patently clear that the person fronting this body is ill-equipped for the position. The processes, checks and balances within that body are mediocre or non-existent. When was the last time this Board put out any relevant information to its registered members through its website ?

NKKWTB lacks the full support of a significant section of the tribe.But, the government still continues to view NKKWTB as the mandated body. Recent communications from David Tapsell (Office of Treaty Settlements) : 25 August 2014

“Once I have your views I will consider these and then discuss with the NKKWTB. As I said,
and the Crown has been consistent on this, any arrangement in respect of the Stony Creek farm will need to be acceptable to the NKKWTB as the mandated body so the sooner options are raised with them the better.” Why has this then turned into a Janus ‘cat’. That is, one tribe – now two (non-mandated) heads!
Whakarongo mai te Karauna!

7. The other ‘non-mandated body’ is the ‘Aukiwa Working Party’ : a group that shares similar characteristics with NKKWTB (my letter to you dated 20 August 2014).
When will you, the Crown, take responsibility for your past and not turn this into the ‘Taniwha’ it is becoming.

Regards,

Edwin Emery

Ref : 1. Letter to Minister re NKKWTB Chairperson

Ref : 2. Assessment of Letter