Indymedia NZ editor facing 14 years in jail

by che guevara is dead Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:54

Lock tat indymedia thug up for life. I suppose we'll all have to read about this in Village Magazine, won't we Chekov?

by Observer Mon Nov 05, 2007 05:31

According to my information this is exactly what occurred:-

"Members of the Taneatua Mongrel Mob say there are no terrorist camps in the Ureweras - the area is used for hunting camps. Photo / Alan Gibson

In Ruatoki this week a hui was held at a marae with a plaque out front which perhaps sums up 150 years of Tuhoe relations with white authority.

There's nothing bad written on the plaque. In fact, it's the opposite, and that may be a surprise given the level of anger in this tight-knit community.

The plaque commemorates one of the last great paramount chiefs, Takarua Tamarau, who died in 1958 aged 86. It reads: "Tamarau was a protector and guide to his Maori people and a loyal supporter of the British flag."

The memorial at little Otenuku Marae, the last of the many marae which dot Ruatoki Valley Rd was erected by the Commonwealth Covenant Church "in high personal esteem and as a token of arohanui between the Maori and Pakeha peoples".

But in one fell swoop on Monday the police - say Tuhoe people - badly wounded those relationships.

At the hui, Maori police liaison officers, who locals say were left out of the loop about the massive police operation, were having to explain why armed police descended on this tiny town of only a few hundred people in such force. Locals believe they were treating an entire community as criminals in their hunt for a few.

People say they saw a sniper leaning out of a circling helicopter as heavily armed police blocked off the only two roads in, scaring children and making young and old stand in front of their vehicles holding a number in front of them so criminal-style mugshots could be taken.

At the marae, media gathered for the hui and it appeared some Maori press were allowed on to the grounds but not Pakeha.

When people spilled out of the marae after emotional talks, media invaded the grounds. Most Tuhoe ignored the protocol gaffe but one woman was yelling "you Pakeha ones, get out of the gate".

She may have seemed aggressive but she was right, said a Maori member of the media. No one, Maori or Pakeha, should have gone on to the marae uninvited.

Another blunder by Pakeha. And people here say there were some big blunders made by police.

When they descended, one of the main roadblocks was set up at what is known as the confiscation line.

This is where, in the 1860s, Tuhoe were left on one side and all the land on the other was taken and given to settlers.

This followed the scorched earth policy where British soldiers invaded Tuhoe territory in the bitter cold of winter, burning crops, pillaging, murdering and leaving the people to starve.

The historic injustice has not healed. Only two years ago, Tuhoe painted bodies on the ground at the confiscation line in a re-enactment for Waitangi Tribunal members who came to town to hear their treaty claims, among them a constitutional claim to govern themselves according to their own customs.

Tuhoe have always been steadfast: they say they never signed the Treaty of Waitangi and they never gave up their sovereignty.

The day after the hui Tamati Kruger's fish and chips are getting cold as he talks about the past and how the police action this week has affected the people, once again.

Kruger is a kaumatua, historian and teacher, and is highly respected. He has spent the day at a district health board meeting on which he is a Crown appointee. He now sits in a bright orange T-shirt at the Te Kohati A Tuhoe office, tired from the past days' events, yet talking eloquently about the long and troubled history between Tuhoe and the Crown.

The tyranny continues today, he says.

He thinks placing the blockade at the confiscation line was not intentional. But it is significant.

"It's like history in cycles, isn't it? Yeah, it's history repeating. That probably goes over the top of the head of the police commissioner. One party remembers, one party forgets."

Tuhoe have been saddened that the police commissioner did not use the police Maori liaison staff.

At the hui, says Kruger, the liaison officers kept their eyes down when a speaker swore at them for being slaves of the white man.

"The speaker said 'you have no mana at all, don't you see that ?' and they just sat there. We could all feel their embarrassment and disappointment."

In another piece of history repeating itself, the liaison officers who fronted at the hui were not Tuhoe but from tribes whose ancestors were Crown sympathisers and helped lead the soldiers into Tuhoe land.

The symbolism is important. Children are raised with strong oral traditions about the injustices of the past and on Monday Tuhoe believe they saw it for themselves in 2007.

For some reason, there is an automatic heavy-handedness used by the Crown when it deals with Tuhoe, says Kruger.

He thinks this is because Tuhoe have always been quarrelsome, whether about national or local politics or the fact people refuse to register their dogs on their own land.

"I guess if you draw those things together it paints a picture of contempt and disrespect for the Crown and its authority; we question it all the time, we mock it and we jeer at it because we don't believe that they have authority in our rohe [iwi territory]."

There will be long-term impacts from this latest conflict, he says.

The Crown's apparent attitude - that Tuhoe are belligerent and stubborn people who need to be dragged into the 21st century - will be entrenched.

But also entrenched will be Tuhoe people's pride and determination to be more Tuhoe "in every way possible".

Ruatoki is not far from Whakatane but as you pass through neighbouring Taneatua where the one-man police station is located, you enter a different world.

The houses are faded and many have horses grazing in the back yard. Dogs wander around without collars or tags.

Some of the faces you see are fully tattooed. Not all are welcoming but people are mostly friendly when approached.

