nah, the children stay with us

These proposed changes are the next step in the attempted obliteration of Māori culture

Scoop

Dame Tariana has spoken at a number of hui recently about her concerns regarding the Children, Young Persons and their families (Oranga Tamariki) legislation currently before Parliament.She is concerned the proposed amendments give Children, Young Persons and their Families (CYPFS) the legal power to determine who will raise tamariki Māori who have been uplifted from whānau. Under current legislation CYPFS must look to the extended whānau and hapū to place these tamariki. She says that will change under the new proposals.At the New Zealand Māori Council’s Waitangi Rua Rautau Annual Forum held recently said the devil is in the detail and concerned with amended Section 5 which includes the qualifier “wherever possible”.

Yep never mind that ANYONE has to be checked and ensured that they are safe to take the children - and that includes all caregivers. The facts are that this legislation is very, very bad for Māori.

Some background from "Hands off our tamariki Ōtaki hui, held 12 October at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and published widely including on He Hōaka

On Wednesday, October 12, a hui in Ōtaki discussed the changes Anne Tolley has proposed to the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act, removing the clauses that consider the effects of decisions on whānau, and that prioritise placing a child within their hapū or iwi. 
Those clauses came out of the 1988 report Puao-te-ata-tu. After extensive research around the nation, Puao-te-ata-tu found that ‘institutional racism’ was at the root of Māori social welfare problems, and predicted that the Crown would continue to fail Māori unless this was fixed. The report found that Māori succeed when rangatiratanga is recognised and supported, and recommended that Māori should be resourced to solve the problems Māori are facing...

Removing the clauses from legislation is simply another colonising act of control. The proposed changes are inconsistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which New Zealand is a signatory. In particular, the changes are inconsistent with article 7.2 which recognises “the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.” 

This issue is still there, is still hot.
Scoop

Dame Tariana said the legislation cannot be allowed to proceed and if need be she would march.“If we can walk for our land, (and) if we can walk for our foreshore, we can certainly act for our tamariki”.She is devastated with less than three weeks out from submissions closing the new legislation severely affecting the aspirations and ambitions for all tamariki and mokopuna have barely raised a mention in the media. The Bill has been referred to select committee and the deadline for submissions on the Bill is 15 February. 

The time has come - we cannot stay silent or still anymore - we will march and we will fight for our culture and we will win - WE WILL WIN!!!

a glance

As we approach Waitangi Day I'm going to put some of my poems up - they relate to this day, they relate to me and they relate to today's world.

Waitangi day night

A queen sent emissaries

as I checked the rat trap

for a licker lover of

peanut butter inside the

ceiling of my whare

on Waitangi day night

That wasp stung me inside

my ear, I heard the vibrating

wings notch up but too

late my instinctual alarm

bell rang, too late for me

on Waitangi day night

Their paper home has grown

and my ear has swollen so i

cannot hear their voices

entreating the benefits of

a queen constantly begetting

on Waitangi day night

I huddle inside a fern now,

my old whare adorned with

photos of a queen, a tidal

current I see, head-high as

sweeping so clean, me

on Waitangi day night

a step closer

As we approach Waitangi Day I'm going to put some of my poems up - they relate to this day, they relate to me and they relate to today's world.

at waitangi once,

when Rangatira didn't

say go! wildeyed,

they wanted their land.

the good had gone,

dead, shot, sick or

sobbing. Breath to

breath they looked

at them, and they

walked away hungry.

approaching the trap

As we approach Waitangi Day I'm going to put some of my poems up - they relate to this day, they relate to me and they relate to today's world.

Sci fi colonisation

the first one arrived all

sun-spill and screaming

like a God. Somewhere

a parchment of pixels

was signed and they don't

talk to us anymore.

What have we loved?

To make ours into

theirs they came in numbers.

the white man's island

Some think that racism is not here in this country or that we are somehow better than other countries around this area. But they completely forget about colonisation and the severe, utter destruction it brings to indigenous peoples. The following exchange between a meat selling, rugby league loving Knight of this country Sir Peter Leitch aka The Mad Butcher and a young Māori woman on Waiheke Island illustrate so much that is hidden.

