DEALING WITH THE DISEASE

The hapū and iwi of Aotearoa must deal with the same domestic and international pressures as other sovereign nations; climate change, pollution, violence, security and wellbeing, trade agreements, me wētahi atu (etc).   We must also deal with the modern day diseases of colonisation that afflict too many of our people; welfare dependency, poor health, low education, high unemployment, crime, addiction, suicide, me wētahi atu.

The medical definition of disease is “a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of part or all of an organism, and that is not due to any external injury.”  In humans, disease may refer to any condition that causes physical or emotional pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or for those in contact with the person.

So, what do we do about the diseases of colonisation amongst our hapū and iwi?

The first thing we do is study and understand the diseases’ causes and correlations so that we can identify their structures and pinpoint their power sources – the things that keep them in place, alive and breeding.  This kind of analysis is not a blame game exercise.  It’s a simple reality that must be done if we are to treat these diseases amongst ourselves, and it requires an unflinching and fearless look at ourselves as well as the colonisers.

Seven generations after Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, this is a work still in progress and only our Prophets can see the end in clear sight.  But even before I started writing these columns 12 years ago, our collective understanding had been greatly enlightened by the work and teachings of generations of enlightened rangatira.

Just in Te Hiku o Te Ika alone, and in my lifetime, we were blessed to learn from the likes of Nuki Aldridge, Hone Kamariere, Pa Henare Tait, Gloria Herbert, Māori Marsden, Makari Matiu, Matiu Rata, Mira Szaszy, Whina Cooper, Ta Hemi Henare and so many others.  Today, we carry the work on without fear that it will ever fail, especially when we consider the powerful people we have birthed and grown who already work alongside us as we did with our kuia kaumātua, and who will replace us eventually. 

In the coming weeks and months, I will cover the many ways in which we are slowly but steadily treating and recovering from these diseases that are common amongst colonised peoples around the world.

To end this column, we know that none of the modern day diseases listed above existed amongst hapū and iwi prior to colonisation.  If they had, then the fantasies of yesteryear’s coloniser, like terra nullius, would have been fulfilled as fact, and the odd notions of their modern counterparts that Europeans rather than Māori were the first inhabitants of these islands would be accepted as fact.

  

Those fantasies and notions have a disease pathology of their own, but I will leave them for others to deal with.