They are like anyone else, they say. They might live more simply but they do their chores, tend their horses and sometimes ride them into the hills to go hunting. The grass is green and lush and across the river where the valley flattens out a road, seemingly going nowhere, leads to tiny enclaves of homes, marae and schools and well-tended fields of asparagus.

Towering around Ruatoki are the Ureweras, covered in mist, the mystical mountain range full of history and importance to Tuhoe.

And it is the Ureweras that are said to link all the people arrested around the country this week with some kind of connection to a military or possibly terrorist organisation.

From Tuhoe, police have arrested one of their most often arrested activists, Tame Iti, who is still in custody.

There are key questions people out here do not understand. One is why their entire community was made to feel like criminals whereas other raids - in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch - were targeted at individual houses.

The police knew who they were after in Ruatoki so why didn't they just target individuals? Many said all they needed to do if they wanted Iti was to ask him to call into the police station. Iti's personality is such that he would have. Instead, he and others were raided in the early hours while the community was asleep.

People can't comment about the charges Iti faces but they point out it's no secret in these parts, where everyone has rifles for hunting, that he has a semi-automatic weapon. He brings it out at tangis in front of hundreds of people, including an out-of-town police officer at the last one.

As to molotov cocktails, most people say they have no idea about that. But there is no petrol station in either Ruatoki or Taneatua and people store petrol in all kinds of containers.

Despite the sense of unease, life in the two communities seems to have returned to normal after the raids, except for the presence of numerous police cars.

As the Taneatua Bowling Club is hosting an interclub tournament, one street away young men wearing red hang around outside a house. One wears a hat, leather waistcoat and checked pants. Another has a red T-shirt twisted around his head. The Mongrel Mob rules in Ruatoki and Taneatua, and the men are friendly.

They're laughing their heads off at the thought of hunters from Auckland encountering a group of armed men in military camouflage in the Ureweras and getting so scared they told the police.

"That's where they train our young fellas to use the taiaha up there. Aucklanders, they come from the city and assume ... "

Of course people have guns at taiaha training - "If you run into a big pig you're gonna need a gun."

As for talk of military camps, "Those are hunting camps. We were all laughing at that. There's camps all the way up, they've been there for years, way before our dads and our koro."

The Ureweras are their freezer, they say.

"If you can't afford to go to Pak'N Save, you go up there."

The taiaha training could look scary, for sure. The young man in the waistcoat described a course he went on: "You get up at six in the morning and you run naked through the river 'cause it numbs your body and then you get up on to the hill and that's when they start whacking you with the sticks.

"You know, it just toughens you up. If you get whacked there you don't flinch, it's just whack, whack, whack."

Iti takes courses like this, they say. He knows every Maori weapon and teaches how to use them. Yes, that could be a bit freaky for a hunter from Auckland to see, but "you're lucky they weren't running around with no pants on".

There are no terrorist or military camps up there, the boys say. Ruatoki and Taneatua are small inter-related places and if something like that was going on, people would have known. If there was a blast, it was probably someone's gas cooker exploding, they laugh.

They reckon that even the local police officer, who is "a good pig" knew nothing about any of this and he's from these parts.

At the pub in Taneatua there is only one drinker. He's 69 and lives in Ruatoki. He says police did some door-to-door visiting of houses, not to ask questions but to explain their actions. He thinks the visit was by way of an apology, for which he's glad.

He did not think Maori-Pakeha relations would be badly affected - because they've always been bad.

He talks of the importance of the Ureweras and how Tuhoe tradition has always been for young people to go up there to learn about their background, their history, and their connection to various parts of the land and to where the ancestors lived.

Pakeha may not understand, he says, but this is Tuhoe custom.

The man at the pub is calm, almost bemused, but the anger levels vary. At the dairy across from the police station, a big Maori man with a tattooed face pulls up and yells at police "We're alright, there's no **** al Qaeda here, you idiots, go home."

As he drives off toward Ruatoki some laughing little boys spot the back window of his car is smashed out and crack up.

"Look at his window, he's got Maori air conditioning," one says and they all convulse with laughter.

Just little kids laughing. But some children caught up in the operation weren't laughing on Monday. They were frightened at the sight of men dressed head to toe in black like ninjas, waving weapons around.

For the woman who kicked off yesterday's march by kohanga reo and school children to the Whakatane Police Station, it isn't funny.

Mere Nuku, licensee of Tawhaki Kohanga Reo in Ruatoki, had been driving to work in Whakatane on Monday and was ordered out of her car. She thinks she was the third to leave town that morning because she was made to stand in front of her car holding a white card with the number three on it.

She organised the march yesterday because children had been frightened and no one knew the long-term effects of what they had seen that day.

Kohanga reo teaches children to go to the police when they need to. Now, she says, children are scared of the police.

It was a peaceful morning in the valley on Monday, she says. It was the police who brought the violence in.

As we speak, tears suddenly form in Nuku's eyes. "You can only say: when is it going to stop?"

History repeats for Tuhoe

By Patrick Gower

In the remote Waimana Valley, the descendants of Maori prophet Rua Kenana need no reminder of the division a police raid can have on the Tuhoe people.

It is 91 years since the unarmed Rua was arrested at Maungapohatu by an armed force of 70 constables who killed two Maori in a subsequent gunfight, the worst clash between police and a Maori community that century.

