Shearer says taniwha should be acknowledged

September 10th, 2012 at 7:23 pm by David Farrar

Patrick Gower at 3 News reports:

Labour Party leader David Shearer has long-held beliefs that taniwha must be respected when it comes to Maori and their interests in water. His views can be traced back to his masters thesis, and he stands by them today.

Water has been the big political issue of the year, but when David Shearer was first asked who owned it he didn’t know.

But it turns out Mr Shearer has a degree of expertise on the issue, a masters thesis in fact. It was called “Between Two Worlds, Maori Values and Environmental Decision-Making”.

In his thesis he advocated that “the belief in taniwha or spiritual pollution…while they may appear irrational to many…cannot simply be dismissed as irrelevant”. It’s a belief he still holds today.

“I absolutely stick by that,” says the Labour Party leader. He says we should acknowledge taniwha. “We have been doing that for the last 20-something years when we have made decisions around water.”

Well I don’t think we should acknowledge or give any credence to taniwha. Such spiritual nonsense should play no part in our laws or decisions.

We should give as much regard to belief in taniwha as we do to belief in (Evil) Lord Xenu.

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Why not just shoot the Taniwha?

June 9th, 2011 at 1:44 pm by David Farrar

Wayne Thompson at the Herald reports:

Plans for an Auckland city rail link tunnel could be spiked by a taniwha – a spiritual creature that Maori say is in the way of the project.

The Auckland Council’s Maori Statutory Board has warned transport planners of the taniwha, who lived in an ancient creek running past the Town Hall and down Queen St.

Board member Glen Wilcox has asked Auckland’s transport committee to give consideration to the taniwha – which the Ngati Whatua iwi call Horotiu – as it plans the $2.6 billion tunnel project.

“What’s being done about the taniwha Horotiu who lives just outside here, and that tunnel will be going through his rohe [area]?” asked Mr Wilcox.

Poor Horotiu. I imagine that the only thing which could make him feel better is a huge amount of koha. Maybe once the tunnel is built, they could do a side tunnel for him, so he can play safely away from the trains.

This does remind me of the last time a Taniwha held up a project. Someone wrote a letter to the editor saying they had solved the problem, as they shot the Taniwha at the weekend!

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