AWARUA HUI - REPORT

This post is from one of the Ngai Tahu Wahine Toa who attended the Bluff Hui organised by the locals to get Mark Solomon to address some of their concerns.He first said he would visit any marae that asked for him to attend , then he backed off , then he agreed but only at a time when many of the whanau were at the muttonbird islands.

I didn’t hear a lot of anger apart from Anthony Fowler and a couple of terse responses directed by members of the audience against one of the fishers but I did hear a lot of distortions of truth, word games and outright fabrications from the member from Kaikoura, some very clear facts backed by documentation from Wally Stone, some sadness and disappointment from whānau members who had hoped, I think, to hear an admission from the Kaiwhakahaere that HE could have done better in his management of the NTHC / TRONT relationship.

Note from Editor BB : "We think that this still strikes to the heart of the matter. The amount of people who have worked for Te runanga O Ngai Tahu and been pushed out or sacked would have a listed company's shareholders baying for blood. As we have repeatedly said Solomon has been at the helm of an organisation that has been in turmoil for over a decade."

Instead they heard that Wally Stone was sacked because he did not supply ONE report even though the Kaiwhakahaere,Solomon, was present at the NTHC meeting and approved it, only to vote against it at the TRONT meeting. According to one of the involved fishers, it was also presented to TRONT in person by Colin Topi, Tahu Potiki and NTHC. The Kaiwhakahaere was apparently absent that day and TRONT was being chaired by the Deputy. Perhaps the Kaiwhakahaere didn’t read his papers or the minutes?

The meeting at Awarua ( Bluff) was orderly, well run and tikanga was observed at all times. The difference between the previous meetings and the Awarua meeting would appear to be that the mana remained with the ahi ka at all times. All who wished to speak were allowed to have a say but they were required to stick to the question of the moment rather than divert to other matters.

There was some "you said, I said" which was probably only to be expected but there was also some very pointed questions to the Kaiwhakahaere that he seemed unwilling or unable to answer in a direct fashion.

The meeting was well attended with the representatives from Oraka and Puketeraki present to support the Kaiwhakahaere while the Kaikoura whanau came to support the whanau from Awarua. However of the approximately 140 people present, about 120 were Awarua whanau, a very good result and well on a par with Rehua and Kaikoura.