September 14, 2015
Hikoi principles remembered
One of the original land marchers says there’s still unfinished business from the hikoi that started 40 years ago today.
Joe Cooper, the son of march leader Whina Cooper, says it’s exciting to remember how the march gathered momentum as it moved down the country, with tangata whenua from each stop carrying the pou through their rohe.
He missed much of the final day of the march from Ngati Toa in Porirua, because he was making copies of the declaration calling for the end of unfair land laws.
"It asked for the laws) that had the power to take Maori land, alienate Maori land, confiscate Maori land to be repealed, and never to be administered on remaining lands, and whereas management, rentention and control remain with our people ake ake ake, forever and ever," Mr Cooper says.
He wants to see the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi entrenched in the New Zealand Constitution as a korowai to protect the land.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com