January 23, 2018
Poor hospitality leads to marae bypass
Ngapuhi kuia Titewhai Harawira says the official powhiri for Waitangi Day commemorations should stay on the Treaty Grounds until the lower Te Tii Marae learns how to look after manuhiri.
The welcome will be held at the Whare Runanga, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will speak from the porch.
Last then-prime minister Bill English bypassed Waitangi, and the previous year John Key cancelled his trip after marae trustees refused to let him speak.
Mrs Harawira says she was shocked by the way trustees treated its distinguished guestsd last year, which even extended to being unable to serve up a cup of tea properly to the governor general.
"If they don't know how to look after the manuhiri it is no use talking about it. If you can't put it into practice then you don't have a right to walk on the mana of Ngapuhi like this. In the end it's Ngapuhi, no matter where I go, people are saying what a shocking way to behave and a shocking way to treat the manuhiri," she says.
Titewhai Harawira says Jacinda Ardern has been doing a wonderful job as Prime Minister and seems to be lifting the spirit of what government should be doing.
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