The Herald visited Rua's grave this week and found his relatives and present-day followers angry at the parallels between his treatment and that received by their tribespeople on Monday in the neighbouring Ruatoki valley.

Their collective message: 91 years is not enough time to forget, let alone be scarred again.

Rua's great-grandaughter Tangi Munn said the Government needed to think about whether the latest raids had solved problems or caused them.

The similarities with the fatal raid on Rua were "overwhelming".

"Seventy police went in to get my koro back then, and 70 police went in to Ruatoki," she said. "It solved nothing then, and from what I am hearing from our people, it will solve nothing now."

Rua believed himself to be the successor to warrior and religious leader Te Kooti and gained a popular following after setting himself up as a New Testament-style prophet at the turn of the century.

He wanted the return of Maori land to Maori and to remove the Tuhoe people from Pakeha influence. He clashed with the prime minister of the time and became a political embarrassment - leading to a crackdown on him that included trumped-up charges.

This culminated in the 1916 shootings at at Maungapohatu, which began after a shot was fired as he was arrested - initially blamed on Maori, although historical argument now says it was the police themselves.

"The police were found wrong then, but they never admitted it," Munn said. "What scares me is that they were different times. We are in the 21st century now and as a country we should be beyond all this."

Munn did not believe that the "hocus-pocus up in the bush" police were describing was true. Camps and bushcraft were Tuhoe tradition, and New Zealanders should not be concerned. If some "silly buggers" had taken it too far, it was unfair an entire community had to be targeted for the actions of a few.

Munn said though the campaign against Rua had targeted him directly, "these police raids are hitting and hurting all of Tuhoe, and all Maori".

Similar feeling were expressed throughout the 20km valley which has a blockade at the bottom to stop American forestry company Rayonier coming in.

A man drew a long screwdriver in a threatening manner when the Weekend Herald approached.

Signs declare you are entering the "Tuhoe Nation" and visitors are allowed only as a "courtesy".

The council is refused access here in relation to the dispute and many residents refuse to pay rates let alone register their dogs or get firearms licenses.

The upper reaches of the valley has a 10-student Maori language school, four maraes and 40 homes.

There is little to mark Rua's grave, just a concrete tomb behind his final home at Matahi.

Munn works as a Maori spiritual healer and has set up the Te Wairua Ote Ora Trust in Waimana. She is a descendant of Rua by his first wife Pinepine, with whom he had 17 children. He had 10 wives in total.

Munn said Rua had predicted the complexities of modern life Maori would come to face, and advised his followers not lose touch with their Maoritanga. She believed Rua would be disconcerted by the way many Maori lived their lives today away from their land, family and traditions.

He had always believed that Maori and Pakeha could live harmoniously side-by-side, but that the colonists should not act as if Maori were there to be "tamed".

Munn said Rua would be worried about the events of this week, but would have a simple message for his people. "He would be saying: "no matter how things are, love one another and love your enemies. Find strength in yourselves."

by JC - civilrightsdefence Sun Nov 04, 2007 03:08

http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-labour-le....html

http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/11/guantanamao-a....html

by JC Fri Nov 02, 2007 08:49

One of 17 suspects rounded up in nationwide police anti-terror swoops last week is a member of a Palestinian rights group and the founder of an anti-capitalist organisation.

Omar Hamed's identity was revealed late yesterday after a deadline for a High Court appeal against a ruling lifting suppression passed without any application being filed.

He faces three charges of illegal possession of a firearm. It is alleged Hamed - a 19-year-old Greek-born part-Palestinian - was twice in possession of a firearm in Tauranga between January 10 and January 14 this year, then in possession of a semi-automatic rifle in Auckland between September 13 and September 16.

He is in custody until his next appearance in Auckland District Court next week.

Hamed, 19, was profiled in an interview with young activists by the AUT student newspaper Te Waha Nui last year. He said he was inspired to activism after "seeing my mum involved in those struggles to keep part of the welfare state".

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Hamed - then a first-year history student at Auckland University - said most of his fellow students were "rich, white and privileged - the sons and daughters of the guards of the system".

"They have a lot to lose from activism. They are very under-politicised."

Hamed grew up on the North Shore, attending Devonport Primary and Takapuna Grammar.

The newspaper described Hamed as instrumental in setting up Radical Youth, "an anti-capitalist organisation for young people".

From October last year, he became involved mainly with Students Justice for Palestine, a group aiming "to disseminate information, enlightening students and community members of the sufferings of the Palestinian people, of their struggles for liberation, whilst attempting to give voice to the Palestinian aspirations for justice and equality in Palestine".

Omar Hamed, Aotearoa Indymedia

by ANZAC Biscuit Tue Oct 30, 2007 04:46

Keep the Wog in HM Prison for a Long stretch, walting terr.

by JC - www.civilrightsdefence.org.nz Mon Oct 29, 2007 23:09

http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/10/tame-itis-sta....html

by JC Mon Oct 29, 2007 00:44

Jimmy O Dea, a veteran of the struggles at Bastion Point, the Springbok Tour and the 1975 Land Marches, speaks out against the police raids on his home

by Joe C - www.CivilRightsDefence.org.nz Mon Oct 29, 2007 00:08

A PRIMER ON THE ALLEGATIONS OF TERRORISM MADE
DURING THE WEEK 15-19 OCTOBER, 2007.

