Sunday 6 July 2008

Hone Harawira on Maori health

Below are the notes for a formal speech Hone Harawira, MP for Te Tai Tokerau, was to give at the Public Health Association Conference Tapu Noa: Environmental, Physical or Both? in Waitangi, 1 July.

As the meeting was held on a marae Hone spoke without notes, though covering many of the points made here.

Kia ora koutou katoa

On this day in 1842, the governor's newspaper Te Karere o Niu Tireni, made the following comment:

"...e hoa ma, kua wareware pea koutou ki te pukapuka i tuhituhia ki Waitangi, i roto i taua pukapuka ka waiho nga kauri katoa, nga awa, nga aha katoa ma te tangata Maori hei aha noa atu ki a ia."

[Translation] "...friends, perhaps you have forgotten that document written at Waitangi where in that document all the kauri, the rivers, everything is left to the Maori to do with as he wishes."

Three years later, the British launched a full-blown assault on Kawiti's pa at Ohaeawai, with cannon and troops outnumbering Kawiti's followers by six to one.

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