we are doing good

I’ve been on a journey down south to support mum who suffered another small stroke. She is okay and doing well. The trip was eventful and overall the impression I have of the last few days is of kindness. From the start to the finish I was surrounded and supported by kindness – and I enjoyed it. The exchange of kindness via support creates obligations above and beyond any monetary value and those obligations feel natural and will be fulfilled because that is the way we do it, that is utu.

One of the unintended consequences was I really missed the by-election. Sure I heard some reports and have caught up a bit now, but I missed it. Although unintended it has been positive because I have had time to mull and consider what happened and what should happen now in regards to Mana.

It is great the Hone won and I am very pleased about that because it is the seed for the Mana Party – from this win a great tree will grow and that tree will supply shelter to those who need it. I also feel that the by-election result was a win for labour. The numbers tell the story and that majority is very slender now. I have zero time for goff – he is just a boneless weakling and his continued line about not working with Mana is idiotic and false – I don’t expect anything else from goff, but I do from labour and that hope is an illusion.

I had a number of chats with people on the road and often although they like Hone sortof they don’t like the impression that he can’t get on with people. This meme has gained traction especially amongst Ngāi Tahu I spoke to and shows the value of hitting a consistent message, albeit negative. Hone has contributed to this obviously and I think the ‘white motherfucker’ line has done more damage than anything. What to do. Hone is Hone and that will never change and I don’t want him to. Hone is quite statesmanlike when he wants to be and he is gracious too. But I think the challenge for Mana is to find a leader who is a Māori female a toa wahine. I think Hone is better and more effective when he has the room to move and he hasn’t got that as the leader of the Mana Party. Now is the time to sort this – before the election - as the list is announced and this will create media and the ability to put the message out to the people which definitely needs to be done as the by-election result shows. There is a danger that it could be perceived negatively but within the hailstorm of deliberate undermining of Mana it won’t make a difference in their messages but it would broaden the support base of Mana.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

I am with Sandra Lee on the olive branch to the maori party issue – no - we are following Hone because he is following a different kaupapa to the maori party. The people are investing Hone with mana to lead them with integrity. Of course working together is no problem but there can be no deal on the seats – that one is to be sorted in the ballot because otherwise they will not learn the lesson and they will always whinge on about how they were right – no - they will get smashed to bits and from those bits will again rise up and there will be a vehicle to represent them and it will be Mana.

So all good really. The big advantage of the by-election is to listen to the messages coming back and find the gaps and the areas where improvement can be made. People are crying out for a political party to represent them, the challenge is to show them how Mana is that Party. 

Kindness to others and to ourselves - we are doing good.

reclaiming us

A brilliant analysis of how colonisation has instituted alien concepts of patriarchy and heirarchy into maori society and distorted ideas of mana and whakapapa especially for maori men by Ani Mikaere presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington, 10 December 2010. Full presentation here.


Some important paragraphs which convey the message of truth.

It is important, particularly in the context of a discussion of leadership, to note that the presence of balance necessarily negates the concept of dominance and its corollary, subservience.  The principle of hierarchy has no place in a conception of reality that asserts the interconnectedness of all living things and that requires the perpetual nurturing of relationships to ensure the maintenance of equilibrium.

Early colonists in Aotearoa needed a strategy for dealing with an indigenous population to whom the concept of hierarchy was completely foreign... The solution lay in giving a significant proportion of the target population (in this case, Māori) a stake in the hierarchy.  What better way to convince a group of people to buy into a system of rank than by reassuring them that their rightful place in the pecking order was higher than that of another group? What more effective divide and rule tactic than convincing half of the Māori population that they were inherently superior to the other half?

In Aotearoa, the means utilized to institute patriarchy can be divided into two main categories.  The first comprised actions that consistently privileged Māori men over Māori women.  The second involved the reinterpretation of Māori philosophy so as to erase all memory of its true nature and to convince Māori that patriarchy and hierarchy had always been entrenched in our beliefs about the nature of reality.

In the context of this conference, however, a more important question might be what each of you can do to contribute to resolving the crisis that we currently face. The first thing you must do, wherever you find yourself placed in the white male hierarchy that infects the colonial state of New Zealand, is to acknowledge your privilege.  If you choose to enjoy the benefits of that privilege without acknowledging it, and without actively challenging a system that relegates Māori to a lesser status or that reserves to itself the right to redefine Māori philosophies at whim, you are complicit in the continued subordination of Māori in our own land.

Specifically, you should seize any opportunity to challenge the expectation that Māori ought to speak with one voice.  You should regard with suspicion versions of our philosophical framework that conveniently characterise us as inherently patriarchal or that saddle us with Western notions of hierarchy.

That is very good advice for all of us and the value of the presentation is that the alien concepts are identified and shown to be imposed and then solutions are offered. We cannot fix things without all of these steps.

Hat tip - Te Whaainga Wahine

360 months to go!!!

This is a very powerful gathering and when they speak, ears should listen - for their own good. I totally agree with their conclusions.

From Indigenous Peoples Issues

A national hui of Maori women, Te Whaainga Wahine have condemned the exclusion of wahine from national, regional, local and Maori political forums.

The hui made specific reference to the Iwi Leaders Group who do not speak for Maori women.

The hui, the first called in thirty years, has challenged Maori leadership that advance the political agenda of the National-ACT-Maori Party Coalition at the expense of whenua, whanau and hapu wellbeing.

The hui affirmed Tino Rangatiratanga by 2040 and implemented a specific plan of action to achieve this.

2040 is only 360 months away! This is the maori world in action - I am so pleased that the truth is being spoken.

Kia ora Ana for the link to the blog Te Whaainga Wahine