Rawiri Taonui: Maori armed to meet challenges

Maori Party strategy was hammered out at the annual hui at Rotorua. Picture / Rotorua Daily Post

Last year was a significant milestone in the Maori renaissance. It began with a bang when Tame Iti shot-gunned the New Zealand flag at the opening of Waitangi Tribunal hearings into 19th century Crown actions in the Urewera forest.

Charged with firearms offences to circumvent the Bill of Rights loophole that allowed Paul Hopkinson to burn the flag, the irony is that the only person prosecuted in relation to the killing of Tuhoe ancestors is a Tuhoe descendant whose crime, if convicted, would be to have shot the flag under which the slayers of his forebears marched.

The Hui Taumata celebrating 11 years of Maori progress since the inaugural summit was a significant event. Progress has been huge.


The population has increased 30 per cent, unemployment is the lowest in two generations, Maori have an unheralded presence in business, politics, art, education, culture, film, literature, television and sport. Maori and the Crown have a multiplicity of relationships advancing Treaty settlements, education, health, social programmes, environmental protection, heritage preservation, land and fisheries management and broadcasting.


The culture is vibrant, the language in recovery. Hundreds of Maori emerge from kohanga reo, kura reo e rua, kura kaupapa, wananga and other tertiary institutions with a greater understanding about who they are.


Delegates urged Maori to look to the future, to move beyond grievance mode and over-reliance on Government funding, to extend their horizons to include more cooperative partnerships between Maori organisations, and new ones with private enterprise and overseas partners.

As one speaker said, Maori have found their place within New Zealand, now they need to find their place on the world stage.

To achieve this Maori need more people in higher decision-making positions, emerging leaders need better preparation, and there has to be a qualitative shift in the emphasis from access and participation in education to excellence, achievement and performance.

The year also marked a spectacular presence in sport. Michael Campbell's cool driving, putting and koru shirts were a stand-out. Elsewhere, Temepara George is the world's best netballer, Sonny-Bill Williams and Benji Marshall the best rugby league players and the Maori-Pasifika Kiwis the best team. Jonno Gibbes' Maoris defeat of the Lions softened them up for the All Blacks, which in turn gave them the confidence to storm the Tri-Nations and Grand Slam Britain.

Kapa o Pango took the haka to new levels of national pride and intimidation. The performance by a mixed team of Pakeha, Pasifika and Maori and its embracing by New Zealanders reflects a nation increasingly comfortable with its own diversity.

Maori have matured politically. The Maori Party took four seats from Labour. Stable, unified and experienced, they are less likely to implode than the Dirty Dog class of 1996.

Whether they last the long term is uncertain. I think Maori will eventually take over Labour. Demographics argue for that.

Whatever the case, the Maori Party is important for this time. It is the most independent Maori voice since the 1990s Maori Congress and 1890s Kotahitanga Movement and one that is refreshingly different from the corporate warriors, the Wellington consultant brigade and those still clinging to the apron strings of Labour and National.

This Maori Party's strength lies in its ties with disaffected Maori communities. Just look at the electorates it didn't win. Tainui and the South Island have the largest Treaty settlements; the East Coast and Wellington have the strongest historical ties to the capital's brown bureaucracy - Apirana Ngata's legacy.

Each of the Maori Party MPs is also a long-time servant at the flax roots. Tariana Turia is a mother of six, grandmother of 24 and foster parent of 30 children. Pita Sharples' cultural credentials, leadership skill, academic nous and long-term commitment to Maori education in schools stand without peer. Hone Harawira is a veteran protester firmly rooted in the community. Te Ururoa Flavell has equal credentials. The Gang of Four are my Maori Leaders of the Year.

Political successes at the United Nations reflect a greater sophistication. The Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination vindicated concerns over the foreshore and seabed, finding the Crown's actions ill-considered, hasty and discriminatory.

The UNHRC Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen, reinforced these concerns at a wider level. Stavenhagen acknowledged the progress New Zealand had made. But noting that Maori still lagged in life expectancy, health, poverty, imprisonment, family and youth issues, violence, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide, he argued that strategies would be more effective if there was recognition of the link between this reality and discrimination.

Protestations from Labour and National that the Committee and the Rapporteur were ill-informed, corrupt or out of touch are unfounded. The UNHRC receives multiple annual briefings on New Zealand The Government made three representations on the foreshore issue and Stavenhagen's itinerary shows that he got a more thorough briefing on our race relations than most New Zealanders get in a lifetime. The condemnations are also a slur on the UNHRC's contribution in combating discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, women and children and crimes against humanity.

Maori can claim a big victory over National whose gamble on cash and old age racism in new age disguise floundered on the sensible approach that is the foreshore of New Zealand. Policies of "one law for all" and campaigns against "race based legislation" ignore historical and ongoing racism against Maori. It is hypocritical to describe measures introduced to reverse the inequalities that this racism caused as contemporary racism in favour of Maori. Only those incapable of acknowledging the advantages they derive from historical racism do so.

Closer to home, the opening of Te Kopinga marae on the Chathams was a triumph for Moriori. They were driven to near extinction by European disease, and slaughter and slavery under Maori colonisation so the new facility is a testament to Moriori fortitude and endurance. Maori find it hard to accept the heinous deeds some of our ancestors perpetrated.

The year was not all glory. Donna Awatere's convoluted Pipi accounts finally unstapled. Accusations that her trial and sentencing were racist are regrettable. Greed is multicultural.

A brave John Tamihere fell on his taiaha. He placed his fate in the hands of the electorate, but Tamaki Maori swapped him for papa Sharples. A less capable but shrewder Dover Samuels survived on the list.

The ongoing debate over Te Wananga o Aotearoa was another low. The Auditor-General's report highlighted inappropriate management practices; the Waitangi Tribunal accused the Government of discrimination.

The truth lies in a clash of cultures. Maori have a vision of providing education for Maori and Pakeha. The Crown's vision is of Maori providing for Maori. The Crown needs to accept Maori and Pakeha students have a right to Maori context and mainstream education.

Te Wananga needs to accept that publicly funded education requires transparent professionalism and lift its game.

The renaissance augurs well for the future. Treaty settlements will provide iwi with capital for development. Household incomes will rise and state dependency decrease.The knowledge economy will increasingly supplement land and resource-based economies.

As the general working population ages, the country will become increasingly dependent upon a rapidly expanding younger brown workforce. This will comprise 45 per cent of all workers by 2025.

Maori families will change. There will be greater socio-economic diversity and wider intermarriage with other ethnic groups, especially Pacific and Asian. Children will be more competent Maori speakers than their parents.

There are also cautions. The gap is increasing between the Maori middle class who monopolise new Treaty capital and Maori of lower socio-economic status not yet in receipt of such bounty, the underclass within the underclass.

* Rawiri Taonui is head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury