New councillor Heather Skipworth told the crowd the people of Palestine were fighting the same fight as Māori against colonisation. Photo / Warren Buckland
New councillor Heather Skipworth told the crowd the people of Palestine were fighting the same fight as Māori against colonisation. Photo / Warren Buckland
More than 600 people gathered on a cold Hawke’s Bay morning to showcase the strength of feeling in the community about the way Māori are being treated by New Zealand’s leaders.
Organisers of the Hastings event distanced themselves from Te Pāti Māori before the event started and chose the Clocktower as their venue, a pedestrian-only square, which meant minimal disruption for Hastings commuters.
There was a distinct Palestinian flavour to the gathering, which was otherwise focused on an airing of grievances being felt across the Kahungunu rohe about the Government’s perceived attacks on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
A protest in solidarity with Māori brought 600 people into Hastings' CBD on Thursday morning. Photo / Warren Buckland
One of the organisers Te Ōtāne Huata carried a blended green red and black tino rangatiratanga flag.
Waiata were sung and karakia were said, before newly elected Hastings councillor Heather Skipworth issued a challenge to those present to try to understand Te Tiriti through other lenses.
“We are all here to stand up for Palestine,” she told the crowd.
“You might say no, but do you realise it’s the same fight? It’s the same colonistic behaviour.
“If you don’t think it’s our fight, it’ll come for you before it comes for me, because I’ll be ready.
“What is happening in Palestine is US propaganda to steal more land. We must know this and we must call it out. And we must stand together because it’s hard and lonely to stand alone.”
One of the organisers of the event Tāwhana Chadwick said he didn’t want to hear that the Māori economy was worth $70 billion.
“That is a capitalist way of thinking about things. The Māori economy is how we provide goods and services to our people, a gift economy, a koha economy. Provide for your people and you receive mana.”
He said colonisation had degraded the Māori economy and leaders needed to be brave and seek a path towards “complete liberation”.
Kerri Nuku, kaiwhakahaere for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), spoke of the Government’s disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, and how it had placed Māori health workers back into a Pākehā system.
She spoke of the history of failure of this system, saying Māori nurses in the 1900s often had to change their names or be known as just a number before they could work in health, where they were then paid 25 per cent less than Pākehā health workers.
“The way we’re acting today is exactly the same. No adequate funding ever goes to iwi providers or those focused on Māori health. It is deliberate and it prevents the care of our people.”
Organisers were planning gatherings of a similar nature, with attendees invited to use QR codes so they could be notified of future events.
