Tino Rangatiratanga Movement Calls For Direct Action

19 August 2003

The proposals presented yesterday by the Crown over the Seabed and Foreshore can only be described as the continuation of thievery and greed by the Crown. These proposals are clearly about extinguishing our Tupuna title of our lands and to ensure that we are subordinate to a colonizing and racist system. Clearly the Crown is embarking on a course of action that will cause further injustices and undermine and breach the Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

Iwi and hapu have attempted over the last 160 years to fight these types of issues within the rules and regulation, laws and institutions of the Crown in an attempt to seek justice. We are now questioning whether justice will ever be served within the Crowns framework. We now have to seriously consider alternative strategies to seek justice for the benefit of our future generations. We believe that the time has arrived when we as a people must make a united stand and take direct action. We call on our schoolteachers, unemployed, prisoners, politicians etc to take whatever action they deem appropriate to ensure the Crown fully understands we are not going to tolerate the theft of our lands.

The type of action we would encourage our people to do is:

1. Refuse to comply with Crown authorities.

2. Occupations of lands.

3. Inform Crown agencies like D.O.C that they are no longer allowed to work and do their functions in our hapu and iwi areas.

4. Ban Crown agencies from going on and using Beaches/Rivers etc. For example fisheries officers.

5.Refuse the military to do exercises on our beaches rivers etc.

6. Street marches

We must be united and stand strong for an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.

Media release
Ken Mair

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