Tuhoe moumou kai, Tuhoe moumou taonga, Tuhoe moumou tangata ki te po. Kei nga ihoiho o nga maunga whakahi, kei nga wai whakatere taniwha tena koutou katoa. Ko Mihingarangi tenei, e mihi atu nei, nau mai, tahuti mai ra. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. Coming up this morning ` They came searching for terrorist activities, but it was their guns and their behaviour that traumatised innocent bystanders. And 10 years on, Tuhoe remembers. Is it fair to say you don't trust p[olice? I don't. I'll never trust them again. Never. Ever. And the lawyer who represented 17 of the accused tells us about her recollections of the day and the continued fight for justice a decade on. There are still some outstanding matters, unfinished business. My heart goes out to Rawiri Iti, found not guilty, and he's still paying off his legal aid bill. If the police and the justice authorities really want to put this to bed, they need to look at those kinds of cases and do something about it. Not talk about it; do something about it. Karahuihui mai. Later in the programme, I talk to Mana Party leader Hone Harawira, engari matua ra i tenei ata. 10 years ago today, armed police stormed the tiny Bay of Plenty settlement of Ruatoki in what became known as the Urewera Raids. The trauma visited upon the people of Ruatoki that day was the third time in 150 years the Crown had invaded Tuhoe. A decade on from the raids, the relationship between Crown and the tribe known as the Children of The Mist is still shrouded in mistrust and mamae. Anei te purongo a Raiha Paki, na Mike McRoberts i tohutohu. Ruatoki. A quiet Tuhoe settlement in Te Urewera, about 20km from Whakatane. It lies mostly in a peaceful slumber, but from time to time has woken to violence. You can't see the scars, but you feel them. And the police raid 10 years ago cut deep. Around 300 police, including Armed Offenders Squad members and Special Tactics officers set up barricades and stormed homes, claiming terrorist-style camps were being run in the heart of Tuhoe territory. Instead of fighting terror, they caused it. When you've got guns and you've got the red lights on your heart and on your head, then you know there's something wrong. You know if you do something wrong, you're going to be shot. When you come home, it's meant to be a home. You're meant to feel secure and safe, and then the police come in and do that to us kids! Vulnerable little kids. That's not` not even cool. (SCOFFS) It's an understatement that barely represents the bitter relationship between Tuhoe and the Crown since early attempts of colonisation. The raids in 2007 only added to the mistrust and suspicion between them. The police allegations of terrorism, the forceful searching of private properties, and detention of innocent men, women and children is just another chapter in a chequered history. The relationship between Tuhoe and the Crown, there isn't any. And there hasn't been one. There was immediate dislike, and that turned into indifference and hatred for many many years. The provocatively-named 'Scorched Earth' campaign of 1869, where Tuhoe homes and crops were burnt by the Crown, and the land confiscations from Te Urewera National Park, Tuhoe's biggest food source, almost destroyed the children of the mist. But they never relented. From not signing the treaty to being accused of hiding Te Kooti 150 years ago, Tuhoe has strived to be independent, but with that comes isolation. I think that the isolation does not mean that we're disconnected and that we are archaic and antiquated in what we do. I do think that we have come a long way in trying to catch up on what I would call 170 years of paralysis, where we have been subjugated to injustice, to oppression, and to be stymied and with very little chance of growth. 18 people were arrested on the day of the raids, as police declared they'd busted a terror cell. Operation Eight made headlines all around the world. Whetumarama Purewa was only 6 when armed police stormed her home. Now it's been 10 years, how do you feel about all of that? I still feel hurt. I think all of us still feel hurt. We all still feel that trauma that they done to us. Not just to us, you know. Like, they pointed guns at them, and they didn't even do anything wrong. Huka, Whetumarama's grandmother, had been held at her workplace. Her husband was marched from their home with a gun to his head, while a forensics team searched the property for evidence. Then they took me to the police station in town and tried to charge me. Well, not to charge me, but to` I think to question me at the time, because they had no charges on me. They just had a warrant. By then I had contacted a barrister to come and meet me there. The process