February 07, 2018
Lesson for marae in Waitangi peace
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says the trustees of Te Tii Marae should take a lesson from the peaceful and positive nature of this year's Treaty of Waitangi commemorations.
The official powhiri was moved to the Treaty Grounds, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed her hopes for the future crown-Maori relationship from the porch of the Whare Runanga.
Mr Peters says the welcome could go down to the bottom at some stage in the future, but that would depend on the Ngapuhi hosts.
"Because of the ructions of the past and those have gone on for far too many years, in the end it was a case of saying 'if you don't really want to be a host and act like one, we will go somewhere else, on to the national marae wghich is for the whole country.' So in the end it is a salutary lesson and I hope they've learned it," he says.
Winston Peters says yesterday's small protest hikoi which was removed from the Treaty Grounds was out of step with the rest of Maoridom
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