ANTIDOTE FOR ABUSE

A friend of mine recently disclosed her son is a victim of sexual abuse.  A cousin had come forward with a narrative that covered a number of other cousins, including her son.  Heartbreak and guilt poured out as she struggled to come to grips with how she would tell her husband, working in Australia.  As a grandmother to four boys I absorbed the realisation that, statistically, the chances of them reaching their teens without one of them experiencing abuse are grim. 

North American studies consistently conclude that one in six boys will experience sexual abuse; the median age being nine years old.  Most of these victims will never tell anyone.  Instead they will exhibit behaviours that range from petty lying and pinching to violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and broken relationships.  They will face a higher risk of suicidality, and in extreme cases may become abusers themselves later in life.  Like a stone dropped in the water, the ripple effects can echo for generations.

In Māori society our cultural bias maintains that real men cannot be victims.  In general we expect our men to be confident, knowledgeable and assertive, even aggressive.  As most offenders are men, to be their victim can be seen to mean that one is either an inadequate male or is struggling with homosexuality which, although not as repugnant as it once was, still has enough stigma attached to it to add to the confusion and fear around abuse. 

Altogether these factors make the abuse a Big Secret and encourage the victims to seal it and themselves up in silence.  When they finally break open, their mother’s shoulder may be softer to cry on, but it’s their father’s response to the abuse that will determine their recovery. 

So this is a message, a plea really, to all you tuakana teina, matua, koro and koroua out there.  Sure you have every right to be angry about the abuse.  But if you’re going to act out, do it away from our boys.  They need you to show a different kind of leadership now. 

The Big Secret will only lose its power when it’s exposed, and when it does come out they need to see nothing but love in your eyes.  They need to know they are victims of abuse – not participators.  They need the assurance that their masculinity has been assaulted – not extinguished.  So when you’re with them, set aside your questions and listen, or talk honestly about your own experiences.  If you’re struggling to do that, then look for help from others who’ve been there.

It’s going to take mighty men of aroha to help our sons break the silence and the secrecy with which men of abuse have bound them. They need you to be those men of aroha.  You can do it.  You must. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

As I expected, and feared, the New Zealand Māori Council [the Council] and the National Iwi Leaders Forum [the Forum] are now competing for the leadership over who represents Māori interests in the freshwater.  That in itself is monumentally stupid.  I liken it to watching two fools argue over the TV remote when they haven’t even got a TV or reception.  But even worse, some of us are taking sides in the argument. 

Let me spell it out.  The core question for us is; do we consent to the government selling the control and use rights of freshwater as part of its programme of state asset sales?  Apart from Ralph Norris, our clear answer is; no.  So our bottom line is; no sales.

Looking at the Council and the Forum I see some strong leaders on both who will hold to that.  Eddie Durie (Council) and Margaret Mutu (Forum) come to mind.  But I see many more who will put material interest first and, either through litigation or negotiation, will cut a deal that lets the sales happen.

The core problem as manifested by the Council and Forum is not their lack of unity over making decisions, but the fact that they’re both practicing power politics while we their people hold firmly to people politics.   

People politics is based on the knowledge and experience of tangata whenua.  It currently has no constitutional recognition and, consequently, no protection. Power politics is based on the knowledge and experience of tangata wehenga.  In essence this is the power politics of the Crown, and it is both constitutionally recognised and protected. 

People politics start and end with the relationship between the Gods and everything they created, while power politics start with Mankind and end with the ability to buy and sell everything.  When Māori practice power politics, we are on constitutionally solid ground, but tikanga-wise, we’re on the sand. 

I strongly believe that we do need a national representative body, but that it’s neither the Council nor the Forum.  Instead it is one based on He Wakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, it will have constitutional recognition and protection at every level, and it is re-emerging even as I write. 

In the meantime, we must stop being distracted by the power politics at play and send both the Council and the Forum two simple messages.  Our bottom line is no sales.  Your job is to jointly hold that bottom line until your replacement is established. 

NEW FRONTIERS

For oppressed minorities, the struggle for justice is often uneasy, rough, strange and dangerous.  It takes leaders who are focused, unbending, unstoppable visionaries breaking new ground as they go.  Their contemporaries often don’t appreciate the change and disruption they bring, preferring the comfort of a familiar oppressor to the freedom of new frontiers.  Harriet Tubman who ran the underground railway north for runaway slaves from the south once said, “I saved a thousand.  I could have saved a thousand more – if they knew that they were slaves.”

