SPIRITUAL HALF-CASTES

When I read the headline, ‘Kaumatua driven from his home,’ I thought to myself, the only winner here is the Crown.  How could it not be when the settlement of Ngāti Kuri’s claims was achieved under Crown rules, processes, timeframes and terms? 

Could this all have been avoided?  To answer that I turn to a time in history when males ruled the world and race was worked out in fractions of blood.  At that time, my father and his siblings were raised as half-castes but were legally classed in all official records as Māori.  And yet their half-caste first cousins were classed as Pākehā.  The reason for this difference was that one family had a Māori father, while the other had a Pākehā one, and under Crown rules at that time, your father’s race determined yours.  Crazy I know, but that is the nature of racism.

Besides this classification of ‘half-caste’ Māori and ‘half-caste’ Pākehā, there were many other signs of racist craziness at that time.  These included the fact that the Native (later Māori) Land Court was still blatantly overseeing the unjust transfer of huge chunks of land from Māori into Pākehā hands, and banks were openly refusing to lend Māori the capital needed to develop our land.  Additionally pubs refused to serve us, landlords refused to rent to us, and schools punished us for speaking te reo.  And to this day, police stop and question Māori more readily than Pākehā for the same behaviours, while the criminal courts punish us more severely than Pākehā for the same crimes.

Today, it’s hard to imagine the impact all this had on our parents and their cousins.  After all, their two sets of parents got on well enough, and their descendants are all either proud to be Māori, or to have Māori whānau.  But it was a bad thing then, and it still is today.  At times our two cultures can seem to be at total odds with each other.  But under tikanga, regardless of our differences, we can be reconciled through tika, pono and aroha.

I turn back now to Ngāti Kuri where my whanaunga are the only losers in this latest tragedy.  How could they not be?  Regardless of whether they support or oppose it, they know the settlement was a Crown process without tikanga.  One only has to look at the faces of the negotiators to see that.

Yes, all this could have been avoided, but it wasn’t.  And now that it’s done, the choice is clearer than ever for all of us; either learn and live our tikanga and be wholly human, or become spiritual half-castes forever defined, divided and ruled by Crown processes. 

Aue! E koutou, e ngā mea ataahua, nā te aha i ahei i a koutou te kōtiti kē atu i ngā huarahi a te tikanga!

FAST TRACK TPPA

At Waitangi on 5^th March, the Iwi Chairs Forum put a number of questions to John Key on a range of issues they are all dealing with; specifically oil and minerals, Whānau Ora, climate change, freshwater, education, Treaty claims, E Tuu Whānau, housing, and constitutional change. 

When it came time to answer, Key deferred all issues to a relevant Minister, except for two questions put to him by Professor Margaret Mutu; “Will the detailed content of the TPPA [Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement] be made available to the public, before it is signed by the National government?” and “Will the National government insist on an exit clause in the TPPA which does not require the approval of any other parties to the agreement?”

Essentially Key’s  answer was that his government would never sign the agreement before it had been released ... to Parliament. 

Although typically quick, confident and vague, the very fact that it was he who answered the questions showed that John Key is the lead man on the TPPA negotiations, and not Tim Groser, nominal Minister of Trade.  So what Key has to say on it is, pardon the pun, key.

Last Friday, speaking in Parliament, Key claimed that the consultation processes undertaken on TPP by his government were amongst the most extensive undertaken by any New Zealand government for any trade negotiation.  “Public comment for the TPP was first sought in 2008 and has been invited since,” he said.  I must have blinked, because I never saw the pānui asking for public comment.  Did you?

Key also claimed that TPP negotiators had conducted a proactive consultation process, including “… regular meetings with business groups, local councils, the health sector and other representatives, Unions and other NGOs, and other individuals and academics [and] opposition parties ...” 

Good golly, how did I miss all that consultation?  Does that mean I can catch up on all things TPP if I call on the Kaitaia Chamber of Commerce, or local representatives on the Far North District Council, Northland Regional Council, and Northland District Health Board?  Does anyone have Toss Kitchen’s phone number?

Starting yesterday and ending this Friday, TPP negotiators are meeting in Singapore.  That will be followed by a meeting of TPP Trade Ministers next week on February 22-23, where the US administration hopes to finish the deal. 

The TPP is far more than a trade agreement.  It will give foreign corporates the same rights as humans and put the right of those corporates to make a profit above human rights, as well as above government responsibilities to make and pass laws that protect their human citizens. 

