If you were ever in doubt about what being tangata whenua means from a Maori perspective this should clarify it for you. Te Kawerau a Maki, Ngati Te Ata and other hapu and iwi are angry that Ngati Whatua o Orakei are being offered greater rights by the Crown.
He (spokesman for Te Kawerau a Maki) also said it was likely that local councils and government departments would view the settlement as acknowledgment of Ngati Whatua o Orakei's tangata whenua status for the region, excluding other groups from consultation and involvement in cultural and protocol issues.
That's why it bothers me when John Key says;
The National Party will always believe in one standard of citizenship and I want to make this very clear to you today.........Maori are the tangata whenua of this country, and we have nothing to fear by acknowledging that.
The two statements are incompatible.
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Refering to Maori as tangata whenua bothers me as well. There are several definitions.
1.The local people
2. people of the land (that's us.. unless it is to be taken litterally as
2. decendents of Rangi and Papa -- but in our secular society we aren't supposed to buy that (I hope)?
3. The indigenous people (actually decendants of.. but to bring in the stockmans definition is ... highly offensive)to Maori. The biologists definition is self introduced by wind and water...that's all of us!
In short it is a word that has an innocuous meaning, and a meaning that says we are outsiders or visitors. Is it o.k to use a words like that???
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