Māori Television

Lara Wharepapa Bridger, 23, says she was at a vineyard on Waiheke Island earlier this week with her mother. Leitch, famously known as The Mad Butcher, approached the group about not drinking and driving.  He doubted that they were locals, which sparked Bridger to tell him she was born on the island. This promoted  Leitch to make the comment – which he describes as light hearted banter but Bridger took as a racist taunt. 

The exchange upset Bridger, who posted an emotional video on Facebook last night to express her emotions."He said specifically to me, 'this is a white man's island, you need to go.

Now leitch is not disputing this - he is calling it light hearted banter. And THAT is where the major problem is in my opinion. Leitch has zero idea of the impact of colonisation upon tangata whenua - the losses of so much including the mana of saying, "this is my land". He does not have a clue - why would he? He did make this statement

In a press statement, Letich says he “apologised unreservedly” when he discovered that Bridger was offended by his comment.“There is no way I can ever be accused of being racist,” he says.

Oh dear apology FAIL leitch - you ARE racist for saying that to a young Māori woman. You believe your own hype - "my partner/wife/friend/teammates/aquaintances/workmates and so on are Māori/Pasific Islanders/Asian/Aborigine and so on - I CANNOT BE RACIST!!! 

and to top it off we have the sight of michelle boag - a horrible National Party ex pres, stalwart saying

But Letich media spokesperson Michelle Boag, says that his comments can’t be racially targeted because Bridger is “barely coffee coloured” referring to her being a light-skinned Māori. She also claims that Bridger has come forward because she wants to be famous.

what a disgusting piece of work boag is - and notice this - this is how racism and colonisation work - they 'other', they use the results of colonisation against you as in skin colour, they use best intentions against you, they use anything and everything against you - why? Because ANY realisation from indigenous peoples of their rights is considered dangerous, is a threat, and ultimately is a source of shame to them because underneath their racism is the knowledge that their ancestors took, that they take and that as they take others lose, sometimes even their cultural identity.

Newsflash racists - we aren't taking that shit no more - we will call you out every, everywhere and on all media. 

a wave of emotion

I like this homecoming, this connecting of the past, present and the future. The emotion, the tears, the joy, the sorrow. Welcome home Hine Muka.

NZH

Tears of joy and jubilation were shed at the welcoming of a historic Maori cloak back home to Wairarapa yesterday afternoon.The 19th century woven cloak, or korowai, originally belonged to Wairarapa iwi and had been stored in the Rochester Historical Society collection in the United States for more than 100 years.

To have waited for the people for so long and now together again!!!

"It's absolutely overwhelming and almost indescribable the value that this has to our people," Wairarapa List MP Ms Fox said."The greatest thing we have is the reconnection with our ancestors who are definitely here in spirit and here today to see her come home."

I can feel the emotion from here - the tears fall, the tears of joy and time and space tear and we are here together again.

Ms Fox said the korowai, which was shaped to the shoulder with darting, was a priceless example of expert weaving which is not seen today.She said korowai made today are usually square and that this korowai was "a bit wider in the hips so it must be made for me"."The effort and the time and the amount of harakeke that is involved in making her will be a beacon and example for the future," she said."It will connect us with our whenua and it will connect us with our ancestors and be an example for our young people to restore and revive these traditions."Wairarapa iwi representatives, who collected the korowai from the Nelson Provincial Museum where it was being cared for before its return, lovingly named the cloak Hine Muka.

The Mana that this brings and the impetus for knowledge and even more connection.

Aratoi Museum of Art and History director Alice Hutchison said when Wairarapa iwi were reunited with the korowai in Nelson earlier this week, the feeling in the room, was "so intense and so strong for everybody"."It was like a wave of incredible love and I've never felt anything like it."

When you feel it, you know. It is the most unbelievable feeling, so intense - a different dimension.

And so I want EVERYTHING returned so that all Māori can experience these feelings, these gifts. And I want other cultures to feel the same - so museums send it all back to where it came from, send it back to the people, their people. Stop this hoarding - stop this paternalistic attitude that people cannot look after their own.