took about 12 hours in the end. Huka, seen here in the red jacket, was part of a the Kotahi a Tuhoe in 2007, a group picked to put forward in good faith Tuhoe's Treaty claim with the Crown. The ink was barely dry on the mandate to negotiate their claim when the police raid on Tuhoe took place the very next day. You can only imagine the strain that had on their negotiations. But through it all, Tuhoe say they acted with the best interests of their iwi at heart. Tamati Kruger was also on Kotahi a Tuhoe and remembers the strength they needed to progress the claim through all the mamae. The police raids in 2007 can't have helped that relationship. You're right. It was not helpful. If it could get worse, that was it. Negotiations continued for six years after the raids. Tuhoe fighting for the return of Te Urewera and acknowledgement and compensation for years of injustice imposed on them. You've only gotta look back at the relationship between Tuhoe and the Crown to know how fractious it's been. But since the settlement in 2013, rather than pushing back against the system, Tuhoe have made it work for them. Like this $15 million multi-purpose green building in Taneatua, called Te Kura Whare, built a year after their settlement. It's a monument to their desire to rebuild and help their people, along with the return of their beloved Urewera. They have always believed that maximum autonomy, or mana motuhake, is the only way forward. They settlement, in our view, was a day when the Crown surrendered to us. And then agreed that we should work on a better relationship. The Independent Police Conduct Authority found the Tuhoe raid was justified. But police had acted unlawfully in detaining residents at five properties. Three years ago, Police Commissioner Mike Bush apologised for the police actions in the raids. The reason I'm standing here is because I have a responsibility to make sure that this never happens again. Although Whetumarama is moving on, she will never forget what happened on October 15th 2007. Is it fair to say you don't trust police? I'll never trust them again. Never. Ever. Them saying sorry to us means nothing. Doesn't heal it? Doesn't fix anything. Sorry's just a word. It shook the family. It shook Te Urewera. Five years after the raids, the Crown's case was reduced to focus on just four of the original 18 arrested. Including the alleged leader of the so-called military training group Tame Iti. They were only convicted on the unlawful possession of guns and weapons charges. And just Tame Iti and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara did jail time. It was said when Tame Iti was in prison, all of Tuhoe was in prison. And while Tame Iti is now calling for a pardon, not everyone agrees. Personally, I don't see a necessity for that, when we're clear that we have done nothing wrong. Something I'm very proud of, to be a descendant of people that fought the Crown and fought the tyranny of colonialism. I would never ever think that I would need to seek a pardon for that. For Tuhoe, their spirit of resistance will keep them going forward. Hei iti na Tuhoe, ka kata te po. Na Raiha Paki tera purongo, and it was produced by Mike McRoberts. Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro, kei tua o nga whakatairanga ka maumahara a Annette Sykes ki te ata i tami ai a Tuhoe. that traumatised innocent bystanders. And 10 years on, Tuhoe remembers. Hoki mai ano. The first phone call many of the 17 accused made on the morning of the raids was to lawyer and whanaunga Annette Sykes. Sykes represented them on the grounds that so many of them were unlawfully detained, searched and photographed by Police, and she was ultimately successful in getting the charges dropped. 10 years on, Sykes tells reporter Ruwani Perera about her recollections from the time she got the call for help. I remember an early morning start. The first call came from Auckland. Somebody was arrested, and then the next 10 minutes after that first call was a flurry of calls, both on my cellphone and my home phone, from kaumatua from Ruatoki, expressing concern that there seemed to be these raids taking place in the whole of Ruatoki, and Taneatua was besieged by policemen. The place was in shutdown. So, I've never struck that in my whole legal career. I hope never to do that again. What was the mood in Ruatoki when you got there? It was confusion. I couldn't get in to Ruatoki. I couldn't even, at this stage, try and fathom where people had been taken. I went back to Rotorua to try and locate people I knew who had been taken from Ruatoki to Rotorua, but I was stonewalled most of that morning, even getting access to them. I had policemen asking me who I was. I'd been practicing in Rotorua for