February 10, 2014
No decisions from iwi forum
A Northland iwi leader is defending the Iwi Leaders Forum as a place to share ideas.
Haami Piripi from Te Rarawa says claims that it has become a Brown Roundtable miss the point of the forum.
He says the Treaty of Waitangi identifies hapu and iwi as the treaty partner, and gatherings like the one at Waitangi last week are a way for iwi and hapu to work out what that means in practical terms.
"Sometimes the treaty partner has to meet with itself and talk to itself and get all its ducks in a row. We don’t made decisions at those meetings. All we do is discuss with each other where we are going, how are we going to get there, can we work together, are there things we can collaborate on, what are the things that we can’t. All we do at those meetings is strategically align our objectives and our activities. We don’t make any decisions, we certainly don’t give the government any mandate, we don’t represent the Maori people in the government’s consultation process," Mr Piripi says.
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