June 09, 2020
Gisborne council sets sail into choppy waters
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Gisborne District Council faces a protest today from local iwi and hapū angry at a plan to permanently install two new replicas of Captain Cook's ship the Endeavour.
They replace wooden replicas which were removed from the main Gladstone Rd years ago.
The council voted to go ahead without consulting iwi, with only the three Māori councillors opposing it.
Local wahine Marise Lant says the council seems to have forgotten last year’s protests over Tuia 250 commemorations at the place where Cook’s first encounters with Māori had resulted in the deaths of nine ancestors.
"It takes us back to the 175 years, the 250 years of colonisation and the racism that is obviously clear to us today around the country in local government, local councils and the members that are sitting in local government councils," Ms Lant says.
She'd like former Gisborne mayor turned Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon to school his former colleagues on how they are getting things wrong.
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