Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori and MP for Waiariki, speaking to supporters in Tauranga as part of Te Ara Kōrero. Photo / Alex Cairns
Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori and MP for Waiariki, speaking to supporters in Tauranga as part of Te Ara Kōrero. Photo / Alex Cairns
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi believes anti-co-governance meetings at a local community hall are instilling “fear in people” and allowing rhetoric that endangered tangata whenua.
The Waiariki MP, who was in Tauranga yesterdayas part of the party’s campaign tour Te Ara Kōrero, said he “absolutely” backed Tauranga historian and iwi representative Buddy Mikaere’s vow to protest the anti-co-governance meetings in Mount Maunganui.
Stop Co-Governance tour leader Julian Batchelor said Waititi was invited to attend the meetings and, in Batchelor’s opinion, “get informed about what they really are about, not what he thinks they’re about”.
Three Stop Co-Governance meetings are being held at Mount Maunganui Community Hall from today to Sunday.
Mikaere told the Bay of Plenty Times this week he felt “embarrassed and ashamed” a community hall in Mount Maunganui was hosting anti-co-governance meetings which he believed excluded people because of their race.
Waititi said in his view: ”Buddy Mikaere represents the rest of Tauranga moana iwi and I’m sure that his voice is supported by the rest of Tauranga moana iwi.”
From his perspective: “I’m also ashamed that these types of meetings are happening within our spaces.
“I totally support Buddy I totally support our people here in Tauranga moana, I don’t want the co-governance hui.”
But Waititi believed it was even “bigger than that”.
Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori and MP for Waiariki, speaking to supporters in Tauranga as part of Te Ara Kōrero. Photo / Alex Cairns
In Waititi’s opinion: “The social theory and the fear they are instilling in people, I think that’s what’s taking this country backwards.
He believed: ”It’s putting fear in people, and allowing a rhetoric that endangers actually tangata whenua and anybody else that’s fighting for a more balanced society.
“I don’t accept that, I really support Buddy’s call for this, and we stand with him today.”
Mikaere said he was pleased to hear Waititi had backed him.
In his view: “I think it just shows the extent of the concern that Māori, in particular, have over this issue.”
After speaking out against the meetings this week, Mikaere said he has had a “huge” response.
“So many people getting in touch to say, ‘We support your stance on this and what’s being done and we are trying to free ourselves up so we can all be there as well’.”
In his view: “It’s going to be interesting to see how they’re going to discern who’s a ‘good Māori’ and who’s not.”
Mikaere was referring to a Local Democracy Reporting report last month where Marlborough film-maker Keelan Walker tried to attend a Blenheim meeting but was stopped at the door, told he could not come in because he wasn’t a “good Māori” who would sit there and listen and “be respectful all the way through”.
In response to Waititi’s opinion that the meetings were instilling “fear in people” and allowing rhetoric that endangered tangata whenua, Stop Co-Governance tour leader Julian Batchelor said, in his view: “We are restoring democracy, equality, fighting for free speech, one law for all.”
Batchelor said, in his opinion: “We are fighting against apartheid and racism, so he [Waititi] needs to come to a seminar and get informed about what they really are about, not what he thinks they’re about.”
Batchelor said from his perspective Waititi was invited to the meetings if he was respectful and “listens all the way through”.
“Just like I would be on his marae.”
Asked to elaborate on what being respectful looked like in the meetings, Batchelor said: “That people don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.
“And if he wants to ask questions, we have a Q&A time at the end that he can ask questions. Just standard respect stuff.”
When asked if Waititi would be heard in the meetings, Batchelor said: “Of course, he’s just a person”.
“He’s just another person who’s come to the meeting and has got every right to ask questions, have them answered.”
The Bay of Plenty Times rang a contact number for the Mount Maunganui Community Hall committee earlier this week.
A woman who answered and spoke as a committee representative said they would not cancel the meetings because they were treating the hiree “just like everyone else”.
Shania Callender is a journalism student at Auckland University of Technology. Callender attended a Breakfast with Kaumātua event at Zone Café in Mount Maunganui as part of Te Pāti Māori campaign tour Te Ara Kōrero.