I have been and seen some of the taonga under Te Papa - they cry out for return, their voices deafening. This is a poem I wrote after visiting Te Papa

Longing for a breeze

the floor was polished

and clacked

with footfall and they lay

quietly disemboweled,

and were viewed.

a card explained: revered once, then dis

repair, now look

their mauri is strong. so they

say breezelessly.

A whare tūpuna

will say what to that?

Pita Sharple's taiaha watches

through glass.

They are alone at night.

No, no, and no again

Sorry but this is a difficult story - a story of loss, of disrespect, of money and of our current state of affairs. It does finish on a slightly positive note though

NZH

A protest campaign has erupted against a Fletchers proposal to build up to 480 homes near Auckland Airport on land that includes lava caves that were used as Maori burial sites for generations.
The 32ha site valued at $11.85 million has been designated a special housing area, which means the project is likely to be notified only to adjacent landowners.

Now we know that this government and especially nick smith and paula bennett are in trouble because of their inaction to our homeless and their uncaring attitude to those trying to help. So smith has made special housing areas.

About 100 people attended a protest meeting on Wednesday night called by a group of young cousins at the nearby Makaurau Marae, the ancestral home of the Te Waiohua people who gave Auckland its original name of Tamaki Makaurau.
But their tribal leader, Te Warena Taua, who chairs the marae committee, says he accepts the development because he could not stop it.
He led a tribal challenge in the Environment Court against extending the metropolitan urban limit outwards to include the property in 2012, but lost.

yep they lost, but that does not mean the fight is over.

Fletchers' application to the Overseas Investment Office, which was required to approve the deal because 56 per cent of the company's shares are foreign-owned, shows that it plans to vest almost half the land (16.2ha) in Auckland Council for "roads, reserves, walkways and other public amenities", including an area to be added to the historic reserve.
It says the other 16.6ha will be used to build 350-480 homes over the next eight years, including terrace, duplex and stand-alone houses.

Get that? fletchers are 56% foreign owned and this development is for one reason - to make money! Don't be fooled into thinking it is for parks or reserves or even housing NO it is to make money!

The land was confiscated by the Crown in 1863 and has been owned by the Wallace family since 1866.

Illegal and immoral - confiscated for what? because they wanted it that is why.

A Wallace descendant who grew up on the land and still lives there at age 87, Ailsa Blackwell, said she helped a friend gather "a sugar-bag full" of human bones from a cave on the farm for a school talk at Mangere Central School in about 1940.
"It was my job to hold them up at the school for the talk," she said. "The headmistress was shocked. She took them straight up to Pukaki Pa."

yep desecration of those sites over the years too

Another member of the protest group, journalist Qiane Matata-Sipu, said the group would not be satisfied even if Fletchers protected the caves.
"Look at it," she said, surveying the farmland stretching downhill from the caves. "This is all that's left. We don't want to be left with this little box [a small protected area]."

Give it back, all of it. 

And to end on a positive note

Heritage NZ Maori manager Te Kenehi Teira said the development would need an archaeological authority. "It will end up on my desk at some stage. I will take it straight to the Maori Heritage Council for a decision because of the magnitude of the place," he said.

Perhaps that will protect the sites but more is needed - the area must be given back and that will protect the site and the ancestors. 

time for radical change

Sleeping rough - there is no glamour in this, it isn't cool or street - it is difficult, lonely, cold, wet, dangerous, intimidating, isolating, destructive and for many a final destination after choices are gone.

Waatea News

As winter bites, the Auckland City Mission says it has identified a record 200-plus rough sleepers around the central city, more than half of them Maori.

Yep HALF of them are Māori!!! Homeless in their own land. Discarded by many. Literally hand to mouth survival.

The new Auckland city missioner, Chris Farelly says the figure stands as further evidence that not only is Auckland experiencing a housing crisis, but that those living at the furthest extremes of poverty are suffering the most. 

He says the longer someone sleeps rough, the harder it can be to transition into living a normal life.

