November 09, 2016
Standing Rock strikes chord with Maori
A Maori lawyer who spent a month in North Dakota supporting the protests at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline says what’s going on their resonates with Maori.
Kingi Snelgar was working as an intern at a tribal court in Pine Ridge several hundred miles away when he became aware of the attempt to stop the pipeline going over land sacred to the Sioux Nation and under the Missouri River.
He ended up being a human rights observer taking note of the interactions between the self-styled protectors and police.
"The kaupapa is not only about stopping this pipeline but it's about realignging our perspective and our relationship with the land and with the water and treating it as a taonga rather than something to be exploited and that resonates with Maori people, we see this happening over there and see similarities with some of our places like Bastion Point, Raglan, Ihumatao and Puhipuhi," Mr Snelgar says.
He says indigenous people need to keep sharing their views on land and water and encouraging people to live in a more sustainable way.
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