nearly 20 years. I asked them who they were. They'd never been in Rotorua before. I had individuals trying to block me from seeing people in the courts or in the cells. So, police were trying to block you from even representing the defendants? I just think they made it difficult. They'll deny blocking. For me, it felt like blocking. You've got no cellphone coverage in Ruatoki, so once you get to Taneatua, you can't ring. It was very much using smoke signals, basically, to get to each other, and of course, we'd heard messages from families, telling us that young children had even had guns placed against their heads. To be faced with that on the first day, it's quite a difficult time and certainly that I think experienced practitioners were even having trouble coping with. Can you tell me, Annette, a little bit about the children and the impact on them? There was a family at the end of the Ruatoki family that were staying with Rameka Tepa and his children. There was about 11 children there. Most of them were from Waimana or Ruatoki. Rameka was the grandfather, looking after them while their parents were in the hospital. And he was taken away by the police in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and jandals. These 11 children were left at home with all of these police running around their property. That's one of the things, in 10 years after the event, I want to know what happened to those 11 children. Rameka Tepa was never charged. He's now passed away. His wife went to every single court case, and I wonder if she has ever been recognised for the torment that was created that day to those 11 children, her husband, who's now passed away, and her hapu, who suffered some of the worst effects of the search warrants that were affected that day. Was that one of the cases that really stuck out for you? It is. When you talk about the collateral damage and five years of court cases, and communities, those people are upper-most in my mind. What about your thoughts on the media and the propaganda that was around at the time? The depiction of the guerrilla tactics in the Urewera, I think it's laughable, when you actually looked at the scenes. But of course, they sensationalise certain media footage they managed to get ahold of. Even when it was suppressed, they managed to get ahold of a warrant application that even some of the lawyers hadn't seen at the time. They were 700 people living in that community who suddenly were ogled at by a world media that had little sympathy for the plight of the intrusion into their privacy that had occurred by an unlawful ` cos it was found to be unlawful ` search and seizure warrant process on that day. Do you think it destroyed the community? One woman in particular, her son was the local policeman at the time. She was one of the ones asked to get out of her vehicle, have a photo, lie down on the ground so that the number plate was shown and her face was shown by that photo. I'll never forget her testimony, because of the kinds of treatment she, and the others that I've talked about, were treated. And that, of course, prompted the Independent Police Conduct Authority's report. Those kinds of experiences, and those memories for me ` cos they've all passed on now ` are very vivid. In terms of your question, did this destroy Ruatoki's fatih? Yes, in the law. I question some of the assertions made that an apology from Police Commissioner Mike Bush has healed the wounds. I think it's started the healing, but there are still some outstanding matters, unfinished business. And would you say that would be compensation? My heart goes out to Rawiri Iti, found not guilty, and he's still paying off his legal aid bill. If the police and the justice authorities really want to put this to bed, they need to look at those kind of cases and do something about it. Not talk about it; do something about it. I also think compensation is due to whanau and the individuals that were suffered. Not to iwi groups, sorry. I'm not one that believes in trickle down. and I haven't seen much of that after this terrible sequence of events in Ruatoki. And certainly when they're still facing legal bills, still paying off legal bills for crimes that they never even committed. Exactly. You have to be really clear on this. This wasn't a legal battle that lasted a year; it lasted five years. So, these individual cases, which haven't been highlighted much because, of course, the spectre was always on those that were arrested, really need to be dealt with. You have to say that the real heroes and heroines of these events are how those people in Ruatoki have managed to retain their mana, overcome the ignominy of that ostracisation, and to actually portray to the world