Yep the normal ain't normal anymore. And we have also had the news that

New statistics reveal Māori home ownership has plummeted in the past 27 years, with the rate in some parts of the North Island dropping by as much as 40 percent.
The report from Statistics New Zealand said, since 1986, the average drop in the ownership rate was 20 percent for Māori, compared with 15 percent for the total population.
"In the worst hit areas for Māori, declines in home ownership were close to 40 percent and that was in the Whangarei, southern Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua and Hastings urban areas."
The number of Māori having to rent privately had risen dramatically, she said.
"It's increased by 88.3 percent since 1986, so we know that there's been that large increase in Māori living in private rentals as well as a fall in people living in owner-occupied dwellings and that compares with a fall for the total population of 42.7 percent."

The minister nick smith says

"The fact that our Maori and Pacific people have lower rates of home ownership is just a broader reflection of the fact that they tend to have lower educational achievement, that they have lower incomes, and that translates itself into housing."

Yep cos uz Maaori r dum eh - what an dickhead smith is - a person who is pretending there are no housing issues, a minister so out of touch that every time he comes on the telly he reminds us of how inadequate, out of his league, and useless he is. He isn't helping to solve any housing problems - he is just trying to protect his very exposed arse, and it is exposed because he is ineffectual.

We DO NOT deserve this useless government with its apathetic ministers, we deserve better.

true bennett

So Paula Bennett the minister just made up the 'Flying squads' going around tapping on car windows to try and help the many homeless people living in their cars. She told the useless john key, he repeated it to show how useless the homeless were - didn't even bloody WANT help. Now the truth has come out that it was all bullshit. What an absolute disgrace of a person and if you want to see her real side watch this video - nasty, nasty, nasty!!!

The truth is many people are really struggling with the situation of no place to live - only very desperate people live in cars or vans. Māori are over-represented and everyone is suffering. Listen to this interview to hear the resilience and strength of some of our people.

People are helping as best they can but this is a structural issue that has to be fixed from top to bottom.

Does this government and its ministers care and are they going to do something? Nah better to have some more guns ($20b - yep that is billions) to shoot the desperate climate refugees soon to show up on our coastline...

fishy smell

So a group of teens did this and got this

A sentence of home detention for four Northland teenagers for a burglary spree totalling nearly $80,000 in stolen property has been met with outrage...
Former Maori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels told media the penalty was "inadequate", and thousands of social media posts claimed the teens escaped a custody sentence because they were white.Comments left on the Northern Advocate website were similar in theme with most questioning the justice system and making the observation that if the offenders had been Maori or Pacific Islanders the most likely outcome would have been jail.

It is not really rocket science to come to that conclusion especially when we also have this

A trout poacher has been jailed for four months - about 18 months after he was found guilty of the original charges. Leef was also disqualified from driving for six months as he used a car to get to the stream. Leef was caught with 10 rainbow trout strung onto a length of rope by Fish & Game rangers at a spawning stream at Lake Rotoiti in 2014. He claimed he was taking trout to eat and for his whanau.There were six hatchery bred trout and four wild trout.

Yep so there we have it

$80,000 + priviledge = not much

10 trout + Māori = Jail

Justice? No! 

The way it is? yes.

Please note this post is NOT about sending more people to Jail - it is about the injustice of systemic and unrelenting institutional racism. Trout are an introduced species and they don't need special protection so that sport fishers can get a thrill. This poacher was in the wrong - and he was trying to feed his family. But he didn't steal $80,000 worth of fish and he should not have been sent to Jail.

Good post on The Standard on this topic.

key dirties water

John Key says no one owns water yet the corporates and farmers can take it for free and the corporates can bottle it and sell it for a profit. No one owns the water? Wrong. Water is taonga and protected under the Treaty of Waitangi. Water is protected but is not protected because the governments, this and that one, have disregarded the rights of Māori to have taonga protected. The governments have pretended that there was no Treaty. The governments have sold rights to water they didn't own, they have allowed pollution for dairy profit and unspeakable shit dumped into rivers and waterways. They have allowed rivers and streams to be dug up, diverted, dammed and degraded just so they and their mates can earn some profit. They have allowed species within water ecosystems to die and deteriorate. 

