December 11, 2012
Call for Te Arawa women to get tribal mandate
A senior Te Arawa kaumatua says the tribe needs to let its women speak for it.
The Rotorua-based iwi has a reputation for enforcing strict kawa about the role of women.
Toby Curtis, the chair of the Te Arawa Lakes Trust, says that’s despite it having a large number of wahine with a high profile for their abilities in fields like health, law and education.
He says they should be mandated to speak on behalf of Te Arawa.
"It does not intrude on Te Arawa tikanga and kawa because the roles we want them to assume I suppose belong to a Pakeha world. Nevertheless they are Te Arawa women and we want their voices speaking on behalf of Te Arawa. In the past it has always been men which has been the customary thing to do but now we have got to ensure the people who speak on our behalf are well qualified, well experienced and know what they are doing and saying and they have proven experience also within the tribe," Mr Curtis says.
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