UNFORGETTABLE

No matter how old I get, I remember the examples of all my mātua for whom voting day was an exciting privilege and a family event.  My Pawarenga whānau were my most immediate influence and they always took us with them when they voted.  But our Ngātaki whanau were our most politicising influence.  

They travelled with Matiu Rata during every election campaign, and whenever he came to Pawarenga they all stayed in our home.  This meant we got exposed to whakaaro that we might not otherwise have encountered.  It also meant that, although I grew up questioning and challenging almost everything and everyone, including Matiu, I never ever questioned if I should vote.

This election, our eldest grandchild is eligible to vote for the first time.  He too has had politicising influences from all sides of his whakapapa and is likely to vote every chance he gets.  But we know from past and current trends that many rangatahi don’t share his experience, aren’t enrolled, and won’t vote.

The reasons for this are captured eloquently in a series of questions put by another whanaunga from my Ōwhata side, Robert McDowell, who asks, “Do governments create jobs other than [those] … that produce nothing of value [but] fleece ... people's personal wealth and [our] national assets?

“Do governments create industries; or do innovative people, who thereafter subcontract to governments according to specification?

“Do governments create opportunities for innovation; or do they assassinate our children's imagination with … years of trauma-based mind control?

“Do governments assassinate local opportunities so as to assimilate more rats onto their government job-scheme treadmill; or do they outsource our local industries to benefit the slaves in third-world nations?

“What value does government bring to the global table other than that which it has pilfered from the people's plate? Is it not our table, our food, our cutlery, our china, our chairs [but] only their appetite that feasts?”

Robert goes on to write, “In Reality, government is a psychopathic projection of collectivist force; i.e. ‘Do what I say or I will hurt you.’  Government does not even exist without the people’s belief in it. Through one form of coercion or another the people have been stripped bare of their self-belief and intrepid spirit. Government is the illusion of authority created by fear, self-interest, cowardice and greed.”

I can’t fault his analysis.  It’s very sound.  So is the ultimate question he poses to us all; to vote or not to vote?  

For myself, at this time when politics has never been dirtier, the answer lies in a simple, clean memory of sitting under the kitchen table listening to my mātua talk into the early hours of the morning about my future and the role that their voting played in it.  They gave me hope.  They still do. 

"Go ahead,” Robert concludes, “... make your own choice; but don't you ever presume that you can make mine". 

Yes, you are right my whanaunga.  Engari, maumahara noa ahau te tauira o ōku tūpuna.  So, although the example we leave our mokopuna may be different in detail to that of our tupuna, we honour them all by making sure it is as hopeful and unforgettable as theirs was to us.

OF TABLES AND TEMPLES

Watching our kaumatua end the so-called workshop in Kaitaia last Monday between some Iwi leaders and the multinational Statoil, my cousin saw the overturning of the tables in the Te Ahu Centre as an act of cleansing.  However one Te Rarawa leader saw it very differently, calling it an act of thuggery. 

I put these two contrasting viewpoints to the kaumatua himself and asked him which was closest to the truth.  He simply smiled and said, ‘Some talk.  Some do.’

 

While the feedback on the Ngati Kahu website unanimously supported what our kaumatua did, reaction on at least one of the mainstream media websites was at first strongly against his activism.

“North Auckland deserves to be left the Economic backwater that it has been for many years,” wrote Northern Advocate reader, ray21.

“I wonder how these ‘activists’ get around,” asked hrshrshrs.  “Do they walk or ride a horse everywhere?”  

A third Advocate reader, Ruru, wrote, “Idiots.  What do they hope to achieve by behaving like that?”

For his opponents, these three criticisms are representative of not only what our kaumatua did but what they believe he stands for; i.e. violence, hypocrisy, stupidity. 

Leaving aside the many assumptions, prejudices and preconceived notions involved (e.g. the assumption that he acted in anger, the prejudice against ‘activists’ in general, and the preconception that overturning tables equates to being an idiot), we his supporters praise his activism for an oil-free future in the long-term, and an end to oil exploration in the short term.  It makes sense to us.

We know the oil economy isn’t sustainable, but that this is still an oil dependent society we live in.  So even though some activists can’t live their lives and can’t get to hui without using any oil products, we don’t see them as hypocrites.  To us the real hypocrites are those who know that something is wrong but do nothing other than monitor and mirimiri the wrongdoers.

Our opponents see only the surface of our activism, but we know its beginning and its end, and our experience is that most of those who oppose us today will quietly slip into oblivion when the end is reached.  Only their leaders might be remembered, sadly.  Hei aha?  They too have the right to choose the tables at which they sit and the temples in which they worship.

At the other end of the motu stands one of those temples in the shape of Parliament.  If the dirty politics practiced there by the current government is genuinely a case of 'politics as usual', like mainstream media from TV1 to the Taranaki Daily claim, then my initial reaction is, “Yuck!  Why even bother voting to get someone I like into that paru place?

Then I remember our kaumatua saying, “Some talk.  Some do,” and I remember that dirty politicians are elected by those who don’t vote. 

