ALIVE AND AWAKE

Online, on the streets, in schools and shops, and at sports, Māori (especially our rangatahi) are alive and awake to the possibilities and power of our votes in this year’s general election.  Ko te mea pai ki te kite.  They are so on to it these younger generations.  How could they not be? 

As I read their internet korero it’s like reading the minutes of hui held in Pawarenga, Te Kao, Whatuwhiwhi, Ngātaki and other kainga during the early decades of last century, and sensing how very on to it our tūpuna were as well.  

What’s more, as I listen to the spirited korero of Maori today, I recall how our tūpuna would come together and spark korero about issues of their day; especially on Sundays after church had ended and us kids had come back from the shelter shed where we’d gone to hakapati ice-cream and lollies from our mates who had money.

In my mind’s eye I can still see Paraihe Pirini springing on his feet, flicking his tokotoko and korero kokirikiri – quick, quick – (he was such a compelling speaker) while his brother Pio (quieter but just as deep thinking), and others like Hii Mano, Piri Ratana, all the Rudolph brothers, Baldy Waipouri, Wiko Arama, the Atama brothers, Sid Welsh and the likes would come in softer but just as strong.

And then there were the wahine! Ko te mea pai hoki.  It was beautiful to see and hear them stitching and mending the fabric of our hapu, all with an eye to the good of even the ones not yet born.  And that was just on Sundays.  During the week they’d move from house to house, farm to farm, doing what needed to be done.  Rangatira tūturu rātou katoa.

Throughout the last century and on into this one, in spite of the pressures of urbanisation, assimilation, fragmentation and decimation foisted on us by pignorant racists and their allies, the wairua and embodiment of rangatiratanga gave oomph to our grandparents’ and parents’ generations, and then our own.  Now we see it springing anew in our uri.

This year will be the 14^th time I’ve taken part in voting for a new government, and I’ve never seen so much interest in an election since 1984 when 93.7% of eligible voters turned out.  That remains the highest voter turnout on record for New Zealand.  Since then the number has trended down, until the last election in 2011 saw a mere 74.21% voter turnout. 

But the good news is that in this election, since advance voting opened on 3^rd September, the voter turnout is up by well over 100% on that in 2011.  

Who we vote for is nobody's business but our own (oh and maybe our tamariki / mokopuna we take into the voting booth with us so they can get the thrill of ticking our paper for us). But being uninterested and disengaged is really not an option for any Māori who is alive and awake.