Similarly, in the Māori fight for justice against the thief who stole their lands, there are often unappreciated new frontiers opening up.  One such was that pioneered by Mangatū Incorporation last year which meant claimants to the Waitangi Tribunal can now have their applications for remedies heard.  It also means they are no longer forced to stay in negotiations with a thief who holds all the cards, controls all the resources and sets all the parameters for settlement.

Ngāti Kahu were the first claimant group to withdraw from negotiations and seek remedies from the Tribunal, including binding recommendations for the return of 27b properties currently held by private owners.  If they secure even one such binding recommendation, they will have successfully opened another new frontier for all claimants. 

This has in turn raised a number of possibilities, and on day four of last week’s hearing one of those solidified into fact with an announcement by Te Rarawa that they too were filing a claim for remedies against the Crown; but only a partial remedy for those blocks of land in the Ngāti Kahu claim area for which Te Rarawa say they also have a mana whenua interest. 

Because Ngāti Kahu have already proven that one of the seven well-founded claims in the Waitangi Tribunal’s 1977 report was WAI 22 (the consolidated claim for all five iwi), Te Rarawa can legitimately seek remedies.  Indeed, so too can Ngāitakoto, Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kuri if they want.

However Te Rarawa will first have to deal with the fact that, at this stage, the Tribunal will only consider a claim for a full package of remedies, and even then only after negotiations to settle have failed.    

Because Te Rarawa is still pushing to sign the Crown’s deed of settlement they initialled last year, some suspect that they don’t actually want remedies, and have merely lodged their claim as an attempt to deter the Tribunal from making orders in Ngāti Kahu’s favour.  However I prefer to give my Te Rarawa whanaunga the benefit of the doubt. 

In any event, even if they are not an entirely willing pioneer on this new frontier, should they be successful in gaining a hearing of their claim for partial remedies, Te Rarawa may yet contribute to opening it up further. 

MARANGA AKE AI

‘There's a movement a movement on the street,

People movin', they shuffle to the beat,’

Maranga Ake Ai, written by Joe Williams and recorded by his band Aotearoa, first aired in 1984.  At the time its militant English lyrics caused quite a stir.

 

‘Where’s my freedom from oppression?

Cos that’s what my people need,’

Many Pākehā were deeply offended.  How many?  Enough that the song was banned from mainstream radio. 

We must remember that in 1984, even though the modern Māori protest movement was well established, the voice of Māori protest was still only heard by Pākehā in snippets through their news media; it made little or no impact on their consciousness or their conscience.  Maranga Ake Ai did. It was seminal.  So too were a number of other events in 1984.

At that time the use of te reo Māori was not terribly welcome by most Pākehā.  But when a tolls operator at the telephone exchange was told by her supervisor at New Zealand Post Office to stop answering calls with, “Kia ora, tolls here,” and instead use the standard greeting of, “Good morning / afternoon / evening, tolls here,” that changed.  Naida Pou refused to comply with this racist demand and was placed on “off-board” duties.  She is now the Chair of one of our largest iwi authorities.

 

‘Hear them talking, they're talking on the street,

Words like "freedom from oppression”;

Cos that's what my people need,’

It was a time when many Māori were ngoikore from internalising the racism all around us.  The annual hikoi to Waitangi, which started in 1978, caused a number of us to squirm because it also triggered the annual commentary from Pākehā mates and colleagues like, “What do you Māori want?” or, “You’re just bloody lucky the English got here first and not the Spanish.” 

 

‘No more knockin’, knockin’ on closed doors,

I said Maori people gotta wake up, gotta take up the cause.’

In 1984 the Waitangi Tribunal was still finding its feet as a Commission of Inquiry and had yet to release reports that clearly captured the full experience for Māori of being marginalised in our own land under Pākehā colonisation and Crown domination.  In 1984 Ngāti Kahu lodged its claims before that Tribunal.

Today as I write we are two hours away from the start of the Waitangi Tribunal hearing into Ngāti Kahu ‘s claim and I am thinking of Maranga Ake Ai and its composer, Joe Williams, who went on to become Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court and Chair of the Waitangi Tribunal.  He is now a High Court Judge.

‘Can you feel it coming, a brand new time?

I said Aotearoa maranga ake ai.’