Listen Now: 
Download AudioNgāti Hine leader Waihoroi Shortland is defending an invitation to the Māori king to take over the paepae at the Treaty Grounds for a welcome for Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.
Ngāpuhi member Penetaui Klescovic has criticised the invitation, but Mr Shortland says he’s on the wrong horse and needs to get off it.
He says on her first formal visit back to her Tūrangawaewae, Dame Cindy will be welcomed by Ngāti Hine and the tribes of the north at Mōtatau Marae next Thursday, where she will also be presented with a specially-commissioner korowai.
On Friday she will be welcomed come by the rest of the motu to Waitangi in what is her first official visit as patron of the Waitangi National Trust.
“People who think Taitokerau is purely a Taitokerau marae will need to revisit history. The Waitangi estate is a gift to the nation. The people who sit on that trust, probably more than half and half, are Māori, and the king’s own daughter is a trustee,” Mr Shortland says.
As pōwhiri for Dame Cindy on Waitangi couldn’t happen because of Covid restrictions, so it was rescheduled to the anniversary of the day the last Taitokerau signature went on the Treaty of Waitangi – that of her tūpuna Te Ruki Kawiti.
RELATED NEWS