Moana Jackson.

“I weep for what has just happened at Maungapohatu in Tuhoe. The Police raid seems to be about punishing Kenana for questioning the Crown and will only take us back in the mists of fear and doubt…I wonder if we will ever stop worrying when it might happen again”.
- Karaitiana Rarere, Ngäti Kahungunu, 1916.

ABSTRACT:
The events that have unfolded since the recent “anti-terrorist” Operation Eight in Tuhoe and elsewhere have left many whänau and communities confused, hurt and traumatised.

Politicians have urged people to withhold comment or criticism until the judicial process has been played out but the flaws in the process to date plus the very real hurt that has been caused, particularly in the Mäori community, calls for some clarification.

Indeed the fact that the Crown and other agencies such as the Police Association have continually made self-serving and often inaccurate comment has increased the confusion and made the need for clarity even more pressing.

This Primer therefore attempts to address the concerns of many people, Mäori and Päkehä, and to clarify some of the major issues involved. It accepts the need to be vigilant against the prospect of genuine harm to the community but questions the veracity and motives for labelling Mäori and other activists with the fear-laden term “terrorist”.
THE QUESTIONS:

Is there a law about terrorism in New Zealand?

Yes.

After the attacks of 9/11 the government followed United Nations resolutions and passed the Terrorism Suppression Act, 2002.

Amendments which expand some of the definitions of terrorist organisations are due in Parliament this month.
Are “terrorists” defined in the Terrorism Suppression Act?Yes.

Under Section 22 of the Act the Prime Minister may name or designate certain individuals or organisations as a terrorist entity.

What does a person or group have to do to be on the list?

The Act defines terrorist activity as terrorising a population, bombing, and other acts of violence.

Are there any Mäori or other people in New Zealand on that list at the moment?

No.

What kind of people are on the list?

The list mainly consists of groups such as Al Quaeda and similar organisations or people like Sulaiman Jassem Sulaiman Abo Ghaith, a spokesperson for Al Quaeda.

How did Operation Eight become an “anti-terrorist action” then?

The Crown chose to call it an anti-terrorist operation in initial press releases and politicians and most sections of the media then uncritically did the same.

Did the Police actually use any of the procedures under the terrorism legislation?

No.

Under the legislation Police must get approval from the Attorney General to lay any
terrorism charges and a logical three step process would appear to have been in order -
Gather the appropriate “terrorist” evidence to warrant charges being laid.
Present that evidence to the Attorney General.
Charge people accordingly.

What happened instead?

Almost the opposite.

Most search warrants were granted under the Summary Offences Act and most arrests were made under the Firearms Act.

People are now being held in custody while cases are prepared for the Attorney General.

Such an approach raises serious legal and ethical issues including whether detention is being used merely so that the authorities can “fish” for proof of terrorism. It also smacks of holding for an undisclosed or dishonest cause which has raised some comparisons with Guantanamo Bay.

Are breaches of the Firearms Act normally labelled as “terrorist” actions?

No.
People are charged nearly every day with breaches of the Firearms Act but for the first time
ever the Crown chose to label these particular arrests with the term “terrorist”.
Why did the Authorities label them as terrorist?
The Police maintain that the Operation has uncovered a series of camps in Tuhoe over the
last eighteen months which amount to “credible intelligence” of terrorist activity.
The Police also announced that they needed to enter the Ruatoki Valley fully armed because
intelligence on potential terrorists had warned of possible resistance, although the claim
does appear to contradict another statement that they decided to launch the raid on Monday
morning after participants at a weekend camp had left for home.
Some media have been critical of the process and the limited evidence disclosed to date but
others have betrayed the historic bias of their reporting on Mäori issues. Indeed their
willingness to accept the term “Mäori terrorist” is similar to the ease with which they label
Mäori as the majority of child abusers when the evidence actually proves otherwise.
The willingness of many politicians to also characterise the raids as “anti-terrorist” is a
regrettable act of fear-mongering and many Mäori sympathise with the comedian Mike
King’s comment that low poll ratings prompted the need to “bash some more Mäori”.
What are some of the concerns raised by the operation?
The arrests raise fundamental human rights issues because they seem to equate activism
with terrorism and thus have the potential to inhibit a basic democratic right.
The briefing given by the Security Intelligence Service to the Leader of the Opposition also
rekindles an earlier concern that the expanded definition of “threat to national security” in
the SIS Amendment Act could become a mandate to limit political dissent.
The fact that most of those arrested are Mäori and the nature of the incursion into Tuhoe
raises particular concerns.
It was only in Tuhoe that the Police chose to blockade and lock down an entire community.
Although only four arrests were made, Ruatoki was in fact subjected to a quasi-military
dawn raid that did not occur anywhere else.
As the mother of one young Tuhoe family stated, her inability to leave the area and the
appearance of the black-garbed officers “was like being terrorised when we were innocent”.
The result has been a particular trauma and suspicion which now has the very real potential
to damage broader race relations.
The blurring in official accounts of what transpired is also of concern because it can be seen
as a minimising of the hurt done to innocent parties. For example the denial by officials that
armed officers boarded a vehicle carrying Tuhoe children dismisses the evidence of the
whänau and driver involved and thus belittles the extent of the trauma.
The experience and perception of injustice is consequently increased among the people
concerned and adds to the historical burden of grievance.
Are there historical parallels?
Yes.
Mäori see symmetries between the Terrorism Suppression Act and the 1863 Suppression
of Rebellion Act. The targeting of mainly Mäori as “terrorists’ in fact mirrors the earlier
legislative labelling of those Iwi who resisted the land confiscations as “rebels”.
Tuhoe see particular parallels with the fatal Police raid on Maungapohatu in 1916. The
unthinking or deliberately provocative setting up of the latest Police roadblock on the
confiscation line simply added to the grievance and the sense of colonising déja vu.
Indeed there is a sad resonance in the submission made in the Urewera claim before the
Waitangi Tribunal that even though Tuhoe never signed the Treaty of Waitangi they have
always known that any questioning of the Crown would be met with a “harsh and
prejudicial whim…that has characterised them as treasonous enemies”.
Where to now?
The court process will unfold and claims may also be laid with such bodies as the Human
Rights Commission and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The possible human rights abuses may also be linked to the Crown’s failure to support the
Declaration on Indigenous Rights to encourage international opposition to the
government’s lobbying for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.
Conclusion -
Regardless of whether any substantive evidence of terrorism is uncovered the operation has
created division and unnecessary upset for hundreds of ordinary people.
As Tariana Turia has noted, many commentators also worry whether the operation is
merely a softening up exercise for even more hard-line security measures and greater
infringement of human rights. That is untenable in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, and
unacceptable in terms of good relationships between Mäori and others.
Vigilance and genuine security should never be at the expense of human rights, and
concerns about any Mäori activity should never be used to justify the overt use of
colonising power.
Sir James Henare once said that Mäori have come too far not to go further, and there is no
justice in forcing our people back into the old mists of fear and doubt.

