Harawira whanau adds spice to Waitangi Day

Were it not for the Harawira whanau, Waitangi Day celebrations for 2011 would have been extremely uneventful.

Most of the talking points at Waitangi surrounded either Maori Party MP Hone Harawira's stoush with his own party or the protests of his nephew Wikatana Popata.

Apart from their actions, the most notable other talking point was an unusual address by a kaumatua at the end of the Waitangi dawn service predicting a huge earthquake in Wellington.

Mr Harawira's position in the Maori Party was on more immediate shaky ground at the end of celebrations, however.

He had already been facing an internal disciplinary process after a newspaper column which criticised his party's closeness to National.

But his position became at greater risk after he made a "state of the Maori nation" address on Saturday, an hour before party co-leader and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples was scheduled to make his own state of the nation speech.

In the speech, Mr Harawira said that if the passion which formed the party slipped from its leadership, it should be replaced by people with more vigour.

Dr Sharples took the speech as a direct challenge, and said Mr Harawira should think about leaving the party if he can't accept the disciplines of being in caucus.

"If he wants to be a free spirit then perhaps that's where he should be, cut himself loose and be the free spirit that he wants to be.

"But if he wants to be a working member of the Maori Party caucus, then we have to work together."

When asked if Mr Harawira could keep doing such things and remain in the party caucus, Dr Sharples said "probably not".

But Mr Harawira said he had been making speeches at Waitangi since well before he was a Maori Party MP and nobody should be surprised at him doing so again.

"At the moment I'm simply following through on a kaupapa that's been part of my history for a long, long time," he said.

Mr Harawira said that if the minister wanted to make a state of the nation address, "he might want to consider doing it in his electorate".

Dr Sharples earlier defended the Maori Party's relationship with National.

He said the party was frank with National about the areas where it disagreed, but that more can be achieved in power than not.

He also defended the party's support of the Takutaimoana Bill, the replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act, saying it was not ideal but still better than the current law.

Mr Popata first made his mark at Waitangi in 2009 when he and his brother John were sentenced to community work for assaulting Prime Minister John Key at Te Tii Marae.

On Saturday he hijacked Mr Key's welcome onto Te Tii Marae, calling Mr Key "the enemy", and said Aotearoa was Maori land.

Yesterday he led a march to the treaty grounds continuing his call for a Maori revolution.

Among those in the hikoi were members of the Green Party, including co-leader Russel Norman. Mr Harawira, who said the previous day he was proud of his nephew's actions that day, joined the group once they had arrived at the treaty grounds.

Mr Key's main message at Waitangi was that education standards among Maori needed to be lifted for true equality to be gained, while Labour leader Phil Goff said his party would address a growing gap between rich and poor.

But none of them got the jaw-dropping response that one speaker, believed to be Gray Theodore, got when he told people at the end of the dawn service yesterday morning that he had a premonition 38 years ago about a massive earthquake and tsunami which would hit Wellington.

He said the disaster would mean body bags were seen everywhere, and that he saw the Beehive roof lying among the debris.

He believed it would be in the month of June, but he didn't know what year it would be.

Politicians left a little bewildered and wondering whether June recesses should be introduced.