the very gentle and loving people that I know. Annette Sykes there. Kua panaia nga ropu torangapu Maori mai i te Whare Paremata, no reira ka aha te ropu Mana inaianei? Ka korero ahau ki a Hone Harawira akuanei. He's outspoken, a rule-breaker and possibly the loudest voice Maori ever had inside Parliament. In 2005, Hone Harawira swapped out his shorts and singlet for a suit and tie, but he never stopped flying the Tino Rangatiratanga flag. He once called the former Australian Prime Minister John Howard a 'racist bastard' for his intervention into aboriginal affairs. He was arrested for protesting against the sale of state homes in Glen Innes, and he made headlines for calling his colleagues in the Maori Party 'dickheads', leaving to form the Mana Party following a dispute with former leader Te Ururoa Flavell. They made their peace earlier this year, signing an MOU not to run their respective parties against each other. But it wasn't enough to turn the hearts and minds of Maori voters. The Maori Party as voted out, and Mana didn't get back in. So, what now for the Mana Party and te ao Maori's most iconic rebel Hone Harawira? He joins me now. Tena koe. Tame Iti ` that's te ao Maori's most iconic rebel. I might be te ao Maori's most iconic rebel... parliamentarian. Inside the house? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Hey, let's talk about Tuhoe, cos you were in Parliament at the time. What are your memories of that day? Yeah. Yeah, shock, eh? Absolute shock. But once I got over the shock, a realisation that the world hasn't changed that much, eh? The raids on Tuhoe are the same as the raids on Parihaka, the same as the raids up north on Kawiti and Hone Heke and the whanau up there. It doesn't stop, and the apology from Mike Bush doesn't actually change anything, because the statistics show that police attitudes to Maori are exactly the same now as they were 100 years ago. Yeah. Let's get into politics, cos that's why you're here. Sure. At the moment, we're in the midst of a coalition negotiation. If you were a betting man, what would you think bottom lines` what are they struggling with or contending with right now? Who, Winston or Labour? What are the issues that they're stuck on trying to`? Oh, I don't think Winston's stuck on anything. I think Jacinda will be offering him anything he wants, because they've been nine years in opposition. They wanna get into power. I think Bill English will be doing his best not to give him too much, because he still wants to stay in power. He wants to stay as Prime Minister. I got no idea what they're plans are. I wish them well, and I think they've handled it particularly well, actually, NZ First, given some of the strife that Winston's caused in these sort of negotiations in the past. Apparently we'll find out tomorrow. In a week or so. If you look at the layout of Parliament, you've got nine Maori MPs from the north, northern iwi that are in there, Winston being one of them. Do you have hope? Are you hopeful that there'll be some changes, that they'll start looking at some of the real issues for northern Maori? No. No, simply because those members are from different political parties, and they refuse to work with one another. Even though there are some simple things like the economic devastation, caused by Labour's sell-off of the forestry, the railways, the post offices, and all of the other government services which used to employ truckloads of Maori in the north. If they stood together and said, 'We want a $50 million development fund specifically for Tai Tokerau. 'and a $50 million social recovery fund specifically for Tai Tokerau,' they should get it. But that's what Winston's talking about. He's talking about a our forestry service` That'd be great` No, And Labour's supporting that. I think Labour's only supporting because Winton's the person who's pulling the chain. Let's talk about the Mana movement` I hope he gets it, by the way. I hope he gets it, as well as his intention to` Well, it can only be good for the north. Rebuild the port in Whangarei,` And the rail. as an alternative to what's happening in Auckland. Let's talk about you. What happened with Mana? Oh. I think that the swing, the Jacinda effect, just completely blew away the Maori seats. We didn't have the money to compete. They were able to do massive ads. They were able to get leaflets out. They were able to pay people to go door-knocking. You mean the Maori Party? The received lots of donations. Oh, I'm not sure what happened with the Maori Party. I just know what happened with Mana. Just saw recently, about $300,000 in donations they received. Who's that? The Maori Party. Uh, OK, so I take you're going to be interviewing Te Ururoa Flavell