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New Zealand leader's cannibal joke shocks Maoris
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 13 - 05 - 2010


New Zealand Prime Minister John Key
apologised Thursday for a joke suggesting that an indigenous Maori
tribe he is in dispute with over a compensation settlement were
cannibals, according to dpa.
Key has been at loggerheads with the North Island Tuhoe tribe this
week after ruling out giving it ownership of the 212,672-hectare
Urewera National Park as part of a compensation package for past
wrongs committed by successive European governments.
In a speech to a tourism audience, Key said, "The good news is
that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their
neighbouring iwi (tribe), which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have
been dinner, which wouldn't have been quite so attractive."
It was later revealed that he was repeating the joke he first made
when speaking to a dinner hosted by the Ngati Porou tribe two days
earlier.
After a storm of protest from leaders of New Zealand's
500,000-strong Maori population, including Tuhoe, Key told reporters,
"Ah look, it was a light-hearted joke, a bit of self-deprecating
humour, but if anyone is offended, then I deeply apologize."
It is commonly accepted that before Europeans arrived in New
Zealand Maori tribes practised cannibalism as a final humiliation on
defeated rivals in battle.
Key's comment came as relations between the government and Tuhoe,
who are said to number about 35,000, cooled this week, with their
chief negotiator Tamati Kruger claiming that Key withdrew an
agreement in principle to restore ownership of the national park,
which is their homeland, to the tribe as a peace offering.
Kruger said the proposal, made during compensation negotiations,
was due to go before the cabinet for approval on Monday but Key
scrapped it after the plan was criticised by backbenchers and
grassroots members of his conservative National Party.
Kruger said he was not insulted by the joke, but "it gives me the
sense that whatever we say or do he will never, ever, take it
seriously.
"He is affirming a rigidness which is not really in the spirit of
good faith negotiations."
Members of the Tuhoe tribe have long campaigned for complete
independence from the rest of the country and Kruger told the New
Zealand Press Association that the Tuhoe and the crown had often been
at odds since as early as the 1800s - when European immigrants first
settled the then British colony - and there were not many times when
peace prevailed.
Kruger said the joke was not funny, in poor taste and unbecoming
of a prime minister.
The Maori Party, which co-operates with the Nationals in
government, accused Key of acting in bad faith.
Maori Member of Parliament Te Ururoa Flavell, whose electorate
includes Tuhoe's tribal area, told Radio New Zealand the joke was
unfortunate and would add to the iwi's wounds.


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