New Zealanders cannot rely on John Key to protect them under the TPP.  Ironically their main hope lies in the US itself, where Obama’s push to ‘fast track’ the TPP through Congress, has seen public pressure against it go through the roof.  And where the US goes, Key and co will follow – on the fast track.

WAITANGI WEEK

Whether we’re on the annual Hikoi to Waitangi or on Te Tii marae, at the Iwi Chairs Forum or inside the Forum Tent, out on the road or inside any of the numerous stalls, the week leading up to Waitangi Day in Waitangi has its own unique stress points and release mechanisms. 

For decades the stress points were generated by a relatively straightforward clash between pro-colonists (generally Pākehā privileged by being part of the majority colonising race) and anti-colonists (mostly Māori credited as part of the indigenous minority colonised race). 

However in recent years the line between these two camps has blurred as more Pākehā have shifted to the anti-side, and more Māori have settled on the pro-side.  But the facts are that most Pākehā protestors haven’t been able to shake off their majority privileges or claim minority cred, while most Māori settlers haven’t been able to keep their minority cred or claim majority privileges.

Two examples from this year’s Waitangi Week illustrate the difficulty.  First, the way the government swanned into the Iwi Chairs Forum without any real threat of getting staunched into tears showed that even the most powerful collective of Māori leaders in 2014, most of whom have settled, has less influence and power on the leaders of the majority race than one aging Māori matriarch had in 1998. 

Second, the misunderstandings in the Forum Tent between a few Pākehā presenters and a number of Māori listeners showed that, regardless of how much the state may have smashed them over or how worthy their cause may be, unless they’ve paid lifetime dues like John Minto, and even he has to tread carefully, by and large Pākehā protestors have yet to gain the trust of their Māori counterparts.

Added to this mix is the phenomenon of minority amplification in which any change in an already imbalanced relationship always hits the minority more than the majority, thus ramping up the imbalances.  An example of this is the way Crown settlement policies divide whānau, hapū and iwi. 

It should be clear by now that, unless we want to leave a legacy of discord, we must find and provide a lasting release mechanism from the growing stresses between us all.  Whatever that mechanism turns out to be, education will be the vehicle, the will of the people will be the key, political will must provide the fuel, and a sense of tikanga must provide the spark.  Let us pray for it to come sooner than later.

Until then, for most New Zealanders who have never been taught about the relationship between the signatories to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the causes of the imbalances in that relationship, Waitangi Day is just that, a single day off.  But for those inside an iwi, it’s a Waitangi Week in which we get to stir the Crown up to remembrance of its duty to us all.  

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

The first political red herring in this election year has been floated with a tentative proposal to change the national flag.  This is a classic bait-and-switch tactic in which a relatively minor political change (the bait) is introduced to the public in order to try and smooth the passage of a vastly more controversial and major change (the switch). In this case a changed flag is the bait, but the ultimate objective is the signing and passing into law of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement [TPPA].  

If the New Zealand public falls for this switch, then they may as well also change the national anthem; at which point I will nominate Sting’s Message in A Bottle for their consideration.

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea
Another lonely day, with no one here but me
More loneliness than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair

That’s what happens to those who fall for red herrings – kua ngaro rātou ki roto i te whare miere – they go pōrangi with bees in their bonnets. 

Meanwhile i te ao taiao, the whānau hapū iwi of Ngāti Kahu are just getting on with the mahi of supporting Papātūānuku to deal to the corrupt politicians (including some of our own) who pimp her to various corporates.  These are the ones  who commodify and muck up her freshwaters and fisheries, deny and do nothing about climate change, and water down the laws meant to protect her.  

At the same time, te take pāpori for Ngāti Kahu hapū is their health, housing, education, work and language.  And as always, their bedrock remains te Whakapono (their faith), He Hakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (the 1835 declaration of sovereignty), Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840), and the principle of Mana Motuhake.  In 2014 that will see them focus on constitutional transformation.

We are about to commemorate the 174th year since the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which is not the same as the fraudulent Treaty of Waitangi.  That’s 174 years of broken Crown promises and atrocities against them.  Yet most of Ngāti Kahu seem to have survived with an unbroken and undeterred spirit. 

Well, they are going to need every bit of that spirit shortly, because they are about to come under huge pressure to sign a settlement this year, and join the other iwi corporates who have already ceded their sovereignty. 

But Ngāti Kahu also know that the biggest threat of all, the one ring that  binds all other threats to the environment, wellbeing and sovereignty of all New Zealanders, and not just Ngāti Kahu, is the TPPA. 

Wake up.  Wise up.  Rise up.  Resist.  That is the message. 

Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
A hundred billion castaways looking for a home