By Tracy Watkins
Dominion Post
06 April 2006

The United Nations official behind a controversial report on the plight of Maori was "stunned" to discover most Maori lived in towns and cities, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen claims.

UN Special Rapporteur Rodolfo Stavenhagen was critical of Maori being coerced into Treaty settlements, told the Government to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act, urged the establishment of an independent body to monitor the media for racism and rebuked politicians for the thrust of race relations debate here.

A raft of other recommendations were included in a report concluded after his nine-day visit to New Zealand last year. But the Government has made it clear it won't be implementing any of the recommendations and has accused Dr Stavenhagen of being captured by Maori academics and radicals during his visit.

"I recall . . . having Mr Stavenhagen in my office. He was quite stunned to find out that most Maori live in towns and cities," Dr Cullen said yesterday. "After being around the country, he thought most Maori lived in isolated rural settlements."

Dr Stavenhagen, from Mexico, has produced a number of similar reports on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people.

He is also the author of What Kind of Yarn? From Color Line to Multicolored Hammock: Reflections on Racism and Public Policy. In a published extract, he writes: "In my part of the world hammocks are made of multicolored yarn; if you attempt to lie on each separate strand, it will break, but if you stretch your hammock and relax on it, you can rest and dream and even make love. What kind of yarn, what kind of story makes up these multicolored hammocks?"

The Maori Party is hailing the report as an accurate reflection of the plight of Maori in New Zealand.

Co-leader Pita Sharples said Maori would come to their own conclusions about the extent to which the Government had rubbished its findings.