Saana Waitai-Murray
(1925 - 2011)
Saana Waitai-Murray, was a cultural treasure for te iwi Māori in the fight to protect the intellectual property of te iwi Māori. Saana was the last of the six claimants still alive to receive the Waitangi Tribunal's Wai 262 report. At its heart, she told people it was about "Maori control of things Maori." Out of the claim the tribunal has mooted a raft of recommendations to protect indigenous knowledge which the government is still considering. Known as the far north matriarch, her final words for those who continued on the claim of the kaupapa was to take this claim from activism to actionism.
The claimants vision and aspiration seeks to restore “te tino rangatiratanga o te Iwi Māori in respect of flora and fauna and all of our taonga.” Taonga being those things and values which we treasure, material, non-material, tangible and intangible.