by volunteer collective assembly founding principle upholding - fraternal in solidarity generally tarred with some brush Sun Oct 28, 2007 19:21

completely grist for the mill are the isles of new zealand for anything you can throw at them. http://indymedia.ie/attachments/aug2007/hell_pizza.jpg was one curiously timed news story which counterpointed our general commonwealth of western social movement concern back in Berlin's back yard. http://indymedia.ie/article/83942

Why can't the maori have a right to bear molotov's?
Rhetoric.
it gets them every time.

You do not need such weapons
your minds are powerful enough

by Hartomo Mandala Sun Oct 28, 2007 02:48

You're kidding us on aren't you? New Zealand is now a bastion of state sponsored terrorism and police brutality is it? New Zealand?

Ha ha, that's a good one, Helen Clarke, the new Fidel Castro, or is it Mugabe, or Chavez or perhaps Ahmeddinejad? I'm never quite up to speed with the latest pin up boy of the "progressive" Left.

by Joe Carolan Sat Oct 27, 2007 23:35

Activist Tame Iti's iwi is renowned for its staunch independence, as well as its path of isolation and harrowing loss. Ruth Laugesen reports.
Guerrillas in our midst? No says Rawiri Taonui

Tuhoe people, says Maori broadcaster Willie Jackson, radiate toughness.

"They are known for their staunchness, around the Maori language, about their land," says Jackson, who is related by marriage to Tuhoe activist Tame Iti.

"You know straight away when Tuhoes are in town, or working for you. Their Tuhoetanga is so prominent; there's a certain pride. They just exude it," he says.

The tribe, immortalised in Elsdon Best's 1925 history Children of the Mist, have a mystique as powerful as the remote and rugged Urewera region that is their home ground. But now, in the wake of allegations of a series of armed training camps in the Urewera, the tribe is gaining a new notoriety, with headlines such as "Guerrillas in the Mist".

Such talk is nonsense, says Jackson. But he says there is something special about this tribe who, for longer than any other iwi, stayed out of the reach of colonial control and British cultural influence.

Even today, children growing up in the remote valley of Ruatoki, where Iti has a property, see the world through a distinct cultural lens.

"It's one of the last areas where, if you meet someone from Ruatoki, nine times out of 10 you expect them to be a Maori speaker. They come out to the cities and come across Maori who haven't had the language for a couple of generations," says Jackson.

Tuhoe people led the national Maori language renaissance, says Jackson, and Tuhoe broadcasters were at the forefront when the first Maori radio and television services were launched.

Tuhoe staunchness crops up in other ways too. Starting about a decade ago, some began calling themselves members of the "Tuhoe Nation". Such sentiments are strongest in the Urewera area, where a small minority of Tuhoe's 33,000 still live. The rest have scattered around New Zealand and into Australia in search of economic opportunity.

In Tuhoe land though, signs mark the borders. The reason for talk of nationhood, says Tamati Kruger, head of Tuhoe's treaty negotiations team, is that an iwi is indeed a nation, not a tribe. Does that mean it has its own borders, should collect taxes, have its own defence force and even a seat at the UN? Indeed, says Kruger. "Those would be seen as the characteristics of nationhood," he says.

