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Download AudioA critic of the decision to hand over the paepae at the Waitangi to Waikato Tainui says the Treaty Grounds can’t be treated like a hapū marae.
Ngāti Hine kaumatua Waihoroi Shortland says he asked Waikato Tainui led by King Tūheitia to welcome Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro to the Whare Rūnanga next Friday, on her first official visit to the Treaty Grounds.
Penetaui Klescovic from Ngāpuhi and Te Aupouri says the Waitangi is being dominated by a select few.
He doesn’t accept Mr Shortland’s view Waitangi is a national marae and he needed to find a ring-in because the iwi of Taitokerau are holding their own powhiri for Dame Cindy at Mōtatau the previous day.
“The hapū of Ngāti Hine the hapū of Ngāpuhi, they believe that they’re the ones who bring (Dame) Cindy on. Let me remind you Cindy’s whakapapa is in Awarua which is in Kaikohe and Whangaroa so I find it very confusing why we all end up in the sticks out at Motatau,” Mr Klescovic says.
He says it’s the whole of Ngāpuhi who take on the responsibility each year of welcoming the motu to the birthplace of the treaty.
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