Kei nga taringa rahirahi o te motu rarau mai ki te whare korero o Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei, nau mai, tahuti mai ra. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei. They stand to lose the last of their Maori land to a wealthy farming family. We know that the Kidd family own 150ha. We only own 3� acres. Like, why would you wanna take our 3� acres from us? Shoddy paperwork means their only option is to head to the High Court or be forced to part with their land. There's been 20 years of dealings on this land without our consent. We meet a whanau fighting for their whenua. And we hit the gym with the wahine of South Auckland's SmashFit crew. It's that sense of sisterhood and being able to accomplish something that you set out to do that you didn't know that you could do. We all work as a unit. We're a band of sisters, yeah. (ALL WHOOP, CHAT) Copyright Able 2018 Karahuihui mai. He wahine, he whenua, ka ngaro te tangata. A Maori whanau is fighting to get their whenua back, a block of land that was wrongfully taken 20 years ago. Paperwork held at the Maori Land Court says it's still in Maori hands, but the land title says something different. Now Phillip Te Whata is in a race against time and the legal system to return what's rightfully theirs. Anei te purongo a Rewa Harriman. Another block of land, another fight over ownership. We just want our land returned back to us that was taken wrongfully. (EMOTIVE STRING MUSIC) It's a familiar story ` Maori land lost acre by acre. We know that there's been 20 years of dealings on this land without our consent. But time is running out for this whanau. Their whenua could be gone forever. The next meeting will be the deadline to cast our vote. And it's either we're gonna retain the land or we're gonna lose it. Whenuanui 2B has a long history. In 1917 it was Maori freehold land and had five Maori owners, one of whom was Philip's great-great-grandfather, Werawera Takaroki. It's whanau land. It goes back some generations. In 1958 there were three transfers from the original five Maori owners at the time, and that was made to Robert Claude McCown. Robert McCown was a Pakeha farmer who purchased part shares of Whenuanui 2B. His interests were only 113 of 160 shares, leaving the rest, 47 shares, in Maori hands. Over time, though, future transfers didn't record the Maori ownership interest on the title. My great-grandfather, his name was Te Werawera Takaroki. So, he didn't sell his shares, and that's why we're here. In 1999, when Whenuanui 2B was transferred to Robert McCown's descendants, the Kidd family, the records show all of the block went to them, not just part of it. How was that possible? I don't know. I couldn't give you an answer on that. It gets worse. In 2000, Richard Kidd was able to cancel the land title, amalgamate Whenuanui 2B with neighbouring blocks, get a new land title and record it as general land. Philip only found out about his whanau land and its complex history last year, after his mum passed away. It was heart-breaking, really, just to know that my mum could have been living in Helensville. And here she is in a state house, living in South Auckland. Yeah, there was some real potential to do something on the land. But we weren't given the opportunity. So, who are the Kidds? Well, they're a wealthy farming family from Helensville. Their farm spans over 150ha, including Philip's whanau land, Whenuanui 2B. We know that the Kidd family own 150ha. We only own 3� acres. Why would you want to take our 3� acres from us? You're not just depriving me, you're depriving my mum's grandchildren, you're depriving my mum's great-grandchildren of this land. Yeah, why would you do that? The Registrar-General Land have admitted to making errors and that Philip's whanau have been deprived of their whenua. But surprisingly, that doesn't guarantee that they'll get their land back. What LINZ has come out and said ` Land Information New Zealand ` is that they would not normally amalgamate Maori land with general land. And so we've got a big problem here. But they did in this case. They did in this case. And now they're coming out and stating that they made errors. You need to correct those errors, and you need to correct them quickly. Because we've got children, we've got grandchildren; my parents have got great-grandchildren. And they're missing out, you know, on their land. A letter from the solicitor for the Registrar-General Land says, despite the error, the Kidds and their solicitors were well aware that only three-quarters of the land was transferred to them. However, the RGL understands the Kidds will rely on the LINZ records as proof of their ownership. Philip believes that the Kidd family and the Crown should be held accountable. The Crown knew that when they transferred our shares into the name of the Kidds, they knew how much shares that we owned. They made it happen; they allowed it. For 20 years the Kidd family have been using the land. It wasn't until