Listen Now: 
A Ngapuhi elder says the tribe has to look at options to welcoming guests to Waitangi on the Te Tii Marae because the taumata has lost respect.
Rudy Taylor was at the centre of an incident where a woman in the meeting house insisted Labour’s senior women MPs move off the front bench during the powhiri.
Mr Taylor says he had checked three times with the leading speaker that the seating was appropriate, and there was no protest when similar arrangements were made last year.
He says it’s a symptom of the disorder that culminated in Prime Minister John Key staying away because of the conflicting messages coming from the marae.
Meanwhile the significance of the treaty was lost.
"The history of where Maori and Pakeha came together, that wasn't said at the marae. It was like hickory dickory dock. When did that come into the korero of the kaumatua that had intelligence? is that tapu on the taumata side? Well I don't think this taumata knows what they are doing is they are going to start talking hickory dickory dock on the taumata," Mr Taylor says.
He says the controversial vote not to welcome John Key included people from outside Ngapuhi, in a clear breach of tikanga.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
