Singer ‘very upset’ by P.M.’s remark

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 2

Singer ‘very upset’ by P.M.’s remark

From

DIANA DEKKER

in London

The singer, Dalvanius Maui Prime, has complained about a comment on his London mission made by the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, at a press conference last week. Mr Prime is in London to present submissions concerning the “grievances of the Maori people” to the Minority Rights Group and the Survival International organisation.

His visit follows a New Zealand Government-spon-sored one to Midem, the annual festival of the recording industry in Cannes. Sir Robert was asked at a press conference at the New Zealand High Commission, whether there had been exploitation of Maori culture in New Zealand. Sir Robert Muldoon first asked the questioner, one of about 30 journalists at the press conference, where the question had come from. “It wasn’t Dun Mihaka by any chance was it?” he asked. Told it was Mr Prime he said: “Yes, he’s a pop singer. I’d have to say in a word that it’s a publicity stunt, no more.”

Mr Prime said later that he had been “very upset” by Sir Robert Muldoon’s remark.

“But yes, it is a publicity gimmick,” he said. “I want to get as much publicity world-wide as I can on the denigration of my culture by his Government and all the governments before him.

“The publicity is not for myself. I’m not here to sing. I can’t sing here because I don’t have a work permit,” Mr Prime said. “I’m here seeing the sort of cultural facilities that the New Zealand Government does not provide for my people.” Instead of Sir Robert crying down his credibility, he should be talking to Mr Prime as Mr Prime had asked him to do, Mr Prime said. A press statement distributed by the Greater London Council which has played host to Mr Prime on his London trip, quoted Mr Paul Boateng, the vicechairman of the Greater London Council’s ethnic minorities committee as saying: “It would seem that Maori culture is being used mainly as ‘cosmetic exploitation’ for visiting dignitaries. “The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to New Zealand during their honeymoon, when a Maori showed his bottom to them was misinterpreted by the world’s media, emphasising the lack of knowledge about their culture. Under Maori culture he did not do it as an insult, but to protest at the non-implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi. “This action was seen by the Western press as a daring joke to royalty. I am sure that to the Maori community in Britain, of more than 2000, indeed to Maoris world-wide, this interpreta-

world-wide, this interpretation was most upsetting,” he said.