From stuff
"In a wide-ranging speech at the Parihaka International Peace Festival in Taranaki at the weekend, the maverick Maori Party MP admitted he was trying to mind his language but said the sentiment remained and the "rape of Maori lands" continued.You are not minding your language enough IMO - the term 'rape of maori lands' is problematic for me. It provides an easy deflection for people who don't actually want to talk about the issue. And i think it is demeaning to women, men and children who have been raped. Yes it implies non-consent and a degrading of the victim and has a shock-factor but it is not the right term in my view.
"Last year I made the statement that white so-and-sos have been raping our lands and ripping us off and everyone hated me. All I was doing was holding up a mirror to New Zealand."Most people got irritated because you used it as some type of rationale for going to paris. Humility is also a noble attribute.
Mr Harawira, who is on an extended summer break from Parliament after making a public apology for his inflammatory email, then said the rape of Maori lands was not an issue confined to the past.
"The Foreshore and Seabed Act sits on our shoulders today. Here at Parihaka, January 9, 2010, we sit under the biggest land grab.
"There's a move to repeal that act, but it hasn't been repealed yet."
However, the foreshore and seabed solution was simple, the MP for Te Tai Tokerau said. "First, put all the foreshore and seabed in Maori title. That will take away the angst, anxiety and anger that has been with Maori forever. Second, make it unalienable so it's never able to be sold."Good solution.
Guaranteed access for all Kiwis would be the final step and was something most Maori had no problem with, he said.Again good.
Mr Harawira also hit out at Maori iwi leadership, saying many were now more focused on corporate activity and profit than caring for their people. "Great things are happening in corporate development but what about social work? Our people are starving, our children can't read, they can't write or count."Don't get sucked into fighting maori against maori. Yes we need to get more happening with our people. I do agree about the disconnect between corporate iwi and the people but it is not mutually exclusive - you can do both and we must do both otherwise we will always be dependant upon handouts.
"I tell the kids I've been to court on 35 charges and I'm now in Parliament. Any one of those kids could be prime minister."That's right Hone - you are part of maori leadership and i am looking forward to seeing you get some runs on the board.
2 comments:
I Have to disagree with your here, Im cynical enough to believe that the latest carry on with Hone is a distraction from the Maori party propping up in real terms an anti environment, anti worker & anti civil rights agenda by the National administration. His words are no comfort to the 60,000+ Maori unemployed. perhaps he should take the gloves off & also criticise those in his own party who are “now more focused on corporate activity and profit than caring for their people” in real terms Hone is still part of a neoliberal right wing government that has cleverly used the ‘brown camouflage ‘ to advance its anti , the most disgusting recent examples being the m parti support for the ets ( making them complicit in the genocide of our brothers & sisters in the pacific, & their endorsement of prison privitisation & the expansion of the prison industrial complex in Aotearoa. If Hone was walking his talk then he would have crossed the floor when it mattered when these shitty pieces of legislation were being passed.
The veneer is radical, but the substance is not
PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 11 (1) 2005 211
THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE
DR EVAN TE AHU POATA-SMITH
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2008/08/veneer-is-radical-but-substance-is-not.html
“ Neo-liberal reforms and the growing social inequalities in New Zealand society have not affected all Maori equally. Those Maori representing tribal corporations and commercial interests have directly benefited from the pro-business, neo- liberal agenda that was implemented to restore the conditions for profitable capital accumulation in the New Zealand economy from 1984 onwards.
They have benefited from the reduction in corporate taxation levels that was achieved through large cuts in welfare expenditure, the commercialisation of health, housing and education.
On the other hand, the dismantling of the welfare state, the cuts to benefit levels and the introduction of market rents for state housing in the 1990s brought increasing hardship and poverty for many New Zealanders.
Working class Maori have had to face the prospects of increased poverty, falling real incomes, unemployment, deteriorating employment conditions and job security, social welfare cuts and user-charges for education and health services. So, while those Maori representing tribal corporations and commercial interests have directly benefited from the economic policies of successive governments, the over-representation of Maori in the working class has meant that the vast majority of Maori families have borne the brunt of the economic restructuring.
With the growth of inequality and social polarisation within Maori communities it is increasingly difficult to sustain this notion that Maori communities are classless communities that share the same sets of experiences of inequality and the same political aspirations this ignores the critical divisions that have arisen within and between iwi, hapu and urban Maori communities over the allocation and distribution of the benefits of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process, a process that has resulted in a substantial shift in resources and compensation to those sections of Maori society already wealthy and powerful.
It is critical to acknowledge that Maori struggles over the past 15 years have not simply been directed against Pakeha and the state, but have involved the struggles of ordinary Maori families for a greater degree of control over resources within iwi, hapu and urban Maori communities.
Indeed, the revitalisation of militant Maori struggles in the 1990s represented a direct challenge to the Treaty settlement framework and the narrow commercial interests of tribal authorities. It revealed profound levels of discontent with the adoption of corporate models for the management and distribution of settlement assets and exposed the failure of cultural nationalist strategies to provide a real solution to historical grievances and Maori inequality in wider society."
This is my reply on Te Karere Ipurangi, still awaiting moderation, which i'll reproduce here.
Good points ana – the only problem with crossing the floor is that it could be seen as supporting filthy labour and fuck that.
here is what the labour associate spokesperson for maori has said about the F&S Act. http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2010/01/12/fs-repeal-will-it-really-help/
I have only copied some of the paragraphs
QUOTE “The fact is bad stuff has happened to Maori over the last couple of hundred years which has led to Maori being at the bottom of the heap.”
We are generally dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant than any other group of people in New Zealand. We know the problem, but what’s the solution?
Well let’s repeal the Foreshore and Seabed and put the F&S into Maori title. We can be dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant at the beach. That’ll make all the difference. At least we’ll be dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant on our own turf and surf.
The real issue for Maori is ourselves.
We generally live with this big chip on our shoulders.
I’m Maori, so I have every right to be a victim. Personally, I can’t be bothered.
We can accuse all and sundry of raping and pillaging our land, foreshore and seabed – but we as Maori have done a helluva a lot to ourselves too. We would do well to hold a mirror up to our own faces, but it’s a helluva lot easier to blame those bloody pakehas.
We have a really simple solution to all our woes. It goes like this – every Maori child born from the start of this new decade (and earlier) be loved, fed and educated so that he or she may go on to become a successful leader, and become extremely wealthy and/ or influential. Then when he or she see an injustice against our people, use that wealth and influence to correct the situation.
That’s what pakeha do. We could learn from them.
Of course we could carry on like we are – and be even dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant,.” END QUOTE
That is list MP Kelvin Davis. Check out the comments and don’t EVER be fooled.
The article you have quoted from ana is excellent and i'm going to put it up as a seperate post. Thank you.
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