Wakatū board chair, Paul Morgan, provides an update on Covid-19 support available in Te Tauihu, and confirms Saturday 18 June as the new date for the 2022 special general meeting (SGM) .
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Felicity Connell
Due to the recent community spread of the Omicron Covid-19 virus, the Board of Wakatū Incorporation has decided to postpone the Special General Meeting (SGM) which was due to be held on Saturday 26 March at Te Papa in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Our planned Te Hunga Panuku programme for that weekend has also been postponed.
Mahi 2021
This is a big year for the protection of Mātauranga Māori in Aotearoa.
The Labour government has until December 2021 to pass a new law to protect Māori rights to taonga native plants. This is because Aotearoa signed up to an international trade deal which allows access to our native plants to cultivate new plants, including by overseas corporations.
The government was able to carve out an exception in the international trade deal in an effort to ensure compliance with Te Tiriti. But the terms of this exception are dependent on New Zealand passing the new law before 30 December 2021.
Because of the importance of our taonga plants and species to Te Ao Māori, this issue also overlaps with the commitments the government has made regarding implementing Wai 262 and the subsequent Waitangi Tribunal report Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, which recommends how Te Tiriti partnerships can be part of everyday life in Aotearoa.
Over 2021, Wakatū will be working on advancing the legal protections of plant taonga and at the same time, we will be working to advance the bigger Wai 262 goal of comprehensive Te Tiriti partnerships across government.
International trade
The international treaty at the heart of these issues is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (the CPTPP).
The countries who have signed up to this trade deal include New Zealand, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Viet Nam.
The government recently sought public feedback regarding new countries joining the CPTPP including the United Kingdom. Wakatū made submissions before the 2 May 2021 deadline which called on the government to commit to strong Te Tiriti partnerships with Māori in the trade negotiation process.
Chapter 18 of the CPTPP relates to intellectual property, which regulates the legal rights over new ideas or new products. Under Chapter 18 the creation of new plant varieties is regulated under Article 18.7.2(d) which requires all countries to accept the international treaty on the protection of new varieties of plants (also known as UPOV 91).
However, under Annex 18-A, New Zealand reserved the right to adopt its own national law that gives effect to the international UNPOV 91 treaty, but it only has three years to pass this national law – this deadline expires on 30 December 2021. In addition, the provisions of this exception also state that:
Nothing in paragraph 1 shall preclude the adoption by New Zealand of measures it deems necessary to protect indigenous plant species in fulfillment of its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi, provided that such measures are not used as a means of arbitrary or unjustified discrimination against a person of another Party… The interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, including as to the nature of the rights and obligations arising under it, shall not be subject to the dispute settlement provisions of this Agreement.
The government now has a draft version of the national law known as the Plant Varieties Rights Bill (also known as the PVR) which would update the first version passed in 1987 to comply with the CPTPP before the December deadline.
The PVR Bill was introduced on 11 May 2021. Wakatū plans to engage in the consultation process once the Bill is referred to the Select Committee, which is when the public can make written and oral submissions seeking any necessary amendments.
Wakatū will be looking very closely at the different concerns which were raised by Māori across Aotearoa during the national hui on the PVR to make sure Te Tiriti partnerships are realised.
Waitangi Tribunal claim - Wai 262
The 30 December 2021 deadline under the CPTPP provides additional urgency with respect to the implementation of the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations resulting from the Wai 262 claim.
The Wai 262 claim relates to the intellectual property issues around new plant varieties, which is the subject of Chapter 18 of the CPTPP. The report on the Wai 262 claim is known as the Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report and it was the first to address the whole-of-government responsibility as a Te Tiriti partner.
The report found that the essence of Wai 262 is:
a claim about mātauranga Māori – that is, the unique Māori way of viewing the world, encompassing both traditional knowledge and culture. The claimants, in other words, are seeking to preserve their culture and identity, and the relationships that culture and identity derive from.
In September 2019, the government announced Te Pae Tawhiti to implement Ko Aotearoa Tenei under three broad kete of issues. Kete 2 directly relates to the implementation of the CPTPP Chapter 18 through the new Plant Varieties Rights Bill due to be released in mid-May:
kete 1 : taonga works me te mātauranga Māori
kete 2 : taonga species me te mātauranga Māori
kete 3 : Kawenata Aorere / Kaupapa Aorere (with an international focus)
Wakatū welcomes any input from our whānau on the PVR Bill.