about what they spent that on? (LAUGHS) No, I'm just asking` I can tell you what we spent our $6000 on. (LAUGHS) Yeah, we didn't get anything, so I'm really proud of our crew, with the little numbers that we had, the little putea that we had. I think we did exceedingly well. But, you know, the swing was in, eh? And that was right across the Maori seats. I have to say congratulations to Jacinda. I didn't think she'd have the staying power. But she did. She carried it all the way through to the election, and who knows? Tomorrow she may be Prime Minister. What now for the Mana Movement? Does it become the Mana Movement now that it's not in Parliament? Yeah, well, we've just done a series of reviews within a whole lot of our branches. We've got our national exec hui on November the 4th. Apparently the Maori Party's got theirs the day after, on the 5th. We just wanna talk about what's been achieved, where we are, where we go. I have to say, I really enjoyed the Mana-Maori connection, working with members of the Maori Party, with Shane Taurima, Tuku... 65% of Maori voters didn't, though, cos they didn't vote for you. Do you think the issue was that you just wouldn't make it known that you'd pull away from the National Party and go with Labour? Cos obviously, they wanted Labour, but they still like the independent voice. I couldn't have made it any more clear than I did, in terms of myself. I hate National, eh. I really couldn't give a stuff about National. Never have. Never really cared for them. In fact, that's why I left the Maori Party, to move away from National. But people didn't hear that because all they saw was the Jacinda effect, and our people were run over by it. I don't buy the line that our people were dumb. I think they were a bit naive, but the Labour swing was huge. Absolutely huge, and I don't think it should be underestimated. What now for you? Well, the night of the election, I sent Tuku and Te Ururoa and all of them a text saying, 'Well, that didn't go quite according to plan!' And then the next morning, Hilda and I went for a paddle, and then we talk a couple down from Gisborne to stop in at an urupa down in Ngati Wai, to one of our young girls who'd passed one, Mihara. And then we just spent a few days ` I list it as an evaluation, out at Taipa, on the beach. Will you contest the next election? Oh, I really don't know yet. Look, we've had our review. We've got our national exec hui. The rangatahi have had a hui, big hui last weekend. They had people there from Mana, from the Maori Party, from the Labour Party, from the Greens and NZ First. So that's not a definite no? No, no. You never say never. So, the future's open. You never know what's going to happen. On election night, you said that you might going to Hawaii, then you said you checked the bank and Hilda said, 'We're going to Taipa.' Which was better, Taipa or Hawaii? Oh, loved it in Taipa. I loved it in Taipa, because they've got the best fish and chip shop in town, just down the road. Can't beat it. Had a good sleep, good relax, and back into it again. Kia ora. Thanks for coming in this morning. Kia ora. Hei tera wiki i runga i a Te Hui ` The fickle world of fashion. It's been a soap opera. One day you're in... I was the first Polynesian designer, not just Maori, to ever feature in Vogue. ...and the next, you're out. One week I'm having champagne at New Zealand Fashion Week with all the top designers in the country, lights, camera, action, and then the next minute, we're in front of the camera in the court. Fashion designer Kharl Wirepa's reputation is now in tatters, after recently being convicted of $12,000 worth of benefit fraud. White people get away with crime. Brown people do crime. People think that he's got a lot of money, and he hasn't. But he's very talented, I can tell you that. Kharl Wirepa speaks for the first time to The Hui about rebuilding his brand after losing everything. That's all I really was doing, doing anything it took to survive. Thanks for joining us today, hui hoppers. Before we go we have a special announcement, the critically-acclaimed film 'Waru' hits cinemas nationwide today, and we have five double passes to give away. All you have to do is send a private message on our Facebook page naming five of the nine wahine who directed the film. Have you got any idea there, Hone? Who's already actually taken off his microphone, so I can't even ask him. (LAUGHS) HONE: Katie Wolf is one of them! He's yelling! The first five correct answers will win the tickets. Mama noa iho e hoa ma. No reira kua hikina Te Hui mo tenei ra. The Nation's next. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. Captions by Tom Pedlar. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017