But Matt Te Pou, who led some of the Tuhoe claims before the Waitangi Tribunal in 2005, says Tuhoe are not a state within a state. Tuhoe nationhood is "just a statement that we know our borders".

"I went to Vietnam and fought under the (New Zealand) flag and saw my mates die. I have no difficulties with the flag. I felt hurt when people shot at it on the ground," he says, referring to Iti's much replayed shooting of the New Zealand flag during the tribunal hearings.

He says the iwi's economic future lies in gaining a treaty settlement. The tribunal report was due early next year, but has since been delayed. It should provide a basis for negotiating a settlement.

THE REPUTATION of Tuhoe for a strong sense of self has a long history. The lasting impression Elsdon Best left is that the children of the mist had chosen to remain apart in their impregnable mountains. But Best did his research at the turn of the 19th century, when Tuhoe had already been through a cataclysm. The Ureweras were always a refuge in an area bristling with competing tribes. But Crown confiscations had left Tuhoe more isolated, marginalised and hemmed in.

This cataclysm began unfolding in 1865, when Anglican priest Rev Carl Volkner was killed at Opotiki by locals from the Te Whakatohea tribe. At the instigation of Kereopa Te Rau, from Taranaki, Volkner was hanged, before his eyes were scooped out and eaten.

Tuhoe had nothing to do with the killing, but Te Rau fled to the Ureweras and Tuhoe were accused of involvement. The government reaction was overwhelming. In 1866 181,000ha of land was confiscated by the government from Tuhoe, Te Whakatohea and Ngati Awa. Ultimately, Tuhoe lost 5700ha on their northern border. The Crown took Tuhoe's only substantial flat land and their only access to the coast. This was most of their fertile, cropping land, and the pathway to rich sources of kaimoana in the sea.

The Tuhoe people were left with harsh, more difficult land, setting the scene for later famines.

Tuhoe were left with "encircled lands", in the words of historian Judith Binney in her evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Even now, the confiscation line looms large for the locals. Kruger says when driving past it feels to him "like it would if you had to travel every day past a point where your family was murdered".

It was inside the Tuhoe side of the line that police chose to set up their roadblock last Monday, prompting outrage among the locals.

But the 1866 confiscations were only the beginning. Tuhoe's isolation and loss was to intensify. Two years later the Maori leader Te Kooti and his followers began what Michael King has called "the most effective guerrilla war ever waged in this country". Te Kooti killed about 30 Europeans and at least 20 Maori men, women and children in raids on Poverty Bay settlements.

When the government gave chase, Te Kooti took sanctuary in the Ureweras among Tuhoe, provoking a bitter, three-year campaign by the government: "In a policy aimed at turning the tribe away from Te Kooti, a scorched earth campaign was unleashed against Tuhoe; people were imprisoned and killed, their cultivations and homes destroyed, and stock killed or run off. Through starvation, deprivation and atrocities at the hands of the government's Maori forces, Tuhoe submitted to the Crown," says Te Ara, the online encyclopaedia of New Zealand.

Te Kooti was never handed over. But according to Binney, Tuhoe's peace compact with the government accepted Tuhoe as a "self-governing realm" in exchange for Tuhoe's active assistance in the last stages of the colonial war.

By 1872 the chiefs of a governing council made a historic decision to protect themselves from the land-hungry Pakeha. They closed access to their lands. Signposts went up warning strangers, especially Pakeha, not to enter. On the northern confiscation line, one chief, Eru Tamaikoha, put up signs warning "Trespassers will be eaten".

"The encircling boundaries that they proclaimed were intended to enable them to choose who entered their realm, and on what terms," says Binney.

Remarkably, for a time at least, it also looked like the New Zealand government would give Tuhoe a form of independence. The Urewera District Native Reserve Act of 1896 was drawn up by Premier Richard Seddon to allow the Urewera people to be regionally autonomous, in his words a "self-governing" people.

That act "was unique in that it recognised the encircling boundaries of a tribally defined zone in the centre of the North Island," says Binney. "The act was presented as an experiment in tribal self-government; it thus allowed for other possibilities than the discourse of `one nation, one law'."

But as Tuhoe tried to hold the government to its perhaps insincere promise, tragedy was unfolding on a staggering scale. A wave of disease, extreme frosts, crop failures and famine sent Tuhoe reeling. Census figures indicate that between 1896 and 1901, 23% of the Tuhoe population died, says Binney. A high proportion were children under 15. With Seddon's death in 1906, the Tuhoe dream of self-governance that still lives for some today began to be torn down. The Liberal government abandoned attempts at partnership, says Binney, and reverted to the view that a separate Tuhoe "realm" contradicted the uniformity of laws.

There was to be a final crushing of hope. In 1907 the messianic pacifist leader Rua Kenana offered a new path to a people in despair by establishing a "City of God" for around 600, deep within the Ureweras. Trade, agriculture, even banking and mining, were part of his plan.

But the government saw Kenana as subversive, and in 1916 a large military force was sent in to crush him, using minor charges of supplying liquor as a pretext for what historians now consider to be an illegal armed invasion. Kenana was arrested deep in the Ureweras at Maungapohatu by 57 constables from Auckland, and more from Gisborne and Whakatane. Kenana was unarmed, but a shot was fired, and in the resulting gunfight two Tuhoe were killed, including Kenana's son.