These governments have taken water, and the land near it, off Māori and they have polluted this water and when Māori have gotten some of their rights back to protect these waterways and rivers and streams they get blamed for not looking after it in the first place. They get no money to help, they get no support unless a boating club or something is on the waterway. NZ Society - you don't deserve to look after water, you have shown a dismal inclination to protect waterways unless it is in some personal interest. NO!!!!!

It is time to manifest water as taonga and Māori as kaitiaki. It is time to give voice to the Treaty and the protection of taonga, all taonga but especially water - water is life, access to water is a human right, a right for everyone not just a right for the moneybag corporates or farmers or politicians like the disgraceful dirtkey or collins.

ht Micky @ The Standard

indigenous suicide rates and wtf can we do about it. Part 2 - solutions

While researching solutions to the high Indigenous suicide rates I came across an excellent article on Intercontinental Cry that really cuts to the chase.

Yet, perhaps the most compelling evidence to date connecting cultural continuity – and specifically, language retention – with reductions in First Nation suicide rates came in 2007, from research team, Hallett, Chandler and Lalonde. Their analyses demonstrated that rates of language retention among First Nations had the strongest predictive power over youth suicide rates, even when held amongst other influential constructs of cultural continuity. Their conclusions hold shocking implications about the dire importance of native language preservation and retention efforts and interventions.

“The data reported above indicate that, at least in the case of BC, those bands in which a majority of members reported a conversational knowledge of an Aboriginal language also experienced low to absent youth suicide rates. By contrast, those bands in which less than half of the members reported conversational knowledge suicide rates were six times greater.”

It is important to drive this point home. In the First Nation communities where native language retention was above 50 per cent (with at least half of the community retaining or acquiring conversational fluency) suicide rates were virtually null, zero. Yet in the bands where less than half of community members demonstrated conversational fluency in their native tongue, suicide rates spiked upwards of 6 times the rates of surrounding settler communities.

Indigenous activists and supporters will call out the effects of colonisation and the great losses suffered by indigenous people as significant to the hopelessness that many indigenous people feel and which is externalised in suicide and self harming. And language and community and connection and knowledge are integral parts of the indigenous experience missing for many. The research detailed above suggests a strong connection between language use and suicide rates. We must do more research here to confirm what many of us have suspected - the cutting of cultural ties and the systemic belittling and isolating of indigenous people from their culture, especially youth, is a major factor in the very high rate of suicide among indigenous people.

The article also linked to this article

Explaining the source these crises is relatively straightforward. But communities know the solutions, too: authentic opportunities for the full reclamation of our identities – our languages, our cultures, our traditions and our relationship with the land and waters. This would require restored jurisdiction, honoured treaties, health care and education. This would bring an end to being forced to live in conditions of poverty.

We believe, and are supported by the Indigenous academic and policy research on suicide in First Nation and Inuit communities, that colonization is the problem. The obvious solution, then, is to end the colonization.

 This answer is not the one the majority in society want to hear, this answer gets in the face of those who would deny indigenous people their rightful place, that would deny tangata whenua the equal partnership via the Treaty. Listen to what we are saying - listen to those affected - listen to the solutions and then help put them in place. If not, then the horror thought that society just doesn't care about the suicide of so many indigenous people, will be proven.

indigenous suicide rates and wtf can we do about it

Indigenous suicide rates are well above other groups. What do we do about this?

I work with DBT to help people with high suicidal ideation, high self harm urges and high emotion dysregulation. It is just a small drop in a large bucket but it is all I can do within the resources available.

There are lots of statistics about the terrible crisis this is, for instance in this country

from 2010

The Māori youth suicide rate was 35.3 per 100,000 Māori youth population: more than 2.5 times higher than that of non-Māori youth (13.4 per 100,000).There were 104 Māori suicide deaths in 2010. This represents an age-standardised rate of 16.0 per 100,000 Māori population.There were 10.4 non-Māori deaths per 100,000 population (age-standardised) in 2010.The age-standardised rate for Māori self-harm hospitalisations in 2010 was the highest since 2001 (83.6 per 100,000 Māori in 2010).The age-standardised rate for non-Māori self-harm hospitalisations dropped markedly (by 28.7%) between 1996 and 2010.

