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Dame Rangimārie Naida Glavish, the co-chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, has delivered a blistering address at the Kaipara District Council.
Her remarks came as hundreds of locals took to the street on Wednesday morning to protest the actions of Craig Jepson, the Kaipara District mayor who instituted a “karakia ban”.
Protesters made their way to council chambers where Glavish gave a rousing speech, also pointing out the new council had not yet met with Ngāti Whātua, despite there being an expectation to do so.
She said the previous mayor had enjoyed a relationship with Ngāti Whātua, unlike the current one.
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“I started by thanking our kai karakia this morning, and we honour anyone who honours our reo, because in the reo is a blessing,” Glavish said.
Karakia was not just a prayer, but an incantation from the atua, Glavish said, that could not be denied by any person.
Glavish said Ngāti Whātua were here long before the council and would be here long after.
“So have your day in the sun, it will not last. Have your day in the sun to deny us our right, because the doctrine of discovery is long over. Long gone.
“We will not tolerate ignorance, arrogance or racism. We are here to represent the unborn Ngāti Whātua child. It’s our responsibility today … to ensure that tomorrow, our tamariki mokopuna are not facing what we have to face today.”
Glavish said she would appreciate an explanation as to why the mayor felt it was appropriate to deny karakia, but didn’t think an explanation was likely.
The karakia battle began when newly elected mayor Jepson repeatedly shut down Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward councillor Pera Paniora’s desire to begin the council’s first meeting since the local body election with a karakia on November 30.
Jepson said the following day he would be continuing with his approach of not having karakia at the start of meetings, effectively implementing a ban on a 25-year tradition that began with the council’s first mayor Graeme Ramsey.
Jepson’s reasoning at the time was that councils should be secular, multicultural and respect everyone, which meant karakia were not appropriate, he said.
He later walked back his decision following an “open and frank” meeting which resulted in a compromise where each councillor would take turns in opening and closing meetings with a karakia, affirmation, prayer or reflection of the day.
When Stuff spoke to Paniora at the time, she said she attempted to compromise with Jepson to have karakia reinstated. In response, the mayor questioned her whakapapa, she said.
“He [Jepson] said, ‘We’ve got non-Māori, we’ve got someone with Nordic ancestry,’ and I said, ‘But Māori are the indigenous people of this country, and we have a treaty’,” Paniora said at the time.
“He said, ‘Well I feel very indigenous – how Māori are you?’”
The protest was organised by Omamari resident Paturiri Toautu, 53, who was a candidate in the Kaipara District Council’s Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward this year.
“The issue at hand goes deeper than just the karakia, for it is about power, control, and domination and excluding basically all tikanga Māori in formal council proceedings,” he said.
“This issue is in essence about equality and partnership between the Māori and Pākehā communities as according to the Treaty of Waitangi and treating us as equals.”
Toautu said all protesters were asking for was respect for tikanga Māori values and customs.
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