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September 09, 2016
Maori voice berated at international conservation conference
Waatea Team
Posted On September 9, 2016
Putting a Maori voice on the international stage has sparked the ire of a leading New Zealand conservation lobbyist.
Maru Samuels from the Iwi Collective Partnership says the only person to object to him breaking protocol and speaking to this week’s International Union for the Conservation of Nature conference in Hawaii was a New Zealander, later identified to him as Barry Weeber.
Mr Weeber, the vice-chair of ECO NZ, later came up to him and berated Mr Samuels for undermining the official New Zealand position.
Mr Samuels says it’s indicative of the disdain government and environmental groups in Aotearoa have for the Maori position on issues like the proposed Kermadec ocean sanctuary.
"I do not feel good having to stand up in these forums and diss our government. I extended ample opportunities over the last 12 month period to sit down and meet with the government officials, they all rejected my advances. I had no choice but to come here, stand up and diss our government globally but, you know what, it shouldn't have happened, they should have actually sat down with us and that's all we've ever wanted," he says.
Maru Samuels says his speech was about challenging the IUCN’s failure to consider indigenous perspectives rather than an attack on policies back home.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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