Ngati Whatua Leader Supports Move for Iwi to Run Language and Broadcasting Funding

A Ngati Whatua leader, Naida Glavish, says she fully supports Maori Party leader Pita Sharples’ move to have Iwi run Maori language and broadcasting funding.

Naida Glavish, Chairman of Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua says Maori will only start to truly succeed and break through negative socio-economic indicators when they are enabled to be self-determined.

“ Pita’s vision is bold and innovative. It is time to stop setting Maori up for failure by tying us to a ‘hand-out’ mentality from government officials where funding is given out in dribs and drabs and tied to meaningless bureaucratic outputs .

She says it is a tragic truth that government-run schemes and funding for Maori continue to fail because they set up measures and structures that are ineffectual and at odds with Maori values.

“ We are now seeing the emergence of highly successful and accountable Iwi run authorities and a significant Maori economy. The more we can set up Iwi-led organisations and businesses that have appropriate cultural models and values the more we will start to see Maori achieve.”

She says the establishment of an Iwi run entity for Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori (The Maori Language Commission) and Te Mangai Paho (the Maori broadcasting agency) would become an example of the proverb that says:“’give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’

Naida Glavish says the most effective models for indigenous people around the world follow this precept.

“ I’m not sure what Hone Harawira and Willie Jackson are on about suggesting we should continue to have the state looking after us all the time. I think they are probably just playing politics in election year.”

She says it is patronising, arrogant and racist to intimate that Maori cannot be trusted to manage financial systems.

“I cannot believe this thinking. It smacks of the days of slavery and persecution when colonists around the world treated indigenous people as second-class citizens incapable of managing their own financial affairs. Surely in the 21st century we have moved on from that horrendous way of thinking.”

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