Hone wasn’t alone he was accompanied by another Hone, Hone Morris and two exceptional Maori women, Dr Maria Bargh and Dr Huhana Smith and what a team they made. Their subject was water [Wai] and its sell off by the government. The location: Te Manawa
John Key says that no one owns the water…according to all four speakers that is simply crap of the highest order. The Government controls its use, decides its allocation, dictates its flow and gives it away to farmers or to the highest bidder. So since it acts like an owner…it is the owner.
The Maori Council is representing all Maori in their attempt to get government to come to the table and reach a pan agreement regarding water and its use. The government has and uses a divide and rule strategy and they use this covert method to avoid reaching an agreement with Maori as they promised and as the courts have upheld they should.
The audience of eighty plus warmed quickly to the collective atmosphere and simply buzzed their collective agreement with the each speaker’s contribution, and so did I. The four dynamic speakers then in turn connected the audience to the views of firstly the Hapu and then the Iwi and lastly to the country as a whole.
A Maori saying came to mind as I listened to each speaker in turn: ‘E mohiotia ana a waho kei roto he aha’…One can not know from the outside what is contained within’ [Unless one can see within]
I very quickly realised that if one is to understand the strong emotional attachment Maori have for water one needs to share a period listening to Maori interact on the issue. I could have attended no better gathering or Hui to assist with this goal.
Hone Harawira said
“We all collectively need to do better than we are doing at the moment” “For some iwi leaders a lot of discussion is driven by Pakeha corporate development: they see water as a valuable commodity from which they can make money. He went on to say: If any iwi buys into a deal, those profits will come from your whanau paying their power bills”.
What I realised was that Maori are in fact on the frontline fighting a battle on all our behalf. The sell off of our assets such as our power companies like Mighty River Power, is a crime against all our citizens be they Maori or Pakeha, the sell off is both wrong both financially and morally.
It now looks as if the petition sponsored by the Greens, Mana and Labour will force an referendum to be held…if you have not signed yet then please do, this would prove that when required we can unite fully to keep our assets in our hands. Hone Harawira said:
“He believed a referendum against asset sales would overwhelm the government’s position”
These two hours were far more rewarding than listening to ex National and Act party dropout John Ansell preach his doctrine of hate:
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