an investigation into Whenuanui 2B was undertaken by the Maori Land Court the inconsistencies were found. The Maori Land Court records showed the land as Maori Freehold Land, but the Land Transfer Office records did not. The Maori Land Court records showed in 2013 the land was owned by 15 owners, 14 of which were Maori. The Land Transfer Office recorded only two ` Dianne and Richard Kidd. Maori land law expert David Williams says this is common with Maori land. Do you think this happens a lot without whanau realising it? Unless people were actually positively looking out for their interests, then land disappears into land transfer title. And once it's in land transfer title, even though the Maori Land Court says it's still Maori freehold land, it ain't any more because... Well, it is, but it doesn't exist anywhere. And a lot of Maori land is lost like this? No, a lot of small bits of Maori land are lost like this. And in the past, no one would have cared about that. But because people these days are looking for their iwi and hapu roots, the whole context has changed now. And politically, this is an issue that probably calls out for wider inquiry, really. David says the law protects the person with the title. You can't undo titles that have been issued. So if this land at the Kaipara area near Helensville has got a certificate of title, the people that have got that certificate of title, they have got it indefeasibly ` you cannot undo their title, even if there was a mistake made by the Maori Land Court and by the Registrar-General of Lands when that title was first issued. The remedy in law for shoddy administration is just money compensation. If people want their turangawaewae, if people want their bit of land back, then they have to contest the land transfer title. And that's the problem. Unless you can prove actual fraud by someone, then that title is essentially sacrosanct. The Kidd family have rejected an option to partition the land, instead offering $34,000 as compensation to the Maori landowners. That works out to be just $11,000 an acre. The Kidds say it's a sign of good faith to resolve the issue in a practical way. Philip disagrees. Oh, look, it's not about the money for us, you know? And you can put in whatever figure ` you know, 10 million, whatever you want. We just want our land returned back to us that was taken wrongfully. David suggests another resolution could be brokered where whenua can be returned. In your opinion, what would be the best solution in this case? Clearly, the best outcome, I think, would be for the farming family to say, 'We acknowledge that there are these shares of Whenuanui 2B 'that have accidentally got into our title. 'Here is a nice, equivalent little piece of land,' and then cut out a title. The difficulty then is cost. Who pays the cost? And at that point, I think the Maori owners of this missing land should say rather than the Registrar-General pay compensation for shoddy administration, they should pay for the valuation and surveying and partitioning out of the remaining little block of land. That would seem to be a sensible solution. It doesn't impede the farming, and it gives people they're turangawaewae back. Philip and his whanau now have to vote whether to accept the compensation or to take the case to the High Court at a cost of $40,000. I'm just hoping that the votes go our way. We're not looking forward to selling any land at all. Mm. Know what I'm saying? Or at least put the proceedings on hold until we get a full investigation. Because I think that's fair. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's been a frustrating journey, but they're determined to put the record straight. There's been a lot of injustice of how things have occurred in the past. It's not just for us, but it's for the future generations. Yeah. For now, this is as close as Philip can get to his turangawaewae. But he says there's a straightforward solution. If the Maori people own the land, then just give it back. Simple as that. Na Rewa Harriman tera purongo. We asked Richard Kidd to be interviewed, but he declined. And in an email he said, 'aspects of this matter are presently before the Maori Land Court. 'In the circumstances, I consider it would be premature for me to discuss matters with you 'before those processes have run their course.' In a statement to The Hui, LINZ, Registrar-General of Land, says, 'LINZ has taken significant steps to improve and modernise the system over the last 20 years. 'The paper-based system that was in place up until the late 1990s 'has been replaced with a more robust computerised system called Landonline. 