and 2011

In 2011 the total Māori suicide rate was 1.8 times higher than the non-Māori suicide rate. There were 108 Māori suicide deaths. This represents an age-standardised rate of 16.8 per 100,000 Māori population (compared with 9.1 non-Māori deaths per 100,000 population).
The Māori youth suicide rate for 2011 was 36.4 per 100,000 Māori youth population (compared with 15.1 per 100,000 non-Māori population). This means the Māori youth suicide rate was 2.4 times higher than the equivalent rate for non-Māori youth.
In summary, the subgroups of the New Zealand population with the highest suicide mortality rates in 2011 were males, Māori (compared with non-Māori), male youth (those aged 15–24 years) and those residing in the most deprived (quintile 5) areas. Māori males and Māori youth showed particularly high suicide mortality rates.

and 2012

The Māori youth suicide rate was 2.8 times the non-Māori youth rate (48.0 per 100,000 Māori youths compared with 17.3 per 100,000 non-Māori youths).Over the 10 years from 2003 to 2012, Māori youth suicide rates have been at least 1.7 times the non-Māori youth suicide rates.Māori had an age-standardised suicide rate of 17.8 per 100,000 Māori, compared with the non-Māori rate of 10.6 per 100,000 non-Māori.In 2012, Māori accounted for nearly 20% (563) of all intentional self-harm hospitalisations.The age-standardised rate for Māori was 85.0 per 100,000 Māori compared with 68.0 per 100,000 non-Māori.

Those statistics should make us all feel sick. And indigenous communities around the world suffer the same disproportionate suicide rates, for instance in Canada we have this horrible scenario

Canada's Parliament held an emergency debate Tuesday on the suicide crisis in a remote aboriginal community after 11 people, nine of them minors, attempted suicide over the weekend and more than a dozen youths were overheard making a suicide pact. 

Lawmaker Charlie Angus, who represents the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, said in Parliament that the crisis has shocked the world and people are asking how Canada can leave so many people behind. Attawapiskat, population 2,000, declared a state of emergency Saturday. There have been about 100 suicide attempts since September and at least one death.

When minors start trying to kill themselves we are really in the end times and we really have to act to help them.

There is a conference coming up that I am going to attend - the World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference 2016.

Somehow, someway we must create hope and choices for indigenous people thinking suicide is the answer. Somehow we have to do this and creating cultural connection is part of it, creating connections of all types. See you at the conference.

the illusion of consultation

So arrogant and so wrong - Te Ururoa Flavell you have let us down and now your legacy has been set and it is a sad, paltry legacy.

Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell is pushing ahead with his controversial proposals to change the way Māori land is handled.

He has introduced the Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill into Parliament, one month after the Waitangi Tribunal criticised the extent of consultation and recommended more engagement with Māori before changing the law.

Oh no he doesn't care what the Waitangi Tribunal says and what do they say?

The Tribunal report upheld several concerns claimants had about the bill, the key one being that consultation wasn't up to scratch. 

It warned that the Minister needed to go out and get enough support from Māori or risk breaching the Treaty of Waitangi.

the minister responds

But Mr Flavell said since that hearing, he has held 22 public hui and 14 wānanga, the bill has been tweaked, and he has that vote of confidence.

This minister is not trusted, his assurances are meaningless, his word is false.

What is this Bill all about?

The new bill aims to give landowners more say and ultimately make it easier for them to use their Māori land.

by 'use' think 'sell' and thus the whittling away of Māori land continues - by overt and covert means the greedy will try to get it all and the greedy will try to sell it all and stopping this will be the people, tangata whenua. And the greedy will be stopped.

pretend caring and the erosion of indigenous rights

Some observations of the Kermadec Sanctuary proposal.

The opposition is based on the non consultation with Māori and the list of Māori opposed because of that is long, wide and varied. The days of riding rough-shot over tangata whenua are OVER. Māori WILL NOT sit while our rights get trampled and discarded.

