Posts Tagged ‘Edward Ellison’

A Second Chance

“By the time I found out I was sick it was so far advanced that they couldn’t do anything about it,” Tahu tells me. “I remember feeling shit all year, and I just thought I was going to get diabetes or heart disease because I was so overweight and I didn’t do any exercise. I was resigned to the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it.”

The Ngāi Tahu Treaty Settlement Negotiation with the Crown: Key players and background

In August 1986 Henare Rakiihia Tau, on behalf of the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board (NTMTB), submitted a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal about the government’s announcement that it would transfer Crown land interests to State-Owned Enterprises. Ngāi Tahu and Māori across the country were worried that after the government privatised land and assets they would become unavailable for transfer in future Treaty settlements. Over the following year-and-a-half, seven further amendments to their statement of claim were made that set out the grievances arising from land purchases and the lack of reserves provided by the Crown, and the loss of access to food-gathering areas (mahinga kai), including both sea and inland fisheries. Tau was the Deputy Chairman of the Trust Board, and the Upoko of Ngāi Tūāhuriri. Tā Tipene was the Chairman of the NTMTB, and he and Tau formed an effective partnership in leading the Ngāi Tahu claim in the 1980s.

Environmental watchdogs

Edward Ellison says there is no question the Ngāi Tahu voice has been heard loud and clear by the authorities, and by the chemical companies themselves. He is confident the applicants know what is required of them to meet the expectations of tangata whenua in future.

Fortune favours the brave

Kimi Ākau (the Shotover River) holds a special place in the hearts of the Ellison whānau, thanks to the courage of one of their tupuna, who virtually made his fortune on this wild high country river in a single day.

Compelling evidence

A prehistoric tōtara waka excavated from a sand dune at Papanui Inlet in October is believed to be close to 500 years old, and is the first waka unearthed on the Otago Peninsula. It is the second-oldest waka ever found in Aotearoa, after the Anaweka waka, found near Nelson in 2012, and thought to be more than 600 years old.

Tāngata whenua from Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, archaeologists, and historians are excited by the significance of this discovery because the waka was built with stone tools more than 200 years before Europeans landed on these shores. Most waka displayed in museum collections today were built with steel tools after the period of first European contact.