Maori tribes will ignore 1990 boycott calls—chairman

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 8

Maori tribes will ignore 1990 boycott calls—chairman

PA Whangarei Maori tribes will ignore calls from their district Maori councils to boycott 1990 celebrations, the chairman of the New Zealand Maori Council, Sir Graham Latimer, believes. Voices calling for a boycott were “isolated” and tribes had gone “too far down the road” in preparing for the celebrations to join a boycott, Sir Graham said yesterday. He was reacting to news that the chairman of the Auckland District Maori Council, Dr Rangi Walker, is supporting a boycott, first called for last week by the Wairariki District Maori Council, representing Bay of Plenty. Dr Walker and* other Auckland council executives are preparing

i papers outlining Maori grievances i and will present these to a full Auckland council meeting this month. t If the boycott call is supported, the Auckland council will put a recommendation to the national body. > Dr Walker said Maori people had i “nothing to celebrate.” But Sir Graham said Maori people • had already made a commitment to the 1990 celebrations. > “As far as I know, the celebrations t are going to be supported by the j Aotearoa Festival, comprising 26 cul- • tural groups.” t People had received money from f the 1990-Commission to make canoes and 22 canoes had been commisI sioned to come from as far away as > the South Island, sail Sir Graham.

“Preparations are being made nationally by the tribes. The voices I hear calling for a boycott are isolated voices. The tribes have got to go ahead.

“I wouldn’t be too anxious. There are other people out there. The district councils don’t constitute everyone.” • A boycott by some Maoris of the 1990 celebrations would set race relations back decades, the Opposition spokesman on Maori affairs, Mr Winston Peters, said yesterday.

“Those so-called Maori leaders calling for a boycott do not represent the best interests of Maoridom,” Mr Peters said.

“They are parading their own prejudices behind the dost’ of Maori-

dom. The 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi was a significant step in developing a unique nationhood for New Zealand. The treaty should not be used to jeopardise social and economic progress, he said. “Those calling for a boycott want us to return to 1840 — they are not living in the real world.” It was time that those calling for a boycott started to deal with the real problem besetting young Maori — “woeful educational underachievment”. • One of the founders of the proposed national Maori Congress, Sir Hepi Te Heu Heu, has joined Maori leaders in support of tirtt 1990 cele-

brations. Sir Hepi said yesterday the celebrations would provide the opportunity for Maori and pakeha to unite. “There is nothing wrong with that,” he said. “I think it will be good to see everyone get together.” The congress wanted to give Maoridom a united voice by 1990, he said. The principles behind the 1990 celebrations, uniting Maori and pakeha as New Zealanders, were similar to those of the congress. Sir Hepi, the paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, said he had not heard any suggestion of boycott from his people. He had not discussed a boycott with anyone else. But there would always.differing views oa a big event like Hie 1990 celebrations.