Posts Tagged ‘Martin Fisher’

Reviews

A Long Time Coming is an important and judicious book. As the full title indicates, it covers the period, processes and personalities involved between the Waitangi Tribunal releasing the Ngāi Tahu Land Report in 1991 and Parliament passing the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement 1998.

In retrospect, because we know a settlement package was negotiated and given effect to, and we know Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu was established as part of this, these events appear inevitable, perhaps even orderly. In eleven short chapters, historian Martin Fisher shows that to be anything but true. Instead, as he notes at p.129, “it was a minor miracle that an agreement was signed when it was.”

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.

Reviews
Books

There’s a chapter for every object, written by historians, archivists, curators, and Māori scholars. They look into the “lives” of treasured family possessions such as family diaries, a cherished kahu kiwi, a music album, Katherine Mansfield’s hei tiki, a stamp collection, and of course, those fabulous tāniko slippers.

Reviews
Books

SPOONBILL 101 Nā Rangi Faith Puriri Press 2014 RRP: $25.00 Review nā Gerry Te Kapa Coates This is a purist’s book of 60 eclectic poems where the writer is accessible only through his work – no cover blurb, photo, or notes on the poems. I admit I cheated and checked his website: www.rangifaith.co.nz. Faith is…