According to Maori lore, the spirits of dead Maori travel up to Cape Reinga, (reinga means ‘spirits'), from where they depart to their overseas homeland of Haiwaiki.
Petrolheads, in particular, will be aware of this, as recently, when BBC's ‘Top Gear' wished to race some cars on Ninety Mile Beach, Maori got into the act, claiming that the beach was a sacred pathway to help the spirits attain Cape Reinga.
National secretly assisted Maori in approaching the United Nations to establish their indigenous rights in New Zealand. I wonder, if in their greed to obtain Maori support, they ever gave any thought to the above matter.
How can a race, whose dead spirits depart for their homeland overseas, ever be indigenous?
And how can the United Nations, National, and Maori be so misled? Or is this like the Bain case, where, regardless of the evidence staring us in the face, the political need will prevail and the people will obey?

R McGuinness, Otumoetai.