The government can bleat on as much as it likes about 'saving the oceans' and 'what the people want' and in the same breath do NOTHING about the biggest most serious issue facing every single human and associated species - Climate Change is here and 'ocean sanctuaries' are a nothing response from a nothing government who sit alongside the other nothing governments around the world - while they all weep bullshit tears about the wee fishes - and continue to eat them no doubt. This is the bullshit hypocrisy of these politicians and other assorted names. They say one thing and do another. They are window dressing without any real care about this world or the people in it - let alone the ecosystems within the ocean. It is fake - believe me, it is fake concern from them.

This is one fight for Māori alongside other fights for the rights relating to water and land. Think about that. Rights agreed to over food, water and land are the big battles Māori are fighting at the moment - and Māori are fighting for these rights to be upheld for EVERYONE - so they don't get sold to corporates for profit, so they are available for all.

We will fight for as long as we need to, we will not stop fighting - not while the greedy, exploitative, corporate capitalists are there working with their mates in Parliament to take everything of value from all of us. No, the fight will continue.

Disclaimer - personally I'd stop a lot of fishing and other corporate food making and concentrate energies into sustainability and community. So I like sanctuaries everywhere and all over the place. But this is not about a sanctuary it is about indigenous rights and the ability of governments to disregard them whenever they want - no more will this happen - the lines are drawn and the lines are set.

telling the history

I agree that the histories of the Land Wars should be taught in our schools.

newshub

Calls are growing for more to be taught in schools about the New Zealand Land Wars.

Last year a petition was taken to Parliament to call for a day of recognition and for the events to be part of the school curriculum, but historians say it's a part of our history that's been brushed over.

...Prof Mulholland -- who will also make a select committee submission on a day of recognition for the wars -- says it's a vital part of our history and we need to do more to recognise it.

Personally I cannot see what objections there would be to this. It is a part of our history and it has helped form us to what we are today. The more we know and learn about these histories the stronger we will be. There is so much emotion around those times and that is an indication that healing is needed. Being able to share histories is healing for all concerned. And share is the operative word - share -- listen and learn and clarify and listen and learn - we learn more by listening in the moment rather than thinking of what rebuttal we will use when they stop speaking.

I think it should be compulsory. And as you'd expect I'd widen the areas that need to be covered. The Treaty of course, and histories of tangata whenua should also be taught. From those histories will come understanding and a coming together. It will not right all the wrongs but ignorance is blighting us and causing distrust and fear and we cannot allow that to continue.

For me I'd keep everything discrete as in separate. So the histories of The Land Wars and their effects are one topic and each area is another topic rather than putting everything together - this would maintain the Mana of the issues and keep the focus on those issues. They will naturally lead to the next issues which can then be looked at in detail.

Imagine the opportunities if this was done - the connections built between peoples and generations, 

the past is teaching us

I've wanted this for so long and now it is here - what a fantastic series this will be judging from the first episode - Kairākau.

Māori TV

The director of an explosive new series on Māori Television says language and culture were the most important pillars in creating the series. Rangi Rangitukunoa directed Kairākau which depicts stories of Māori warriors from the past.It's been a labour of love for Rangi Rangitukunoa for the last nine months. Now that work has come to fruition.“The difference between this show and others is that it is entirely about the Māori world, the language, Tūmatauenga and acting. More importantly though, these are true stories, we didn't just make them up,” says director Rangitukunoa...“As Māori, we should stand proud in telling our stories. Some people might think this programme is just about fighting, but actually it's also about our ancestors and bringing their stories back to life,” says Rangitukunoa.

Yes and these histories will now get a wider audience and that is the way it should be - this is our history, this is our heritage, these are our warriors and heroes. Check out the facebook page too.

So I recommend you watch and we can all learn together, and as we learn, we will grow closer, we will grow tighter and this is the way of the future - by understanding our past we will move to the future - there is no other way to do it.

anything is not better than nothing

Differing viewpoints are valuable. Hone Harawira has a view on the flag debate

“The NZ flag is the one flown by every government since the 1860s that has ever stolen our land, laughed at our Treaty rights, destroyed our spirituality, stomped on our culture, imprisoned our people, and tried to kill off our language.” 

“It’s the flag of colonialism, given to us and every other colony by the Poms back in the 1800s. 80% have since dumped it; only the colonial urchins like Aussie, the Cooks, Tuvalu and us still fly that ugly little Union Jack that represents the country that called us to war when they needed help and dumped us when they wanted to join the European Union.

