Maori land 'grievance' meeting

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 2

Maori land 'grievance' meeting

PA Hamilton The Maori land rights movement, Te Matkite O Aotearoa, will call a fullscale “grievances” meeting next month :to coincide with the fifth anniversary of t*ne Maori land march. According to a Matakite spokeswoman, Mrs Eva Rickard, of Raglan, the Government has done nothing towards investigating Maori land grievances .since the marchers set off." from Te Hapua, in Northland, on September 14, 1975. However, in spite of the loss of even more Maori land since then, the spirit of the march was still “very mufti alive,” Mrs Rickard said, and supporters would be called to the Tirahau marae, in Auckland, for a three-day planning session. She said that .in the absence of the Government research assistance, through Maori land advisory committees, whicti was promised by the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Couch) last year, Matakite would attempt to recruit 1000 volunteers to document cases throughout New .Zealand for presentation to the United Nations in 1983.

It was hoped that the Mana Motuhake independence movement would take on much of the organisation. Mrs Rickard said that it was also hoped to reactivate the “new tribe of Maoris” dedicated to. the land struggle born from the 1975 march.