Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Dec 13, 2011, 8:57 pm
At almost 700 pages long the Te Rarawa Deed of Settlement was written mostly by the Crown, but is interspersed with some nicely presented Te Rarawa history. Between the Crown core and the Te Rarawa wrapping, it's easy to get confused about what it all means. I read it with two simple questions in ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Dec 12, 2011, 3:26 pm
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” Last Wednesday (30 November 2011), listening to Margaret Mutu being interviewed on the Ngāti Kahu radio show, we heard the sound of a text message being received and...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 30, 2011, 8:20 pm
O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it! Miranda’s speech, taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, aptly describes the mood of the nation, as the Prime Minister John Key assembles a new government. Earlier in t...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 28, 2011, 3:42 pm
Around 2,254,681 people took part in election 2011. But a further 1,000,000 eligible voters did not bother, producing the lowest percentage of voter turnout in 120 years. This continues a downward trend that’s been going on since 1987, the year in which Andrew Krieger, John Key’s colleague at ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 24, 2011, 5:37 am
Have you ever looked into the eyes of a very new infant and seen them see you, then watched as they shifted their gaze to somewhere just beyond you and smiled in delighted recognition? When that happens I always ask, “Are you talking to the corner-angels darling?” By that I mean those flickers...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 22, 2011, 8:48 pm
In this last week before we go to the polls I have been thinking a lot about Naomi Wolf’s 2007 book, “The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” in which she lays out the rise of world-wide fascism in this century and the one before it. Many people may think they don’t kn...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 18, 2011, 4:42 pm
While an American visitor was shocked at the racism against Māori that he witnessed from a policewoman in Kerikeri during his recent visit here, most New Zealanders would have found it unremarkable, in the same way that they find the Crown’s treaty settlement dealings with Māori unremarkable. ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 17, 2011, 5:22 pm
“Show us the money! Show us the money!” In the first of two televised debates held in early November for election 2011, that was the repeated one-liner that National’s John Key used to pressure Phil Goff over Labour’s election promises. Disappointingly Goff failed to respond with any con...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 13, 2011, 7:27 pm
The clear trend across the world is to concentrate decision making and resources in fewer hands by over-riding the sovereignty of nations. Just look at Greece and Italy where elected leaders, unable to govern as a result of having joined the European Union and done a deal with the devil itself (Gol...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Nov 8, 2011, 4:09 am
Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor in the United States used to describe evidence that is obtained illegally. The logic of the terminology is that if the source of the evidence (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") is as well. Last week Māori TV showed the...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 31, 2011, 7:24 pm
The theory of social contract is based on the notion that governments only exist by consent of the people; we the people agree to be governed if, in exchange, government agrees to protect us. But here in this country, instead of protecting us, governments of left and right have spent the last thir...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 29, 2011, 7:35 am
Across the world there’s a revolving-door between politics and finance through which high-ranking political retirees like Tony Blair move from government straight into banking, and high-flying bankers like John Key move unerringly into government. In that world, governments have not only failed t...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 29, 2011, 7:34 am
Until this year I’d never heard of a credit default swap. It’s taken some time for me to get my head around what it is and why it’s so important to what’s happening to the economy today. In essence, a CDS is like an insurance policy on methamphetamine. Here’s a hypothetical: Mr X borrow...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 14, 2011, 4:49 pm
Spoilt sportsmen, conniving politicians, dishonest financiers; they all get caught eventually. And yet it often seems that, instead of kicking their sorry butts, we meekly accept their nonsense. Perhaps that is the price we feel has to be paid for being associated with winners. Perhaps it’s what...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 4, 2011, 12:33 am
For some time now Chris Finlayson has been flying kites for the crown amongst the iwi of Te Hiku o Te Ika, gauging how much he can get away with and who will support him against Ngāti Kahu. In August he wrote instructing Ngāti Kahu to comply with Crown deadlines about providing information relati...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 4, 2011, 12:33 am
On 12th November 1996 the first MMP general election in New Zealand was held. Just five months earlier, on the morning of 17th June, Ruapehu had erupted spectacularly, spewing 7 million tonnes of ash into the air. Both these events impacted hugely on the land claims of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupōuri, Ng...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 4, 2011, 12:31 am