'This has more controls and checks in place 'to ensure land transactions are properly authorised and registered.' A ko ake nei ka tahuri te aroaro ki nga take torangapu. E taro ake nei. Well, this week a coalition of white guys protecting the free speech of other white guys said it would take legal action against the Auckland City Council for refusing to provide a venue for Canadian alt-white extremists Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. Don Brash and a group of other like-minded blokes have raised tens of thousands of dollars to fund their case. So should Auckland ratepayers provide a platform for people to air what many have said is hate speech, or should the pair rely on the free market and find a private venue? To discuss this and more, I'm joined by Maori Party leader turned dancing diva Marama Fox and political mover and shaker Shane Te Pou. Tena korua. Kia ora. Kia ora. Well, Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern have been granted visas. What are your thoughts? Yeah, look, I think the minister had no choice; that was the legal parameters. I don't care if they come. They'll come, they'll go, there'll be an uproar in the meantime. But the people that are supporting them in New Zealand are assimilists. They wanna suppress our language. They don't believe in free speech in terms of our reo. Their time has come, unfortunately for many Maori, but I also think it's gone. And I think that by and large New Zealanders are pretty reasonable people and they will see these people for what they are, and they are racists. They are white nationalists. And in moderate New Zealand, there really is no place for them. That's right. We've heard about this campaign It's All Right To Be White. How do you that's gonna be received in Aotearoa? You know what? They've been saying it's all right to be white for 150-odd years. When you assimilate people into a culture because you believe that our culture is not good enough for human thought, as was discussed in Parliament at the time, but you know what? Our young people, our rising generation, our new evolving Aotearoa does not stand by it, does not want it. It doesn't matter where I go, people have spoken up and said, 'This is not the New Zealand we want; this is not the New Zealand we have.' And that group of white guys with Don Brash, they're old, and they're leaving this earth faster than the young ones coming up. Just out of interest, I read this morning that the Australian police are sending a bill of $67,000 for the work that they had to do around the protests. Would you expect our police to be doing the same? They won't, but they ought to. I think that people who are purposely provocative ought to pay for their own security. I don't think myself as a taxpayer ought to pay for them. Hey, their mantra is not, 'it's all right to be white'; they want us to be white. They wanna assimilate us; they wanna suppress us. That's right. They are our oppressors. That's why I point out that this has been going on for a long time. And our country has grown up and realised that this is not our New Zealand that we wanna be in any more. We don't want assimilation. We've seen what that looks like. It doesn't work. We have to be proud of everybody's individual culture, and we don't want to be tolerated or in the great big melting pot together. Actually, it's great to have people of different ethnicities in this country and stand up and be proud about that. Let's talk government now, because Labour and the Greens made much of a promise that they campaigned on to bring transparency back to government. How are they going? I don't believe that they are going well at all. They were caught unawares when they took Parliament, and we need to give them some time, everyone said, to get used to the role, but inquiry after inquiry after inquiry because you don't know what's going on; covering up the truth that comes out because you wanna get out what you want to do; I don't believe that they are ticking the boxes at all. Isn't an inquiry a good thing, though, because you're going to be finding out at the end of the day what the issues are. They sat in Opposition for nine years. They had portfolios that they could look into and understand before they got there, but they were caught unawares. The inquiries are there because they didn't know what to do. Is that fair? Because, for example, The Hui waited for 22 weeks; the minister Paula Bennett wouldn't front on here. It's not good enough, no. So, I mean, is that fair? Well, I don't think the last government, that Marama was part of, was very good in this whole disclosure issue. I agree. Labour needs to be better. You've been after very important information about our kids that have been extracted from their whanau. If I was the minister, I would wanna uncover that cos I would wanna fix it. Also, I think even on macro issues there hasn't been enough dialogue. Water rights ` Ngati Manawa in Murupara, they want economic advantage from their assets. There's no dialogue over this issue. And I think this government does need to pick up its act. I don't disagree that the National Government wasn't transparent. I don't disagree with that at all. It was absolutely obvious. But these guys came in on a platform of saying that they would be, and they are not. And I hope that they would be. I want them to do