Sunday, 7 February 2010

07 February 2010

"Ahakoa tātou pōrarutanga e pai ana waiho ana te tangata kia korero nei ona whakaaro riria te riri a ka uu ki te pai"
Although there are grievances, allow the people to speak their minds so that we eventually reach a satisfactory conclusion

This year marks the 170th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In this week's programme, we visit Waitangi and background the Tino Rangatiratanga flag.

The book Weeping Waters: The Treaty of Waitangi and Constitutional Change (Huia publishers) will be released in March. Maraea Rakuraku talks to editor Malcolm Mulholland about his thought provoking look at the relevance of the New Zealand flag and the New Zealand anthem in today's society.

In 1989 Māori activist group Te Kawariki created the Tino Rangatiratanga flag. Linda Munn, Hiraina Marsden and Jan Smith designed the red, white and black flag, and fellow Te Kawariki member Walter Erstich interpreted its meaning: Black represents Te korekore, the void and passiveness; the white represents the world of light and enlightenment; the white frond represents hope and renewal and the red is te whei Ao, Papatūānuku, emergence and the first human.

We discuss the meaning of Tino Rangatiratanga and Justine revisits some of the opinions about the flag from last year's consultation hui and why they chose it.

Eru Rerekura (no Te Atihaunui a Papārangi) is at Waitangi (Bay of Islands) over the weekend working for Radio New Zealand news. He joins us to give us a flavour of Waitangi.

Waiata featured:

Tikanga Tiriti as performed by Black Katz from the album Te tiriti o Waitangi tangata whenua

Burning as performed by Kora from the album Kora

Kia tupato as performed by Iwi from the album Iwi

Nau mai piki mai as performed by Anglican Church Maori club