Thanks to Ngāti Kahu the Muriwhenua Land Claim before the Waitangi Tribunal is alive again. Last week (12th September), the Tribunal’s Chief Judge released a two page memorandum of directions on Ngāti Kahu’s application for binding recommendations asking that the Crown be ordered to return all...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Sep 11, 2011, 7:20 pm
A phenomenon I have only just recently registered, but which really (when I cast my memory back) has been around all my life, is how little conviction and belief the Crown and its supporters have in the language, culture and laws they derived from England. Take just one word and its legal, linguis...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Sep 4, 2011, 5:53 pm
How can you tell when the Crown is lying? Who decides how and when a hapū claim is settled? If you know the answers to those questions, congratulations. You have just passed the minimum entry requirement to ‘Direct Treaty Negotiations With The Crown 101.Work hard and you might one day be quali...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Aug 28, 2011, 8:07 pm
At the hui-a-iwi held last Thursday in Kareponia marae a good cross-section of people from across Te Hiku got their questions answered about Ngāti Kahu’s application to the Waitangi Tribunal. For everyone’s enlightenment, I’ve summarized the kōrero in a question and answer format. Why have ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Aug 22, 2011, 9:02 pm
As I prepare to vote in the general elections later this year, I’m looking at the environment and carefully measuring every candidate and party for what I call the Ik factor. I coined the phrase from the late Lewis Thomas who had the knack of writing about all sorts of things in a way I could un...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Aug 14, 2011, 7:05 pm
As they prepare to return to the Waitangi Tribunal, it is timely to review the Tribunal and its work, as well as that of the Crown, with regard to Ngāti Kahu. The Waitangi Tribunal is a Crown appointed Commission of Inquiry established in 1975 to inquire into and make recommendations on breaches of...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Aug 7, 2011, 10:03 am
Last month, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu lodged an application formally asking the Waitangi Tribunal to order the Crown to return all Crown forest and State-owned Enterprise lands in the Ngāti Kahu rohe. A mere four days after the application had been lodged, the Tribunal issued a memorandum in w...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jul 24, 2011, 9:00 pm
In 1847, in an epic decision that was not appealed to the Privy Council, the Supreme Court declared that aboriginal title "cannot be extinguished (at least in times of peace) otherwise than by the free consent of the Native occupiers." Instead of developing laws around that decision, the New Zealand...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jul 18, 2011, 6:23 pm
In 1986 Ngāti Kahu’s hapū leaders agreed to allow our land claims to be consolidated into WAI 45, along with those of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto and Te Rarawa. What followed were thirteen long and arduous weeks of hearings held over five years. It then took a further three years b...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jul 12, 2011, 1:44 am
At a recent meeting of Christian women here in Kaitaia, one of our number walked out because two others publicly commented on her perceived shortcomings. In a mere minute the feeling in the meeting went from pleasant to poisoned. I actually envied those amongst us who were deaf because they didn�...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jul 3, 2011, 9:18 am
When my Pākehā grandmother married my grandfather she probably had no idea that sometime during their long and fiery union she would move from being considered a stranger amongst Māori, to becoming he tau iwi. But that is what happened. There are other Pākehā who, although their starting poin...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jun 26, 2011, 9:32 pm
As the provisional results of the Taitokerau by-election emerged on Saturday night, a question was posted to the yahoo newsfeed site from a chap calling himself Bruce. “As a relative newcomer to these fair islands can someone please explain why in a supposed first world civilised country there is...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jun 19, 2011, 11:25 pm
On Radio Live last Friday morning, Hillary Barry who is arguably the first lady of mainstream news, had a fit of giggles so bad that she had to stop and hand over to the sports reporter. She’d introduced a story in which New York Congressman Anthony Wiener was resigning after having been exposed ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jun 12, 2011, 11:41 am
Late last month the Supreme Court released a majority ruling (4 to 1) in favour of a man named Allan Haronga. Mr Haronga had fought his case all the way up from the Waitangi Tribunal, through the Māori Appellate Court, the High Court, and then the Court of Appeal, before finally winning a ruling f...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Jun 5, 2011, 1:57 am
I was asked recently how I can work year in and year out on the fault line between Māori and the Crown without getting bitter and twisted. Some years ago, during the worse series of tragedies I have ever experienced, I received a great yet simple insight – the knowledge that whatever happens to ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 30, 2011, 4:08 am
On Saturday just gone Chris Finlayson and his officials were in Te Hiku meeting with different iwi in the region, starting with Ngāti Kahu. By Sunday we were hearing very muddled reports of the hui with Ngāti Kahu. There was this from TVNZ: “Ngati Kahu broke away from the four other iwi about ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 23, 2011, 1:06 am