So I will vote next month.  That is the least I can do to help our kaumatua turn over the tables in that temple.

ONE LAW FOR ALL

In the lead up to the 2014 election campaign, certain political parties are again calling for the removal of all race-based legal privileges which have historically advantaged Maori and made us the contemporary envy of all those who cry, “One Law for All!”

Ironically, we back that call 100%.  For example, why shouldn't all other races in this country get the same historical privileging that Maori got under the 1847 Education Ordinance whereby ours is still the only race in this country to have had our children forced to learn in a ‘foreign’ language in order to receive less government education subsidies than their English counterparts.  Let everyone, regardless of race, experience that historical privilege and its contemporary legacy.

There’s more.  Why should ours be the only race in this nation to have enjoyed, under the Maori Prisoners Trials Act 1879 and the Maori Prisoners Detention Act 1880, the historical privileging of being indefinitely imprisoned without trial?  The impact of those legal privileges continues to resonate to this day.  Would it not be fair to ensure all other races get to enjoy how it feels?

Maori are also happy to forego our historical privileging as the only race, under the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act 1882, to have had all our lands within five miles of a road specially rated to build more roads that we didn’t ask for, want or use?  All land owners in these shaky isles should be similarly privileged under their own specially named race-based laws.

And why should only Maori have been historically privileged, under the Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1967, to have had large tracts of our remaining lands declared ‘uneconomic’ and compulsorily converted into Crown land?  That’s another privilege to which every race should have equal access.

It’s not just historical privileging Maori are happy to relinquish.  One contemporary race-based legal privilege we’re keen to share is that of being legally limited to selling our lands to ‘preferred classes of alienees’ as per Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. 

We’re also happy to share the race-based legal privilege we enjoy, under the Treaty of Waitangi Act, of getting a maximum of 3% of the value of our stolen property returned to us.  And we especially urge the removal of all laws privileging us as the only race in New Zealand able to receive exactly $0 in compensation for our stolen property.  Why wouldn’t every property owner in this fair land want to enjoy these, as well as a myriad of other similar race-based legal privileges? 

 

All irony aside, at the core of the 1law4all call is a marrow-deep terror amongst its inventors that, as Maori rise from beneath their colonising thumb, we will have the power to do to them what they did to us.

I think they fear that even more than they fear the boogieman of contemporary Chinese colonisation and what that might mean for them in terms of ‘one law for all.’

BE ALERT

Kia mataara is the call to be alert, especially in times of danger.  The big āwhā last month was one of those times.

Although Ngāti Kahu came through without any drownings, deaths or major injuries amongst our own, with more bad weather forecast for this month, we’re reminding everyone to stay alert and get ready.

KAI AND WAI:  Have enough non-perishables like canned or powdered goods, rice and pasta to feed everyone in the whare for at least three to four days.  Every time you empty any 3 litre bottle of milk, juice or even bleach, scrub it out, fill with water and store it.  And if you know there's a big blow coming, fill the bath so you can use it like an inside tank.

MAHANA AND MAROKE:  Even though we live in Te Hiku, we should have a stock of warm blankets, gloves, mittens, socks, beanies, hoodies, raincoats, oilskins and gumboots. 

TAONGIA AND TĀMAHANA:  A generator is handy to have, but a fireplace with a grill or a wood stove and plenty of wood are ideal in a power cut.  Otherwise a camping stove, BBQ or primus will do.  But make sure there’s plenty of ventilation to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and have plenty of backup gas and waterproof matches handy.  Don't just rely on lighters.

WHAKAWHITIWHITI KORERO AND WHAKAPIRIPIRI:  Stay in touch with what’s going on by having a battery or motion operated radio in the whare, or a cellphone with cord and car charger.  Also, know where everyone is and agree how to get in touch if you’re separated, like a text every twelve hours, or a prearranged meeting place.  And take special care of our kuia kaumātua, tamariki mokopuna.

RONGOA AND KOPE:  If anyone in the whānau is on prescription medicines, have enough to last a few days and keep them in a container with at least a sharp pair of scissors, a pair of tweezers, sterile bandages, disinfectant, antibiotic ointment, and over-the-counter painkillers. Also have a supply of anything else vital to your particular whānau like nappies and sanitary supplies. 

NGĀMAHI AND NGAHAU:  Have things to do that stop the whanau from going pōrangi with boredom; a deck of playing cards, board games, books, mahi toi, handcrafts.  Use the time to kōrero, write, draw, plan a future event or just stay in bed and chill.  Engari kia tūpato; it’s no accident that the birth rate often goes up nine months after an emergency. 

WHATINGA AND WHAKAORA:  In case you do have to leave in a hurry, make sure your waka is full of gas.  And make sure you have tools on hand to help you leave, like a shovel in the boot to dig yourself or others out at any time. 

NGĀ MEA ERA ATU:  After any emergency is over, check your whānau whanui, whare and whenua for any damage, fix what you can, call in help for what you can’t, then restock your supplies.

Runga ake i ngā wā katoa, kia mataara.