well, because this is our chance to correct some of the crap that we had to live under in the last nine years. But unless they actually front up and do the things that they said that they would do, then it starts to whittle down the faith and the hope that we have in them. The IPCA came out and criticised the New Zealand Police about the way that they had dealt with the Rhys Warren` uh, the Kawerau siege story. Your thoughts on that. Look, I'm from Kawerau. It happened in Onepu. It seems to me that the report said that there's no evidence the guy was shooting at the cops in the first place. Hey, look, just some 15km down the road is Ruatoki. I would've thought that they would've learnt their lesson, and they ought to have used local intelligence and local cops. Thank heavens for Sgt Morehu. If it wasn't for him, I think that young boy would have been dead. Inspector Morehu. Yes. Sorry, inspector. So, you know, the Tuhoe raids happened. What we heard from people like Wally Haumaha was that this would never happen again, there's gonna be a relationship between Maori, particularly Tuhoe, and the police. What happened? It's just the systematic damage in this country within our justice and legal and law/order system is so bad that it's gonna take a huge effort to take those things around. And that's no excuse. These guys acted on assumptions, they acted on insinuation, and they acted without cause and burst into this young man's home. 67 bullets fired? 67. It is astounding that no one is dead out of this. Yeah. What about him? What about Rhys Warren? Does this give him an opportunity to be re-trialled, do you think? I don't think so, because the reality is that the gun battle ensued. I'm not sure whether the lead-up is enough legal grounds to do it. I hope it is a lesson. But it just seems to me that the police keep on repeating the mistakes time and time again. The other thing is that there's a bigger issue. Have a look at the number of Maori men that have been shot from the police over the last 10, 15, 20 years. That's right. This is not an isolated exercise, unfortunately. Look, the Police Commissioner has been brave, truly brave to come out and say that there is ` what did he call it? Unconscious bias. ...unconscious bias, you know, the nice way of saying that 'I was asleep when I was being racist'. But the system is full of racism, and it has to change. The systemic problems start with the IPCA. They have two people. They literally have two people investigating this. Working inside of this. We have to wrap it there. Tena korua. It's been a great panel. Thank you very much. We'll have you back soon. Cheers. Kia ora. Kei tua o nga whakatairanga we hit the gym with South Auckland's SmashFit crew. Hoki mai ano. The benefits of exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle are well known. But for women in South Auckland's Papakura, it's helping them transform their lives. A group fitness class has created a positive and motivating environment for wahine to thrive in. For many who were strangers to a gym, they're now putting in the hard yards and reaping the rewards for them and their whanau. Anei a Ruwani Perera. (DANCE MUSIC) They're a Papakura posse in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. It's that sense of sisterhood and being able to accomplish something that you set out to do that you didn't know you could do. # Looks like I'm missing competition from the rest of y'all. # We all work as a unit. We're a band of sisters, yeah. And working out is working wonders for these wahine. It's just something I have to keep coming to. It's positive in my life at the moment. There's a group of women that you're accountable to, that you show up for as well. Straight into it. Nice. One, two... This is mum-of-three Amelia Wilson slogging it out at the gym. She'll do anything for her kids. And when it comes to her 14-year-old son Reeves, she has to do everything. Right. Gonna help Mum? We've got an inseparable bond, you know? I love him. He's such a mummy's boy. Reeves was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 2 years old. Here's your chair. Confined to a wheelchair with limited speech, his disability constantly presents new challenges for Amelia to overcome. I'll be honest, it's taken years to stop beating myself up. Yeah. It's something I couldn't help or prevent from happening within him. But I wouldn't change things. No, I wouldn't. It's helped us to be a stronger family. But looking after herself wasn't a priority until a few years ago, when she heard about a group fitness class called SmashFit at her local Papakura gym run by personal trainer Emma Dunn. Just go at your own pace. Drive through those quads. A bit part of her wanting to join was to be able to manoeuvre him as he got older and stronger. She needed to have the strength behind her to be able to move him. For a dedicated mother with so much to contend with, the gym is now her sanctuary. # I, I, I be on a mission. Go so hard, oh my God, # you