April 22, 2016
Labour marks Ratana ties
The Labour Party will today mark the 80th anniversary of its alliance with Ratana.
On this day in April 1936 Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana met with Labour leader Michael Joseph Savage and gave him four gifts.
They were three huia feathers sticking out of a potato which represented Maori and their lost land, a pounamu tiki for the mana that had been lost, a broken gold watch for the crown’s broken promises, and a pin with the movement’s symbol, a star and crescent moon.
Current leader Andrew Little says Labour values the relationship it has with the movement.
"The Ratana movement, you know they started off honouring the Treaty kaupapa ahh going right back and although that didn't really come to life since the 1970s-80s that was very much at the core of what Ratana stood for and what he was trying to achieve", says Mr Little.
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