Ngai Te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley says people need to feel safe calling out racism. Photo / File
Māori leaders have spoken out against what they see is the prevalence of racism in Tauranga. One says it is worse here than other places he has lived and another calls it "systemic".
The police killing of George Floyd, a black man, in the US has sparked protests against racism, police brutality and a host of related issues around the world, including in New Zealand.
Statues of historical figures with links to slavery and colonialism have been pulled down.
Just yesterday, authorities in Hamilton removed a statue of the city's namesake - a British captain who fought in the Battle of Gate Pā - at the request of iwi, who also renewed calls to rename the Waikato city.
For Ngāi Te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley, the Black Lives Matter movement was as relevant in Tauranga as it was in the US.
"[Racism] is quite prevalent [in Tauranga], more than any other city I've lived in the world, and I've lived in several,'' he told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"I've lived in different parts of this country, north and south. It's more prevalent than any other places."
He recalls, 19 years ago, when he and his partner were having a baby to give a relative who was unable to have a child.
It was a whāngai arrangement, a customary Māori practice where a child is brought up by someone other than the parents, usually a relative.
There were complications in childbirth and the baby died. Stanley overheard a conversation saying the couple were giving the baby away and "did not want her anyway".
"In my view, that was a direct insult to not understanding me, as Māori and the value of whāngai and children."
Stanley said he saw racism and white privilege daily in Tauranga, including in his own interactions: "The privilege that is given whether it's for a car park - the decision to give that person a ticket or not - [or] go up to the front of the line, a better deal on a bank rate or a loan rate".
"People treat you intellectually differently, even if you were better than them, the way that they talk to you ... like you're out of the bush."
The worldwide support for Black Lives Matter showed there was a global problem, he said.
"People of colour and people of different ethnicities are made to feel less human on a day-to-day basis. It reinforces the self-hate that eventually occurs."
In New Zealand, Māori showed up negatively in health, education and unemployment statistics, he said.
"We've got to stop blaming the recipients of [racism] as being the problem and start working together as a country."
Stanley said many people would not try and educate themselves on the racism around them and it was easier to accuse people of colour of having the problem.
It was important to feel safe in whistleblowing racism without responses like "you're just playing the race card".
"We will never be unified if people keep acting in a racist manner, not getting called out."
Nearly 30 per cent of people in the Bay of Plenty identified as Māori in the 2018 Census.
Te Runanga o Ngāi Ranginui Iwi chairwoman Donna Gardiner said although racism looked different to how she remembered as a child, "it's still prevalent".
She grew up in Tauranga and recalled the outward racism at school or shopping with her mum and being served after Pākehā.
Since becoming the chairwoman, she had noticed racism was now "systemic" and institutionalised, saying Māori were "sidelined" and "very subtly being ignored".
She cited the Iwi Chairs Forum - a collective of leaders created to engage directly with the Crown - recently being given only 10 hours to respond to changes to the Resource Management Act as an example of sidelining.
"We're treated like refugees in our own country," she said.
She was an activist during the time of the Springbok Tour and said it was hard work getting across the fact that racism in New Zealand needed to be addressed.
She said intergenerational trauma also needed to be addressed. Past hurts affected Māori individuals, whanau and communities across generations.
"If that hurt isn't healed, then that hurt carries on."
She said the symptoms of this hurt was usually drugs or alcohol, things to numb the pain.
"We have a special mana, as Māori, as tangata whenua of this land.
"What a lot of Pākehā don't understand is they live white privilege, and they don't understand what that actually means."
Yesterday,a statue in Hamilton of a colonial captain who killed Māori in the Waikato land wars and led a regiment in the Battle of Gate Pā was removed at the request of iwi.
British Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, who was killed at Gate Pā, is thought to be the namesake of Tauranga's Hamilton St as well as the Waikato city.
Naming many prominent Tauranga streets and places after British army leaders has long been a bugbear for Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust executive director Tommy Wilson.
Like Hamilton's statue, names such as Greerton and Cameron Rd - named for British Army officers who fought at Gate Pā - were a "painful reminder" for Māori.
He said it was time the city had a conversation about it.
Tauranga City Council recently changed its policy to allow dual naming - English and Te Reo Māori - of streets and reserves.
Wilson said although racial inequality for Māori was a problem, more emphasis needed to be put on moving forward.
Māori history needed to be taught in classrooms as a starting point, he said.
"If we play the blame game and throw around systemic racist tags, it makes reconciliation harder."
He said blaming anyone today for the actions of ancestors risked inducing "reverse racism".
But not everyone believed racism was a problem in Tauranga.
Tauranga City councillor Andrew Hollis said racism was a "manufactured term" and "we don't have anything of any consequence" in Tauranga.
"Racism is not anywhere near as bad as where I've seen it around the world, and I've been to 70-odd countries," he said.
"Racism is one of those things that if you really want to see life through a prism of race, then that's what you're going to see."
Young people have been at the forefront of the protest movement sweeping the world.
Tauranga teens Santiago Serena Sanchez, 16, and Cheree Gray organised Tauranga's Black Lives Matter march on June 1 and were arranging a candle-lit vigil for Sunday at the Mount Maunganui cenotaph.
Sanchez said racism looked like under-representation, and local councils were severely lacking Māori elected members.
"We must strive to protect tangata whenua, and make sure that Māori and Pacifika voices are heard and, most importantly, listened to and understood."
She said age and race should not matter, and everyone needed to work together to dismantle systemic racism.
"This is not a political issue, this is a human rights issue. Anyone who fails to see that has chosen the side of the oppressor."
Gray said racism was also seen in the intentional mispronunciation of Māori place names and people judging others based on the colour of their skin.
"Nobody really discusses racism in Tauranga, which is concerning considering it's so common here."
The couple spend five months a year in America running their business.