That is all very true and this is the truth of the situation. The Union Jack represents so much suffering for Māori, so much lost and destroyed. It is the best representation of that imo because it directly relates to those times and connects us visually and internationally as a colonised country. The Union Jack must go - of that there is no doubt.

The question then is what will replace it - and the poor attempt and rigged selections are not the answer to that. The cost, the vanity project of the PM, the lack of consultation and real discussion, the celebrities, the endorsements, the play on emotions, the contrived nature of the whole process including the final design say that NO this is not the correct or even near desired alternative. It simply is not good enough for anything.

As I said on another post

I'm pleased that I have voted for our current flag against the other one put up by key and his supporters. For me the tino rangatiratanga flag is my flag. The union jack has so many connotations relating to the colonisation of this country and I cannot get enthusiastic about it at all - I don't like it. But until we as a country are ready to embrace our past and move forward in partnership, as promised by The Treaty, then I will vote for the flag that actually represents us the way we are - warts and all. And there are lots of warts indeed. There is much work to be done to pave the way to allow a true flag for this country to come forth - I'll be working towards that.

and it is worth noting that Hone are in 100% agreement on a few things

“I’ve already chosen the flag that fits best with my heart, my soul, my life – the Maori flag. It’s the one that we designed, it carries the colours of my world, and it speaks of our history, our place in the cosmos, and the possibilities that lie ahead of us all.” 

“And it was the flag that Maori people overwhelmingly chose when we ran our own flag referendum (government spent $28.57 on the whole shebang).

and sometimes not 100%

“And don’t buy the drivel about us losing the Treaty if we change the flag. We lose the Treaty the day we lose the balls to stand up and fight for our rights, not because somebody wants to change the NZ flag.” 

“Changing the flag is a conscious decision to say goodbye to our colonial past and say hello to a brighter future. Maori people have already done it. Might be time for the rest of New Zealand to follow suit”

Changing the flag imo will make it harder to implement The Treaty. It will be another blocker that those who don't want true partnership will use to delay and disrupt that implementation. Sure they will do that anyway but why give them another tool to use.

Difference of opinion is valuable - it helps to see and hear other views. It is healthy and necessary. I feel good within myself about my decision - I want to change the flag so, so much but until we have a proper flag that truly represents us I will stay with the one we have.

change your name or lift your game buddy - updated

Sadly, rude and offensive behavior continues from the inappropriately named te reo putake - of course the macron is not used - why should it be - after all this name is just a type of brownwash - where stuff gets 'used' to further an agenda which is not aligned with tangata whenua. So voice of reason can change his name to te reo pukake to piss off the right wingers. Now why would they be pissed off? because someone with a Māori sounding name is getting into them? Yeah I suppose that would wind you up. But has there been any consideration for Māori in any of that - no there hasn't. Why not? Same reason the macron isn't used - it is not the point and that is why it is brownwash. This is part of the reason why my voice is not heard on The Standard anymore.

The Standard is a good essential, left wing mostly, blog and I do recommend visiting it, as I do.

Just to confirm I have agreed a few times with voice of reason's comments over the years and I am quite happy with robust debate, even abuse and swearwords where appropriate. But if you are going to appropriate a Māori sounding name then that bestows obligations to Māori whether you like it or not - live up to that and everyone will be better off.

Footnote. Poor voice still doesn't understand the issues as he explains here - this is typical from him and I notice he's having a go at another moderator too. Just to help him I'll repost the last-ish comment i made to him that he deleted and see if he can understand that.

"You, voice have belittled me with your “real genocide” line and that I, by trying to explain things to you, have diminished those who have suffered “real genocide”. DO YOU GET THAT? Now you can say I shouldn’t feel belittled but I have given you concrete example of why I do feel that. DO YOU GET THAT? Now you say you haven’t even been able to make sense of the discussion – ” Seriously, this discussion has made little sense from the get go”. That shows me you have been arguing in BAD faith for NO good reason. That shows me you are a self righteous prick of the first order."