Act Party leader David Seymour speaking at Waitangi. Photo / Michael Cunningham
OPINION
Dear David,
I do have some sympathy for your views on the labels that people place on each other.
Obviously, this did rile you a little at the recent Waitangi Day celebrations where you were likened to a couple of insects – but I will come back to that later.
Perhaps, like you, I am not sure where in the Māori world I sit.
At one end I could be on Willie Jackson’s “useless Māori” list because I don’t have te reo or, at the other end, I could be one of Matua Winston Peters’ “elite Māori” list because I have, I admit, been late in my discovery and understanding of the power of Te Ao Māori.
The irony for me of this observation is that here we are – you, me, Willie and Winston, all of us who whakapapa Māori – all seemingly divided by those labels that we place on each other, to the delight of anyone looking to highlight those divisions.
And while I have been late coming to this understanding of the power of Te Ao Māori, it has highlighted for me that I have always understood who I was.
I am the son of a Pākehā father who came from Nightcaps in the South Island and a Māori mother from Mōhaka in Hawke’s Bay.
It has also highlighted the wonderful way my mother, Mangū Rose, together with my fabulous aunties, instilled in me, by example rather than words, what it meant to be Māori. Those powerful lessons they shared have served to enlighten me on this voyage of discovery that I am on.
Which brings me back to the divisive name-calling and the reference to “insects” to which you responded: “Today I have heard people say that we are spiders, that we are sandflies, well, I am sorry to say folks, not even Donald Trump is calling opponents insects.”
Now I know you have a huge passion for the education of our tamariki, our young people, of all cultures.
But you and I were both brought up in an education system that for decades failed to address the history of Aotearoa much beyond the arrival of Abel Tasman and Captain Cook, who landed here more than 700 years after Kupe, ending a journey of discovery by our Polynesian tūpuna that began 3500 years ago.
A multi-generational journey that has been described as “the greatest voyage in the history of human migration”.
It’s a voyage across the largest expanse of open water on the planet, Te Moana-nui-a-kiwa, the Pacific Ocean, using advanced knowledge of the stars, sun and ocean currents to discover every piece of land in that great expanse of ocean, completing the history of human migration here in Aotearoa New Zealand and, shortly after, the Chatham Islands.
It’s an amazing story that needs to be told if we are to move our Pasifika and Māori tamariki, along with their friends from all other cultures, into those high-value jobs that are increasingly based on science and innovation and for which you are such a strong advocate.
But our Polynesian ancestors could not have crossed the largest expanse of open water on the planet without developing a deep knowledge of astronomy, astrology, science, maths and engineering.
They called it Mātauranga, an indigenous view of the world that includes all of those subjects we have lumped under the acronym Stem (Science, technology, engineering and maths) in our schools.
But we need to be telling these stories in our schools to inspire our young people that this thing we call Stem is in their DNA.
It is only now that I have come to understand how deeply that was ingrained in my DNA.
This has led me to understand that it is the combination of Mātauranga, alongside the maths, physics and science expertise that my Pākehā colleagues have brought with them, that can truly explain our company’s position as a global leader in the world of technology.
So, to those insects.
The reference that was made was not to actual insects. They were a reference to a eulogy that was given by the great chief Te Ruki Kawiti, almost certainly an ancestor of yours, who - just a few years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi - took on the British army at Ruapekapeka where, along with Hone Heke, they built one of the most advanced defensive structures the British Army had ever come up against.
It is a fascinating story that needs to be part of our science, engineering and maths curriculum (we are working on that) but the reference to sandflies comes from that eulogy made by Kawiti to his people after the battle was over, in which he said: “I have battled the gods of the night and yet I did not die. Now is the time to trample our wrath beneath our feet. Now is the time to be confident in who we are. Now is the time to talk peace. But as we do, we must never turn our backs on the parchment [Te Tiriti] because if we do, we can be certain that the sandflies will nip at its edges.”
We are watching those sandflies gather and it is only right that we acknowledge that this was a threat that Kawiti recognised when he called for his people to talk peace almost two centuries ago.
It is context.
My hope is that all tamariki of Aotearoa New Zealand will grow up understanding the context in which so many of these important discussions should be taking place.
You and I were denied these powerful stories, but now is the opportunity to address that for our young people.
And one last observation if I may, David.
One could argue that there has already been a referendum on the Treaty.
That happened back in 1840 when the Māori population of the country was 125,000 whilst the colonists numbered just 2000.
That would of course mean that at the time Te Tiriti was signed, the colonists were outnumbered by Māori by more than 60:1 - which would surely mean that the official language of the country would have been te reo Māori and that the Treaty that took precedence would have been the one written in the language of the majority.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Context perhaps?
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