Kenana was taken to Auckland and tried for sedition, but was in the end only found guilty of "moral" resistance to arrest. He served an excessive sentence a year's hard labour followed by 18 months' imprisonment. And when police arrived in the Ureweras again last week, the traumatic intrusion of 1916 came alive all over again.

Outside the courthouse in Rotorua, where Tame Iti's bail application was being heard last week, protesters held aloft placards bearing the name Rua Kenana.

According to Bernice Tai, who lives in the Matahi Valley in the Ureweras, Kenana was the last leader Tuhoe had who was able to secure them the economic base to be a nation.

"He was the only one to set about to achieve what the Pakeha have today," she says.

And she says the invoking of the Terrorism Suppression Act last week reminded her people of the Tohunga Suppression Act that was used against Rua Kenana.

"It really pisses me off. It's come to a point where it's shown our people have never assimilated to the system. For the whole 200 years, whatever that they've been here in our faces, trying to assimilate us.

"What is wrong," asks Tai, "with our people achieving what we were from the start? Which was a peaceful, loving people."

# Ruth Laugesen is political editor of the Sunday Star-Times.

by gameball Sat Oct 27, 2007 18:45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-McCoy_feud

by Damien Sat Oct 27, 2007 13:54

Joe,

Is this campaign to show support for the notion of 15% of the NZ population being allowed to arm themselves with molotov cocktails, napalm and assault rifles?

Or is it a show of solidarity against the manner in which the State of New Zealand took the weapons away from these people?

by Joe Carolan - Civil Rights Defence Ctte Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:31

http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/10/march-for-fre....html

by RM Fri Oct 26, 2007 02:13

"they were indeed armed to the teeth, as it would appear, then the actions of the state in NZ are entirly appropriate."

Oh yes, but its ok for the NZ state to have weapons of violence isnt it? - or is it that state weapons are in the 'responsible' hands of the likes of Bush and Blair, Australia and Japan - so called "democratic" nations who participate in killing many hundreds of thousands for oil and national gain.

People have the right to take up arms against inequality and oppression, to label every organization terrorist who arms itself, and who are deemed by states to be illegal, is nonsense.

by Damien Thu Oct 25, 2007 21:58

Perhaps it would be wise to ensure that these people did not have "high velocity firearms and petrol bombs" before showing solidarity.

If they were indeed armed to the teeth, as it would appear, then the actions of the state in NZ are entirly appropriate.

by Joe C - Solidarity Union Thu Oct 25, 2007 20:31

PLEASE!

GPO Saturday?

by linker Thu Oct 25, 2007 17:36

(See full feature for links to vids, audio, text and more...http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/894417.shtml )

In a wave of massive state repression, 300+ Police, in many cases armed, raided houses around the country (Aotearoa / New Zealand) on October 15, making 17 arrests. Search warrants were carried out in Auckland, Whakatane, Ruatoki, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington and Christchurch. Police are also seeking up to 60 people for questioning. The arrestees are all activists in the Tino Rangatiratanga, peace and environmental movements.

Prominent Tino Rangatiratanga activist Tame Iti was among the first arrested at his home at 4am Monday morning. At 6am raids were carried out at A Space Inside anarchist social centre in Auckland [ Search Warrant ] and the 128 activist Community Centre in Wellington [ Video of police raid ]. In Tuhoe Country, the town of Ruatoki was blockaded by armed police for several hours, with no cars allowed in and many searched, including a school bus full of children.

14 of the arrestees appeared in court hearings in Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington the same afternoon and were all refused bail. All but two received name suppression. They have all been charged under the Arms Act with various offenses relating to alleged possession of various firearms and ammunition.

Stand In Solidarity!

* Everywhere: Any letters emailed to lettersforprisoners[at]riseup[dot]net will be printed out and distributed to arrestees. Obviously don't write anything that could negatively impact on you or anyone else!
* Auckland: A solidarity group has been formed, and will meet next on Thursday. Details to come.
* Wellington: A meeting to "constructively discuss a reaction" will be held on Tuesday at 7:30pm at 128 Abel Smith St and a solidarity demonstration will be held at Wellington District Court at 2pm Wednesday.
* Christchurch: A solidarity protest will be held in Cathedral Square on Tuesday at 5pm. There will also be another demonstration in Cathedral Square at 12noon on Saturday.
* Melbourne, Australia: Demonstration in support of the arrestees Tuesday, 11am at the Consulate-General of New Zealand, Suite 2, North Level 3 350 Collins Street....

by w. - WSM Thu Oct 25, 2007 16:55

http://libcom.org/forums/news/police-raid-houses-across...02007

by Joe Carolan - Civil Rights Defence Ctte Thu Oct 25, 2007 08:14

This is NOT what a terrorist looks like

Name supression was today lifted on our friend and comrade, Omar Hamed.

Omar is a fighter, a thinker, a writer, a journalist, and someone whom we are proud to call our friend.

Omar is NOT a terrorist. Omar is NOT a threat to anyone's life and limb.

Omar is 19 years old. He should NOT be spending the next two years of his life in jail, without bail or trial, on secret and therefore suspect evidence, while the police try to fit up a case against him - and terrorise every other activist in the country while they're at it.