Please email me if you have any thoughts to share or any questions about the PVR bill.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Kerensa Johnston
Tumu Whakarae (Chief Executive Officer)
Wakatū Incorporation
Kono, our food and beverage business, features in a new Māori TV series, Home, Land and Sea, which celebrates Māori success in the farming sector.
Last week we were proud to support Paul Morgan, chair of the Wakatū board, as he was inaugurated into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.
Paul is widely respected at home and globally as a Māori leader, lobbyist and entrepreneur who has been at the centre of economic development and political advocacy for Māori for over 30 years.
The award recognises the work that Paul has done over many years for the whānau of Wakatū leading the Wakatū Board, as well as his significant contribution to many other sectors across Aoteaora and internationally.
Negotiations over the return of thousands of hectares of Nelson land have hit a wall with local Māori asking for a little understanding from a Labour government they thought was dedicated to “kindness”.
Leading them, with a Supreme Court decision in his back pocket, kaumātua Rore Stafford could still make things messy for the Crown in the High Court.
This article by Joel Maxwell was published online in Stuff on 20 February 2021
The last man standing in a case that started decades ago, Stafford says the Crown should just give the land back.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed this week between Wakatū Incorporation and Cawthron Institute will further strengthen an already positive relationship, the Chairs of both organisations say.
Image: Miriana Stephens, Wakatū board member and Meg Matthews, Chair of Cawthron
In the latest video in the Making the Tenths’ Whole video series, Kerensa discusses the work that is underway to resolve matters with the Crown since the 2017 Supreme Court decision.
Paul Morgan (Ngāti Rārua, Te Māhurehure) has been announced as one of nine New Zealand business leaders to be inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.
Paul is widely respected at home and globally as a Māori leader, lobbyist and entrepreneur who has been at the centre of economic development and political advocacy for Māori for over 30 years.
In our final video in our Te Pae Tawhiti series, Kerensa Johnston, Wakatū CEO talks to our 500-year intergenerational plan from the perspective of the values and aspirations of our tupuna, “…in order to understand the future we looked back to the past...”
In the second of our Te Pae Tawhiti videos, Kerensa Johnston discusses the goals that underpin the activity at Wakatū.
We’ve made a series of videos to help whānau understand our 500-year intergenerational plan, Te Pae Tawhiti. In this series of videos, Kerensa Johnston gives an overview of Te Pae Tawhiti, and how it underpins everything we do at Wakatū.
As part of our Making the Tenths’ Whole video series, Kerensa Johnston talks about the work that is underway to resolve matters with the Crown, including a discussion of recent Court action.
We’ve made a series of videos to help whānau understand the journey to make the Nelson Tenths’ Whole.
We’ve already shared Rore Stafford’s kōrero, giving an overview of the history of the Nelson Tenths’ Reserves.
In this video, Kerensa Johnston gives more background, including talking about the Supreme Court case in 2017.
Kaupapa Tupuranga is a programme designed for whānau who whakapapa to Wakatū. Kaupapa Tupuranga aims to connect, grow and develop our whānau on our whenua. The current programme has an emphasis on working and learning in a horticulture and agriculture setting with a te ao Māori lens.
Paul Morgan, Wakatū Board Chair, has been invited to join the Council of the New Zealand China Council (NZCC) for a three-year term, while Miriana Stephens, Wakatū board member and Executive Director of AuOra, will be on the NZCC’s executive committee.
Rore Stafford’s kōrero for Making the Tenths Whole gives an overview of the history behind the Nelson Tenths’ reserves case.
We are excited to share with you the vision that guides our work at Wakatū.
We have created a story map to guide all of our whānau through the experience that will unfold over the coming weeks.
Led by our kaumātua Rore Stafford, our whānau met last week at the High Court in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, to continue on with the work to resolve our case against the Crown, for the return of land in Whakatū, Tasman and Mōhua.
In this pānui, we let you know that nominations for the Wakatū board are open, and how you can nominate a member of the whānau to the board.
We have information about our annual general and special general meetings through to the end of 2021.
We also let you know that applications for our tertiary scholarships are now open.