LEAVE IT ON THE MARAE

Speaking at this year’s New Zealand Nurse’s Association conference, Dr Moana Jackson addressed the always topical issue of “free speech”.  This is an edit of what he had to say.

 “Earlier this year, I [read] six speeches by a man called Don Brash and six speeches by a man called Bob Jones.  It was one of the most difficult and tortuous jobs I ever set myself, because their exercise of free speech has actually been an exercise to demean and diminish us, and the presumption that free speech does not have a cost is a cultural European presumption which our people have never shared.”

Moana points out that the modern-day western notion of free speech has its genesis in the period of European history known as The Enlightenment, its best-known proponent being the French philosopher Voltaire who is attributed with saying, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

There is good evidence that Voltaire never actually said it, but, in any event, that statement has become the gold standard for quotations mustered in defence of free speech. As Moana notes, it also “became a very profound base for the western Liberal-Democratic tradition.  But like all parts of [that] tradition, whether it is their parliamentary system, Kings, Queens or Courts, [their notion of ‘free’ speech is a European] cultural creation that came from a particular place and story in a particular land.”  And sadly, it has “too often been used to make others ‘unfree’.” 

But Moana also notes that the Maori cultural notion of free speech is quite different and “is exemplified every day on our Marae which are recognised as the place of Tūmatauenga where people can be honest, critical, funny and witty; at someone else’s expense.”

In this tradition, “the notion of freedom of speech on the place of Tumatauenga is always balanced by the fact that the Marae Ātea sits in front of the Whare Tūpuna; the place of Rongo; the place of peace.”

We have a whakatauki, ‘The thrust of the taiaha may be pushed aside, but the thrust of words cannot’.  Therefore, Moana says that the principle of free speech on the Marae is balanced by the principles of protection, preservation and maintenance of “peace in the relationships of those who are on the Marae.  Without that balance and preservation,” Moana cautions, “People can be hurt, relationships can be placed at risk.” 

Clearly, free speech is not reserved just for the Marae.  However, the principles underpinning our cultural notion of it can be exercised anywhere so that “words can flow freely, challenges can be made, and questions can be asked.”

As Moana concludes, we should “make a stand on free speech.  Not the free speech envisaged by a Don Brash or a Bob Jones or two strange Canadians, but rather the free speech envisaged by our people in the stories that they left on the Marae.”