Omar is a volunteer organiser for Solidarity Union. Another Solidarity organiser, Jimmy O'Dea - a 72-year-old man in health difficulties - had his house raided today by EIGHT police cars, on the excuse of suspected involvement with a kidnapping.

This is a charge even more ridiculous than those which have been laid against Omar. This is either a spectacular blunder by the police - or evidence of a nasty and Machiavellian plan to "put the fear" into all activists for social justice.

No to Police Brutality!
Abolish the Anti-Terror Laws!
Free Omar Hamed!
Free Tame Iti and the rest of the Urewera 17!

Standing at the dock is a skinny 19-year-old boy, fluffy hair, wearing glasses and an old wool jersey, he gives a smile to his mother and friends.

Like all the defendants Omar Hamed is charged with firearm offences and police are still considering laying terrorist charges against him – he is one of the 17-arrested in the police raids last week.

Half-Palestinian, born in Greece but raised in New Zealand, he has campaigned for social justice from an early age. In the past he has told reporters that he gained his inspiration from seeing his mother struggling to stop National and NZ First attacks on social welfare.

He told them that once he began to get a better understanding of issues he started writing and educating others. He has written several pieces published on Scoop.co.nz in recent months.

An active member in Students for peace and justice in Palestine, Omar is also active in a range of causes in New Zealand, that include the www.Supersizemypay.com campaign aimed at raising the minimum wage, and Radical Youth.

He currently studies History and Sociology at Auckland University.

Maire Leadbeater the head of the New Zealand Indonesian Human Rights Committee and sister of Green MP Keith Locke has worked together a lot with him.

She describes him as someone who is, “very dedicated and committed to human justice.”

“He was one of the key people with an interest in the Superfunds,” she said. “He did a lot of research into the superfund investments.”

The Governments Superfund has come under pressure this year because of revelations of apparent unethical investments, it includes investments in arms manufacturers, nuclear technology, and Total- the French petroleum company that has operations in Burma.

He was “keen for everyone to work together [to raise the Superfund issue]” Leadbeater says, he even attended a meeting with Superfund director in August to discuss the possibility of ending those investments.

A friend and activist that has known him for 3 ½ years says he was an articulate speaker and also very passionate.

He went on to say that that some people come along to protests for the fun of it but he was really committed, he would spend hours researching and writing about the different causes.

“He is someone who cares about the issues, which stems from the fact that he cares about people,” the friend said.

Hamed was also instrumental in organizing the recent protests against the US-NZ Partnership forum and also lives and helps run A Space Inside Social Centre, an Anarchist collective on Symonds Street. It runs as a bike workshop, library, meeting room for discussion of ideas and holds film screenings and shows for anyone interested.

by Joe Carolan - Solidarity Union Thu Oct 25, 2007 07:56 joe at solidarityunion dot com 0064211861450

MAORI YESTERDAY: TRADE UNIONS TODAY?

Union activists say that a police raid on a 72-year
old trade unionist in poor health today is part of a
crackdown on all political activists.

This afternoon at 2pm, eight police cars raided the
Orakei house of Jimmy O'Dea, a 72-year-old trade
unionist in poor health. The house was searched under
a warrant mentioning a kidnapping in the area.

Jimmy O'Dea says that when he told the police he was
too old to be involved in any such thing, the police
replied: "No you're not."

"Jimmy O'Dea has been a fighter for both Maori and
trade union rights for decades now," said Joe Carolan,
secretary of Solidarity Union.

"Jimmy helped to organise trade union support for the
Bastion Point occupation in 1978.

"Despite his poor health, he's been helping organise
the new Solidarity union among industrial workers in
South Auckland.

"To anyone who knows Jimmy, the idea that he could be
involved in a kidnapping is purely ridiculous," said
Joe Carolan.

"But what is true is that Jimmy is known as a fighter
for workers' rights and Maori rights. The police know
him as a 'troublemaker' from way back.

"If this is a coincidence, it's a very peculiar one,"
said Carolan.

"We have been saying that the "anti-terror" raids of
last week are an attempt to strike fear in the heart
of all political activists.

"This raid on a 72-year old man in poor health just
confirms what we've been saying."

ENDS

For more information, contact Joe Carolan on (021) 186
1450 or
634 3984.

by Vercingetorix Wed Oct 24, 2007 15:49

If you identify with http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheCelticParty/ we're with you, and you're with us.

by pat c Wed Oct 24, 2007 15:36

The info below is from a previous article: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84744

Appeal to Ireland for Solidarity- INternational Day of Action Sat October 27th
Appeal to Ireland for Solidarity- International Day of Action Sat October 27th
PLEASE organise protests in Dublin, Belfast etc.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12434385103

http://indymedia.org.nz/

http://www.unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/

by WikiWatcher Wed Oct 24, 2007 15:30

"On Monday October 15, 2007 several raids were conducted across New Zealand in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp deep in the Urewera mountain ranges near the town of Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Over 100 police, and members of the armed offenders and anti-terror squads were involved in the raids, which uncovered guns and ammunition."

Full text can be viewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_Zealand_anti-terr...raids

by Ignorant Wed Oct 24, 2007 14:55

Not enough info here at all. And the link isn't workin (for me anyway).