Dear Editor, Reflection after reading ‘Deep-sea promotion, not consultation’, Monday, 25 November.

I attended the Christchurch consultation, and stayed to the end - after 11pm. Sadly I don’t speak te reo Māori Kuki Airani, in large part because I am of the generation where society and my papa’a grandparents told my Māori mother to not teach us a language that had no value.

It is a huge felt loss and I’ve tried to learn several times, but it remains a challenge. All this to say, it seemed that 85-90 per cent of the presentation in Christchurch was in te reo Māori. In Māori (Prime Minister) Mark Brown did ask if that was okay and a few people agreed. Despite some women behind me calling out for them to speak English, the presentations continued in Māori with smatterings of English, except of course for Dr John Parianos, who doesn’t speak Māori. Before the end of the presentation a large proportion of the attendees had left.

If spending Cook Islands taxpayer money to ‘consult’ with the diaspora, especially in the South Island where access to language schools is still developing, SBMA have to expect there will be those who don’t know te reo or don’t know it well. By not hearing (or heeding) to the call to speak English, they weren’t even ‘consulting’ with everyone who turned up.

So, what was the point of the road show? They intentionally chose to not engage with all of the diaspora.

They asked for people to return home (to the Cook Islands). You don’t attract people home by treating them as ‘less than’; shaming them for what is an ongoing impact of colonisation. Don’t shame your own people and then, double standard, welcome foreign workers who don’t speak te reo Māori.

Quite apart from only one perspective being presented (no environment NGOs or opposition government included), they made it clear their minds are set on mining Marae Moana. No specifics on what ‘sustainable’, ‘development’ or ‘managed’ will look like in practice. Trendy words to sway an audience, but there was no substance or commitment to protect.

If SBMA can’t have a clear message and stick to schedule (an expectation of professionalism) and think it’s alright to treat some Cook Islanders disrespectfully, then why would tangata Kuki Airani think things will be any different in ongoing dealings? It smells bad ... and this is before we even understand all the repercussions – environmental, social and cultural – that will be caused by mining.

’Akamanako o’onu - think deeply!

Coming home, but not for SBM

(Name and address supplied)