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The Ministry for Maori Development denies it has turned down an application from master waka builder Hekenukumai Busby to set up a permanent waka wananga.
A spokesperson says it has supported multiple waka related investments over the years, and the current application is just on hold.
Labour MP Shane Jones says he has seen the correspondence with the waka tohunga, and it’s clear there is more dead wood in Te Puni Kokiri than in Mr Busby’s workshop.
He says no Maori has done more to revive the connections between the ocean and tangata whenua, starting with the welcome of the voyaging waka Hokulea to Waitangi.
That’s when northern leader Sir James Henare laid down the challenge to Mr Busby to build a waka for Maori.
"I was there that day. That was the day that the minister of customs in the Lange Government, Margaret Shields, stood and spoke under the porch of the whare and welcomed the Hokule’a and thousands of visitors to Waitangi, and the person who was deputed to take forward that tradition, and he teamed up with an obscure but highly-knowledgeable Micronesian called Mau (Piailug) and a host of us in the north helped to host Mau and the rest is history via Rapanui and back, and there is a new generation and this needs to be given momentum, it needs to be supported, and it doesn’t need to disappear under deadwood bureaucracy,," Mr Jones says.
He says Te Puni Kokiri has lost its way, and is relying on consultants because it has run down its staff.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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