GRAPEVINE

Kaea, Issue 1, 1 December 1979, Page 25

GRAPEVINE

MAORI MISSION TO THE UNITED STATES

Mr Rangi Amokai Hetet, master carver and Mrs Erina Hetet, master weaver, were granted $4,000 to visit the United States to study the development of indigenous crafts and their production and marketing. They had a promotion stand at the New Mexico State Fair at Albuquerque in September. The display included a full-sized canoe stern post carved by Mr Hetet which was later presented to the N.Z. Government for display in the new embassy in Washington. Present at the opening of the embassy was a special Maori Trade and Cultural Mission, financed by the Maori Trustee and made up of Kara Puketapu, Secretary for the Department of Maori Affairs; Dame Te Atairangikaahu and her husband, Whatumoana Paki; Henare Tuwhangai; Graham Latimer, President of the N.Z. Maori Council; Dr R.

Mete-Kingi, member of the N.Z. Planning Council and the Royal Commission on Maori Land; John Rangihau, Research fellow at the University of Waikato; the Right Reverend Manu Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa; and Mrs Elizabeth Murchie, President of the Maori Women’s Welfare League. The mission, which cost $19,000, also met with North American Indian leaders and economists to discuss similar interests in community, cultural and economic development. The Minister for Maori Affairs, Ben Couch, and the MP for Western Maori, Koro Wetere were also in the United States. Speaking of his trip Mr Couch said “The climax was the opening of the Foreign Affairs Chancery in Washington. I should really say “the openings”, because there were actually two. The second was the official one you probably saw on television, and an impressive occasion it was too.”

But the highlight for me was the Maori opening, in the thin light of dawn, when Maori leaders and the Prime Minister carried out the old Maori ritual for opening a meeting house ... believed to be the first time ever for a building outside New Zealand .... It was our own ceremony, quiet, more personal, wholly traditional, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world ....”

WOMEN TO REPRESENT NEW ZEALAND

Four Maori and Pacific Island women leaders were in New Mexico for a five-day international women’s forum in October. All active in the women’s Tu Tangata movement, they are: Louisa Crawley, multicultural director at the Christchurch Technical Institute; Iritana Tawhiwhirangi, district community officer with the Department of Maori Affairs in Wellington; Pauline Kingi, an

Auckland solicitor; and Paddy Walker, national president of Pacifica, an organisation of Pacific Island women in New Zealand. Minister of Maori Affairs Ben Couch said that the Government and the Maori Trustee were sharing the cost of the visit as another positive expression of the policy of helping women to take a more active part in community and political affairs,

A DYING HABIT

Two thirds of all New Zealanders are non-smokers. For smoking among men the peak age is 45-49 years with forty two per cent smoking. The number of men smokers remains about the same until the age of 55 and then there is a rapid decline. This fall appears to be the result of regular smokers dying, rather than because more people give up. These are some of the facts on smoking habits from the 1976 Census. The Census statistics show some interesting links between smoking and religion, marital status, occupation, income, race, age and sex. For instance well over half of Ratana

Church members smoke. Smoking among Roman Catholics is more common than among the population as a whole, while among Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovahs Witnesses smoking is less common. There also seems to be a link between smoking and marital stability. Similarly, smoking is linked to income: the higher the income the less common smoking becomes. More than half of all Maoris smoke, with more than two thirds of all young Maori women smoking. Smoking amongst Samoan, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tongan and Tokelauan men is higher than average but smoking among the women of these groups is less common. Teenagers continue to take up smoking in large numbers. More teenage women smoke than teenage men but generally speaking smoking is less common amongst women. (Future articles in Te Kaea on the subject of Maori health will examine the impact of smoking more closely.)

ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN

Professor Sid Mead has begun an anti-drug campaign with his newly

formed group Ngai Kokiri Kaupapa. Ngai Kokiri Kaupapa has been created to raise and act upon contentious issues. The group intends to publish pamphlets to dissaude drug use by pointing out the dangers. It has also decided to place a rahui on illegal drugs. The Bishop of Aotearoa, the Right Reverend M.A. Bennett, and other church leaders, have been called upon to hold a combined service to impose the rahui. Bishop Bennett has agreed to take the initiative and is holding discussions with the Maori branch of the National Council of Churches, about when and where to hold the services to place the rahui. The rahui has also gone before the New Zealand Maori Council and has received support throughout the country from informal discusions with various groups. Doctor P.P.E. Savage, Superintendent of Oakley Hospital, works with addicts and fears that there will be an increase in the number of Maori addicts over the next few years. Ngai Kokiri Kaupapa hopes to work in with the Police on tne information pamphlets.

NEW CONSULTANT FOR NGATIHINE BLOCK

Mr Mike Kitchen, who pioneered the Whakatu co-operative forestry scheme with Hawkes Bay meatworkers, has been appointed consultant for the development of the Ngatihine block of 5,500 hectares near Moerewa in Northland. Mr Tom Parore, District Officer for the Department of Maori Affairs in Whangarei, made the appointment after he and several owners of the land visited the Whakatu project to see if its success suggested a similar co-operative in the north. The owners, who are keen to develop the land themselves, will be meeting soon to discuss Mr Kitchen’s proposals.

NEW MASTER CARVER Following the sad death of Mr John Taiapa earlier this year, the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute at Whakarewarewa has now appointed a successor. He is Mr Tuti Tukaokao, currently tutor in Maori carving and culture at Tauranga Boys’ College. He is from Ngati Ranginui, with Te Arawa connections, and has a distinguished list of achievements to his credit. These include responsibility for eight meeting houses and involvement with the building of several more. He was also the N.Z. Government representative in Maori carving and culture at world craft conferences in 1974 and 1978. Mr Tukaokao paid tribute to his predecessor: “It is a great honour to be chosen to succeed John Taiapa. If I can achieve anywhere near his high standard it will be because of the knowledge he has passed on.”

MORE STATISTICS Did you know that according to the 1976 Census 42 Maoris are doctors, 45 are lawyers and 2,457 are teachers? These represent 0.98 per cent, 1.28 per cent and 4.63 per cent of each profession respectively.

CHINA The Minister of Maori Affairs, Ben Couch, has authorised Maori funds to be spent on a tour of China by about twenty-five Maori cultural performers. The tour will be paid for jointly by the Maori Trustee, Mr Kara Puketapu and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The tour arrangements and the diplomatic requirements will be handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

MORE AND MORE MAORI 50,000 primary school kids learn Maori, according to the Department of Education. Last year 14,005 secondary school pupils studied Maori with 2,070 students sitting School Certificate Maori. More schools are offering Maori and there are more fulltime and itinerant teachers of Maori. New teaching programmes have been started, with primary school readers and tapes in Maori. The bilingual school project at Ruatoki has been expanded. Here Maori is the main language used from preschool through the first four years of primary school. Until the senior classes English is taught as a second language.