Hongi howler as Peters fails to follow own advice
The deputy prime minister has failed to follow his own advice about the hongi.
On Tuesday morning Winston Peters suggested – not for the first time – that the greeting should stop after the coronavirus scare.
That afternoon he greeted a local mayor with one.
‘‘I don’t know whether we can still carry on in these circumstances – with winter flu coming on and everything else – still doing the hongi,’’ Peters had said in Hamilton that morning, after a $38.6m inland port funding announcement.
‘‘I know a lot of Ma¯ori are going to be offended . ... The answer is, cultures that don’t adapt die. We can tangi, and we can hangi, but we might not be able to hongi.’’
He made similar comments in May, suggesting the greeting could be dropped for good.
Speaking about Aotearoa’s move to level one on Tuesday, Peters said he hoped people had learned something from recent weeks and months.
Hygiene is important, he said, and cleanliness is next to godliness. Yet, on Tuesday afternoon, Peters pressed noses with guests before a funding announcement in Thames.
He deployed a hongi with Matamata-Piako District Mayor Ash Tanner and iwi members before announcing $20 million in funding for Coromandel’s Sugarloaf Wharf.
Peters was unavailable for comment yesterday, his press secretary said, as he was in Wha¯ nga¯ rei for further Provincial Growth Fund announcements.
Ma¯ oridom made a conscious decision not to practise hongi until level 1, Ha¯pai Te Hauora Ma¯ori Public Health’s Rangi McLean said.
‘‘We did that knowing full well that would actually save our wha¯ nau’s lives.’’
The hongi is about sharing life force and the breath of life, McLean said, as every person has a wairua [spirit] and belongs to ancestors.
People at Manurewa Marae were definitely keen to hongi again once New Zealand reached level one, he said, though some are still being cautious.
The hongi is just paused, Waikato-Tainui spokesman Rahui Papa said.