would think I'm trippin'. # It's my reconnection with myself. I get to detach from being a mum to unleash any stresses, yeah, regain some womanhood if that you tend to forget that you have when you're a mum ` or a busy mum. When we started, we were just looking to help a couple of women just lose some weight. And I never expected it to become what it has. Emma started simple and has grown SmashFit to 100 members in four years, carefully selecting each female client. Just by handpicking every member sorta one by one on our own philosophies, we've ended up with a group that I can't even explain. They're phenomenal, yeah. # Working on it now, work it now. # Renee Shaw was a teenager when she first met Emma through netball. The 23-year-old is one of the younger members in the class. But this bubbly personality you see today was hidden by her pain. So, joining this class, did it come at a really good time for you? Yeah, I'd just lost my mum to cancer, and Emma was a massive support through that time. She said, 'Just come to the gym. Just come work out.' I really enjoyed it and loved being around other people, especially older ladies, who are kinda all like mums. They were really supportive. It took my mind away from it. But Renee's tragedy wouldn't be the last to touch this group. This year they lost one of their own SmashFit sisters. # Just waiting for the call-back... # 42-year-old Sueanne Awhitu died from stomach cancer in February. Her passing deeply affected these women. She's left a real hole in my heart. They joined at the same time, and the pair were close. Just from her 'hello' I knew we were gonna be friends, we were gonna stay connected some way. She came with the same goals ` to lose weight, get fit, be the best mum she could, you know. Yeah. Last month the class, along with the Papakura community, turned out in full force, showing their support for Sueanne's husband and five children, putting on a 24-hour fundraiser generating $27,000 for the Awhitu whanau. To see just how much love we had for her and how much she impacted us all. These women are tight. Many friendships have been formed through fitness. Physio Leah Pearsall-Belle has been there from the beginning. It's that sense of sisterhood and being able to accomplish something that you set out to do that you didn't know you could do or how hard you could push yourself. The benefits go beyond their own personal achievements to making huge lifestyle changes. Our community begins with our whanau. So if we can change how our whanau perceive our diets and our fitness, and the whole idea that it's not scary. You've gotta have a bit of grit to be able to get through your workout. Some of the classes as well. The content's quite big, so you feel quite empowered after you come off doing a class. So you feel confidence. You spread it through your family, you spread it through your children. 15 seconds. It's become so popular Emma's trialling a version of the class, called SmashBros, for the boys. Some of the husbands were seeing the difference it's making to their wives, and to themselves cos the wives are changing their diets. They're now wanting a little slice of the pie now as well. My partner has joined SmashBros. If they had SmashKids, my children would be in there too. (LAUGHS) Nice. Drop! Well done, ladies. Keep it up. People from all fitness levels have bought into Emma's 'cruel to be kind' approach. At the end of the day, if they want that life change, they wanna live longer and they wanna be healthier, they actually have to fight for it. She's reaching out to all women in the community, like these wahine who weigh in at 100 kilos ` some much more. They're not just fighting against flab, they're fighting to stay alive. They find daily activities quite hard to do sometimes. But they've come in with a fire in their bellies to want that change. So they're open-minded to anything ` so food changes to exercise changes to anything. It's about more than success on the scales. For Amelia, she's discovered courage she never knew she had. How do you think it's changed you? I used to blame myself a lot for Reeves' disability, so... (VOICE CRACKS) Since being in SmashFit ` so this is my third year ` I've, um,... been able to use the tools that Emma has taught us to find that strength again and stop blaming myself. Do you think it's made you a better mum? Absolutely it has. Better partner, yeah. I... I don't lose my cool if anything upsets me as well. I can... take those deep breaths. Amelia's physical strength has helped grow her mental stamina. Going to the gym and working on myself, and then I get to come home and be the best mum that I can to my children. (WOMEN WHOOP) Well done, ladies. Mothers and sisters smashing it together, finding strength in one another. Kare i arikarika nga mihi, e hine ma. Kua hikina te hui mo tenei ra. Newshub Nation's next. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. Captions by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018