I'm with Selwyn Muru on this one. An article from the Sunday Star Times.
What do you think though?
Disgruntled Maori have warned that Rugby World Cup celebrations could be disrupted if their grievances – including those over the foreshore and seabed – aren't addressed.
Prominent Maori say the tournament, just 200 days away, would be a "grand opportunity" to make a political statement.
Long-time Ngapuhi activist and Maori Council executive member Titewhai Harawira said she was determined to "expose" New Zealand's treatment of Maori to the large foreign media contingent covering the event.
"We are going to use the international media to expose what is going on in this country," she told the Sunday Star-Times.
"I want to be telling international media that all those reports they get that say we are well looked after and our land is intact are rubbish. We are going to be talking to the international media, absolutely."
Harawira said she hoped to provide visitors with a "whole chronology of what has happened in this country".
"I will talk about how legislation has taken away and denied us," she said. "We have time to put it all together, hand it out and talk about it."
The tournament has previously been used as a vehicle for protest.
In 2003, Aborigine and refugee groups held a series of marches to coincide with cup games across the Tasman. Members of the Aboriginal community made anti-racism speeches and waved placards outside Townsville's stadium before the Scotland and Japan match.
In France, railway and metro strikes disrupted the last two weeks of the 2007 tournament.
Maori Council executive member Ngaire Te Hira said Maori had a lot to be frustrated about in world cup year, including anger over historical mining on ancestral Tainui burial grounds, proposed mining in Northland, and the foreshore and seabed bill.
The world cup will also be held during the trial of those charged after the so-called "Tuhoe terror raids" in 2007.
Te Hira – who is backing a proposed hikoi to protest at the Maori Party's stand on the foreshore and seabed legislation – said the event was an ideal forum for Maori to make a stand.
"I think it is a grand opportunity for us to expose things. I am worried about my status as a Maori mother and grandmother, and about the future for my grandchildren and the children coming after them.
"I am worried about the nation New Zealand should be proud of too, and that we are a first-nation people who have been willing to share and be patient, but I'm afraid some of us are running out of patience."
Te Whanau-a-Apanui kuia Lillian Howe said she would support peaceful protest action during the cup, and said it was inevitable.
"Where else can they make a stand? There is no other way, is there? I guess those who want to make a stand, that is the only place to do it, because the government is just not listening."
PROTEST WARNING
Maori have been warned it would be "counter-productive" to protest during the Rugby World Cup.
Rugby NZ 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden said he was unaware of any proposed protests during the event and would be disappointed if Maori or other groups used the event for political gain.
But he doubted they would take to the streets during the seven-week celebration of rugby, warning it could be "counter-productive".
"I think they will recognise that this is such a one-off opportunity, for them to use it as leverage for something risks a pretty strong backlash.
"We saw that in that whole thing around The Hobbit. Sometimes protest, of course, is perfectly legitimate. But where the country is trying to put its whole collective foot forward, I don't think you will find people want to spoil that," he said.
Ngati Kuru kaumatua Selwyn Muru also warned of a backlash if Maori used the event as a protest vehicle.
"I am not into that. We shouldn't spoil this for thousands of New Zealanders," Muru said.
"That is one way of turning the country back against us. That is my personal view. We need to be fair to our Pakeha brothers and sisters.
- Sunday Star Times
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