As a youngster I’d get hoha hearing my dad say things like, “Our family name is a good one. Don’t blinkin’ stuff it up.” Over the years since, I’ve come to understand that what dad was talking about was the importance of respecting our relationship to each other. What one did impacted...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 15, 2011, 4:11 pm
"Mana May Miss By-election" was the headline in last Friday's Herald, pretty much the same line we were fed by TV1 and TV3 the previous night. As a headline it at least had alliteration going for it, but as important news or even as mundane information, it held little merit. The headline might jus...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 8, 2011, 7:13 pm
That great Māori writer, Mark Twain, once wrote, “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” On a recent flight to Kerikeri, my seat mate was a Ngāpuhi woman coming home from Perth for time with whānau, particularly the mokopuna. She’d been away for a year, and had at least two n...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 5, 2011, 6:08 pm
For the past twelve months, while critics within and without Ngāti Kahu have been pressuring us to work towards settlement under the Crown’s processes and timetables, we have been writing the Ngāti Kahu Deed of Partial Settlement under the processes and timetables of our hapū. The first draf...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Apr 17, 2011, 10:10 pm
A generation ago I asked a kaumātua why our tūpuna had almost universally embraced Christ and turned away from ngā Atua Māori in all but form, and if, in his opinion, that had been a good thing? Māori Marsden was a graduate of the Ngāpuhi wananga as well as of St Johns Theological College, a...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Apr 10, 2011, 4:32 pm
The closest Pākehā term there is for tikanga is ‘law.’ It’s not necessary to be steeped in tikanga Māori to live by it, anymore than it’s necessary to be steeped in Pākehā law to live by that. In fact, given that there are currently almost 2000 separate Acts in this country, I’d argu...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Apr 3, 2011, 9:45 am
Inside a hapū the whānau have always been, and still remain, the pre-eminent unit. Inside an iwi, the hapū have always been, and still remain, the pre-eminent unit. With grateful acknowledgement to Tepania Kingi of Ngāti Whātua who first articulated it on paper, I have adapted his words to ...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Apr 3, 2011, 1:43 am
I like swiss cheese and smorgasbords because they’re generally tasty and light to eat. But as metaphors for logic and ethics, they stink. Whenever I see or hear swiss cheese logic and smorgasbord ethics at play along racial grounds, the stench is particularly strong. A case in point is the use...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Mar 21, 2011, 7:31 am
Every columnist and commentator seems to have an opinion about where they think Hone Harawira should go from here and what he should do. All of them have one thing in common; they expect him to remain in Parliament. I don’t. There’s far more important work to be done outside Parliament than i...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Mar 13, 2011, 2:21 pm
I had a couple of lessons in charity this weekend. The first came from one of my church leaders, a quietly unassuming but brilliant man, who said, “We find it easy to show charity towards others in their times of need. Can we also show charity to them in their times of weakness?” They reckon on...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Mar 8, 2011, 5:28 am
One of the most enduring relationships I know of is that between my 83 year old dad and his 85 year old sister. For years she used to come home every holiday and set up camp on our lawn until dad built her a bach right where she used to put up her tent. No legal paperwork was signed, and no cash e...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Feb 27, 2011, 10:22 pm
06/02/11 "A terrible earthquake is going to hit Wellington. I have seen body bags in the streets of Wellington. I have seen houses on the hills of Wellington – seen them disappear. I have seen the roof of the Beehive lying in the debris of the streets of Wellington." (Anglican minister Gray Theod...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Feb 23, 2011, 12:12 am
This year I have made it my mission to visit a number of online newsfeed sites and see if I can turn around the racists who post their hatred on those sites. My mission statement is simple; stick to the facts, expose the red herrings, be nice. I’ve boiled the pet issues of the posting racists dow...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Feb 23, 2011, 12:09 am
Years ago I and a bunch of mates, all nurses at Kaitaia hospital, were on a night out in Awanui hotel. The large crowd there that night included a small number of out of town gang members – some with local connections, including a cousin of mine. The general mood was sweet. I’m not sure when t...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Oct 22, 2010, 10:12 pm
Well, here we go again. Business as usual in Aotearoa / New Zealand as the issue of sovereignty comes ever sharper into focus and closer to resolution one way or another. Unsurprisingly Ngati Kahu is at the sharp end as our Hapu continue to assert sovereign power and authority in their rohe. Barel...
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - Apr 11, 2010, 6:34 am
TE KĀEA
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Anahera Herbert-Graves posted an article on AN ELEGANT THEORY - May 4, 2009, 5:12 am
In 1918 my great grandfather, Te Para Puhi Te Paa, died of the flu leaving behind his young wife and 7 children. He left his home in Ahipara that morning, fit and healthy, and died that evening while visiting whanau in Pukepoto. Quarantine was put in place almost immediately. Result - his wife and k...
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