Solomon on the beach

Ngai Tahu are putting their waewae down and eye-balling National over the Seabed and Foreshore, Takutai Moana (call it what you will) bill.
This comment by KevinH, lifted from the often redder-than-your-average-necked Kiwiblog, expresses nicely the thoughts of Maori that I've been talking to lately:

"Maori believe that they did not cede the foreshore and seabed to the Crown in the Treaty and have retained continuous ownership of what is part of their estates.

The belief is that the Crown is stealing this asset from Maori, a raupatu or confiscation.

If you examine the Treaty in detail you will find that Maori are correct and the Crown wrong. That is why this government and previous govt’s have not declared this to the nation.

Whatever the outcome of the latest select committee hearings Maori will not back down on pursuing legal ownership of the Foreshore and seabed."

Pottering about, Sunday.

I spent a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon in the company of some accomodating Ngai Tahu women, learning how to make a crayfish pot from supplejack vines, like the one pictured. Most interesting to me was the 'tree' that the pot was built upon - a post on a swivel, that allowed the pot to be turned as it was worked upon, in the manner that a potters wheel allows the creation of perfectly centred clay pots.
It was lovely too, to sit with Aunty Jane Davis and catch up with some of the things that have been happening throughout the rohe since we last met, not the least being her plans to move to Otatara and the news that she's soon to celebrate her 80th birthday!
She's really something.

Ngai Tahu and kelp

Tiny Metzger of Bluff makes poha titi from kelp in the same way his tupuna did i nga wa o mua and knows where to collect the live kelp needed to line the totara bark vessels in which the muttonbirds are stored.
He'll have thoughts about the Government's action in opening the kelp beds up for commercial exploitation, though I don't know them. I can guess though.
Here,  Alicia Hebbend raises concerns from Ngai Tahu Tribal Council senior fisheries advisor Nigel Scott, who says that he was disappointed that iwi concerns had been ignored over the granting of quota to harvest live kelp.

"The Kelp Bladder provides a unique environment and habitat for sea creatures like fish and crayfish that they rely on". Mr Scott said.

Maori Fisheries will receive 20 per cent of the quota.


“I’m picking we will probably leave it in the water”, Mr Scott said.

Despite the irony of that statement, I suspect he means it and Rakiura Maori in particular, will be deeply disturbed by this exploitive move from the Government and the kelp harvesting industry.

For myself, I'm disgusted by it.