Lizzie Marvelly: Shane Jones' comments about Indian community out of tune

Shane Jones' Indian-bashing could've been avoided with a few well-timed verses of Purea Nei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

COMMENT

In te ao Māori, we sing waiata at the end of speeches. Doing so brings us back from the sacred realm of whaikōrero to the everyday. It's a custom I've always loved, as a music-lover, and it's also one that's been used as something of a form of protest by generations of strong Māori women. While ancient codes of tikanga, originally developed to protect women as the bearers of new life, may have prevented the women of some tribes from speaking on the paepae, interrupting a long-winded, pontificating or idiotic man in the middle of his speech by jumping up and singing a waiata for him has long been a cheeky but ultimately tikanga-friendly way of saying, "All right, that's enough. Time for you to sit down."

As such, I'd like to propose a job listing: Wanted – a group of experienced and loud waiata singers who can travel with Matua Shane Jones and "sing his waiata for him" whenever he starts ranting about Indians, immigrants, vegans or whichever minority group he feels particularly irked by on any given day. It would be a varied and interesting role that would involve developing a sixth sense for the moment when Matua Shane was about to launch into an embarrassing tirade. It could also be expanded to occasions when Matua decided to have a go at commercial entities or entire sectors.

Hiring a handful of singers to prevent national humiliation would be taxpayer dollars well spent, in my opinion. Especially when they could prevent verbal diarrhoea like Jones' most recent shocker. After claiming that Indian students have "ruined" many of our tertiary institutions (just months after suggesting that Indians who don't like New Zealand's immigration policy could "get on the next plane home" and then characterising the resulting outrage as a "Bollywood overreaction"), Jones doubled down, offering this: "I don't belong to the tribe of woke snobbery. I'm a 60-year-old Croatian-Māori from Kaitaia, beer-drinking, plain-speaking, red meat-eating politician."

To think that the whole hoo-ha could've been avoided with a few well-timed verses of "Purea Nei".

Well, Matua. I'm a 30-year-old Czech-Māori from Rotorua, beer drinking (and wine drinking, while we're at it), plain-speaking and red meat-eating. And if belonging to the "tribe of woke snobbery" is a Jonesian linguistic flourish for what I, in my plain English, would describe as "not being a racist dickhead", then sign me up.

I'm frankly sick of the term "woke" (which, let's be honest, is a stupid description that should've died a swift cultural death circa 2016) being used as the new "politically correct". It seems to me that being "not woke" or "non-PC" is simply shorthand for "I have some nasty views that most decent people wouldn't like and I don't want to be made to feel bad or to feel like I have to apologise for the opinions I hold about other groups of human beings."

I think most New Zealanders are appalled by racism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry and discrimination, but when politicians can make disparaging comments about ethnic groups on television, we need to face up to the fact that we're not the tolerant, accepting, racially neutral utopia we like to think we are. There are New Zealanders out there who hold abhorrent views, whether we like it or not.

I suspect it's likely that Jones' comments about the Indian community have been intended as dog whistles for those in the electorate who are looking for a scapegoat to blame for a rapidly changing world, or someone to give them permission to be racist. To those who are picking up the overtones, I'm sure Jones' comments will be music to their ears.

To others – plain-speaking, meat-eating, beer-drinking everyday decent New Zealanders who pride themselves on being good people – they likely sound like blatant and unacceptable racism. I'm sure there are many of us who would much rather hear the dulcet tones of "Te Aroha" or "He Honore" rather than listen to another round of Indian-bashing.

With all due respect, Matua Shane, maybe you should katia tō waha (shut your mouth), e noho (sit down) and, if you must verbalise something, sing a verse of "Tutira mai ngā iwi". Particularly the last part: Whaia te maramatanga, me te aroha - e ngā iwi. Kia tapatahi, Kia kotahi rā. Tātou tātou e. (Seek knowledge and love of others – everyone. Be united, be as one, all of us, all of us.)