Thanx for the special mention though.

NOT a minority – correct term is Tangata Whenua.

Maori will NOT be treated as an “ethnic minority” because minority WE ARE NOT. We refuse to be lumped in with those who came after us.

For people who share your view – Maori are the first nations people. so you can take your text book definition elsewhere. Thanx.

I am a student in the policy class that Hone Harawira visited and i am of Maori decent however, I was disgusted by the way that Harawira approached the lecture as we were told that he was coming in to inform us on the origins of the Maori Party etc..it was a lecture that i was looking forward to.

From the beginning to the end of the lecture Harawira used language that NO ONE should use when their talking in a university lecure. I thought that the strength of a politician was to be able to answer questions wether they like what their hearing or not but in answering they answer in an educated and informing way. All we got in the lecture was a whole bunch of disgusting language – I felt ashamed to be Maori and that someone i have respected as a strong Maori standing politician let not only himself but US down in that way.
If he is to speak publicly again i suggest that he:

A) doesn’t at all if he can’t keep his language tidy
OR
B) approach things a little better

It is like he had forgotten that we were all a class of first year policy students.. curious about politics.

The other thing was that i do not enjoy being called a “minority” was Steve trying to minimise Maori people by putting us in a class with asians and homosexuals??
That comment disgruntled a lot of people. Now we are the tangata whenua of this country in other words WE WERE HERE FIRST – so if their is ANYONE that is the ‘minority’ in this country in that context it is the pakeha.
That is just the way it is. We won’t go down like that. The comment that Steve made was a most disgusting and appaling comment to make considering that our class is bi-cultural. I did thank Hone for shutting him down but i don’t applaud the way in which he spoke to him.

I still enjoy our policy class – can we just move on??
this has become a frikn circus!!!

Here was my question…

“Given the injustices past governments have imposed on minorities like Maori, Chinese, homosexual (he became very aggressive and cut me off here), would you and or the Maori party support the introduction of binding referendums as a check and balance on governments.”

I attempted to rephrase the question so as not to refer to any of the three as a minority but got shouted down again.

I was simply trying to ask a reasonable question, only to receive a barrage of abuse from a very aggressive Member of Parliament that should be acting in a far more reasonable manner.

As for the “toughen up” comment someone has made, I have argued and debated with far more intelligent people than Hone Harawira, and was not upset personally, only disappointed. There is a time and a place for everything. This certainly was not the time and place for his behaviour in response to a simple question from a student.

I have the greatest respect for Maori leaders such as Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples who are dignified and intelligent people. Mr Harawira is nothing more than a racist thug, and if Maori look up to this man they need to set their sights a little higher. I am pleased to say, in all my dealing with many MPs, Mr Harawira is the exception and not the rule.

Evidently I am the racist and got my comeuppance although I fail to see that anything I said was racist or even aggressive. I was simply stating a numerical fact. If Maori students clapped it was not because he put me down or because of what I said, it was because they supported the fact that they were tangata whenua.

In 2005 I stood for Parliament as an Independent in Pakuranga coming in 3rd with around 2,000 votes. I am not a member of any political party but have had involvement in several in the past. I’m fortunate enough to have retired 4 years ago at the age of 45 and currently studying economics & political science because it interests me. I have no political ambitions, I merely stood in Pakuranga to highlight my cause for binding referendums. However, like most people I would like to be Prime Minister so I could fix everything, my way! That’s a joke before you jump to conclusions

Simple question,,,,,,what does tangata whenua actually mean?

I’m not sure what it means, but it seems to be flexibly used to claim land ownership in perpetuity.

I have descendants on both sides of my family dating back to first immigrants to NZ in the 1840′s. Only two of my 30 2nd-to-5th generation forebears were born outside NZ.

I therefore claim tangata whenua minus land ownership entitlement expectation. I do, however, anticipate being pillared by those with fractional Maori blood for this claim.

Hone wears his heart on his sleeve and you get what you see. There’s no ‘hidden agenda’ with him. It’s all up front.

So to that extent I don’t see him as a threat as much as I do my ‘friends’ on the left of politics who have elevated secret agendas to an art form and then try and rewrite history to claim it never happened or, if it did, it was the fault of the right.

Harawira called me an ” arsehole” and as I recall telling me to “piss off” purely because he didn’t like something I emailed him.

Personally I love it when an MP speaks their mind and we don’t see it often enough.

My understanding is that it translates to people of the land. This is then translated to indigenous people. This is then translated to only those people who can possibly trace ancestory to the first arrivals 800 years ago but not those who can trace ancestory back only 150 years ago, 50 years ago or 5 years ago. I have two daughters who have lived here all their lives. They are not tangata whenua. I have a New Zealand passport. I am not tangata whenua.

If tangata whenua means descended from first batch of immigrants. Do we practice aparttime in NZ? Is there a sliding scale of rights based on length of residence or is it all or nothing. I am a New Zealand citizen. I want the same rules and rights and responsibilities as my fellow citizens. Apparently that makes me a racist, how ridiculous!

Don’t mention the Eskimos. Not PC. Tsk tsk.

They then smirk about it and boast, since it evidently proves that (to use an appalling coloquialism) ‘ they are the man’.

It would seem that facing up to and admitting the truth and reality is not one of Mr Harawira’s strong points, although I guess if he ever actually did so, it would destroy a lot of his personally-held myths. Lies and fairy-tales are so much better.

His actions, triumphantly trumpetted to make himself look SOOO good (and non-raciast) show us that such a leopard is incapable of changing his spots, and also, evidently, that his ‘leader’, in the absence of comments to the contrary, endorses and supports his actions – situation normal.

But, at least we now know the attitude of the man, (as if we needed to be reminded), but the pity is that because Mr Harawira is basically a bully, (and an avoider of facts and truth), he will continue to act in this matter until either Sharples and co become sick of him (unlikely), the country and media at large learns to ignore him (highly unlikely), or his own electorate turn against him (even more unlikely).

The status quo will, sadly, therefore remain.

Meanwhile his own people-group continue to suffer the fallout from his misguided rantings and to slip even further back down the heap.

The MP for Northern Maori apparently believes this to be a small price to pay, because, very evidently, his motto is ‘It’s all about ME’.

I think that used to be called grandstanding . . .

Looks a bit dodgy too – the racing industry, plus the WPLMPONFA connection.

It doesn’t matter that Hone is a complete arse. That’s a given. But to run off bleating to mummy like some little kid … good grief. And should we consider the possibility that this attention seeking little prat with the bad suit went there with that express purpose in mind …?

People please! You’re all meant to be hard-arsed baby eating descendants of the Bishop of Bath & Wells and then you carry on like this!!! Sheesh!! What WILL the pinkos think of you. Have you no shame!!!??? You sound just like them.

Most Jews look white to me. Some, such as those from Ethiopia don’t, and the ones from North Africa are half-way in between.

An acquaintance who once lived in China told me that some (especially northern) Chinese consider themselves white and consider Europeans pink. In NZ we now have blue-eyed, white-skinned people who consider themselves Maori.

Skin colour is pigment to allow sufficient vitamin D from the sun while still providing sufficient protection from potentially harmful radiation. This explains white Russians and Scandinavians in the cold regions (except for the Eskimos who got their vitamin D from seals etc), and black folk at the Equator.

It suggests that if Hone’s ancestors had had rugby shorts for a few millennia he might have told the interjector to kiss his white arse.