December 15, 2020
Wahine Toa claim divides opinion
One of the women behind a Waitangi Tribunal claim on behalf of women in gangs says their right to make the claim is being challenged.
Paula Ormsby, who has been working with Waikato’s Wahine Toa kingdom chapter of the Mongrel Mob, says the claim will identify how wahine Māori gang associates and their children are subject to the intergenerational trauma of colonisation and the ongoing breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.
She says they have drawn both support and criticism.
"People see Wahine Toa as the Mongrel Mob putting in a claim but actually Wahine Toa is a women's movement and that movement has rippled completely across the motu so while there has been a huge support, sadly there has also been some people with closed minds saying 'who are these people to be putting in a claim,'" Ms Ormsby says.
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