January 21, 2014
Harawira wants poukai in Te Kao
Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira wants the Maori king to hold a poukai in the far north.
On Sunday the Mana leader attended the poukai at Ngati Awa's Kokohinau marae in Te Teko, which was only the second marae outside Waikato Tainui to host the annual hui.
A book published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Kokohinau poukai was presented to King Tuheitia.
Mr Harawira says the book is a reminder of the value of creating such links and traditions, and he's like to see Te Aupouri extend an invitation to one of its most prominent sons.
"Tuheitia is a son of Aupouri so therefore every year Tuheitia should be bringing a poukai back to Te Kao to be talking about some of the issues to also bring up that whole kaupapa from Tawhiao – 'Ko te kaupapa o te poukai kia whangai in te pani me te rawakore te tiaki ano hoki i nga pou' – and its important that we realise that over all that time regardless of what we might talk about multi million dollar tribal enterprises our people on the bottom are still in dire straits," he says.
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