Student stands by spaces
Act says university designated spaces for Mā ori and Pasifika are racist
AUniversity of Auckland student is hitting back at claims by the Act Party that designated spaces for Māori and Pasifika are racist, saying they are a place to escape discrimination.
Photos show a sign outside a study area in the central Auckland campus saying: “This is a designated area for Māori and Pasifika students”.
The coalition Government party said the signs were reminiscent of an “ugly past” that New Zealand has left behind. The tertiary education spokesperson is investigating whether other universities have the same areas and attempting to shut them down.
University of Auckland law student Shakeel Shamaail, of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kur¯ı and Taranaki descent, was outraged, saying the spaces are vital for wellbeing and counter discrimination they face daily.
The spaces are a long-standing tradition at the University of Auckland and have been championed by writer Ranginui Walker and politicians Hone Harawira and Efeso Collins.
Shamaail said Māori and Pasifika students deserved their own spaces and that it was a long-standing tradition. The spaces created “balance in what would otherwise be an imbalanced university scene”.
Māori and Pasifika students on campus were willing to go to “great lengths” to fight for their spaces and community on campus, he said.
“At no point are we ever going to give up on this fight and pretend like the discrimination we are up against is all right,” Shamaail said.
“It’s spaces like these which we can call our tūrangawaewae.”
Act tertiary education spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar said she was contacting all the country’s universities and would try to remove the “segregated’’ areas. She said the signs were reminiscent of an “ugly past” that New Zealand has left behind.
She wants an explanation from the University of Auckland to the taxpayers who “keep their doors open”.
“It is disappointing that it even needs to be said, but Act’s position is that blocking people from spaces based on their ethnicity is unequivocally wrong,” Parmar said.
Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters said the university’s actions were comparable to racist groups such as the Klu Klux Klan.
“It is phenomenal that we not only would accept this as New Zealanders, but that some people have not learnt the lessons of our world’s history of horrors with this type of thinking,” Peters said.
The University of Auckland has been approached for comment.