Apology sought from Crown by Maori Party pair
Ma¯ori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie NgarewaPacker have launched the new term with fiery maiden speeches, including a call for an apology from the Crown similar to that made by Stuff.
Waititi spoke first, saying his job this term was to be a balance against ‘‘those holding to the colonial ways’’. ‘‘You know what it feels like to have a pebble in your shoe? That will be my job here.’’
He said to Speaker Trevor Mallard that he had been ‘‘looking forward to this because I know you can’t sit me down: but I won’t test you’’. It was a joking reference to their run-in the previous week when he tried to make a point of order in te reo Ma¯ori.
He then launched into the waiata that the party used throughout the campaign, Magic People. It was picked up and sung by the supporters in the gallery above.
During his speech, Waititi said the largest media organisation in New Zealand, Stuff had publicly apologised to Ma¯ori and had ‘‘taken responsibility for their failings’’. ‘‘My question is when will the Crown do the same?. . . When will the Crown own their failings and commit to doing better?’’
Waititi said he refused to allow his children and grandchildren to one day ‘‘sit in the same seat, asking the same question’’.
It was time to transform politics in Aotearoa, he said, ‘‘it is time for Ma¯ori to look after Ma¯ori, as we know what is best for us’’.
‘‘I will ensure that our unapologetic Ma¯ori voice is heard and that our Ma¯ori cloak is felt and is present in every piece of legislation and bill passed in this House.’’
Labour swept all the Ma¯ori electorates in the 2017 election, in a victory that drove the Ma¯ori Party, then comprising Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox, from
Parliament. This year, under then-coleaders John Tamihere and NgarewaPacker, the party stood candidates in all seven seats, with Waititi winning in Waiariki, which covers the Bay of Plenty and South Waikato.
In the end, it was the only seat Labour lost in the 2020 election.
NgarewaPacker, who stood unsuccessfully in Te Tai Haua¯uru, covering Tirau to Porirua, then came in on the list after special votes were counted. Waititi’s co-leader Ngarewa-Packer stood next in Parliament and spoke painful truths about the House, where she would now represent her people and the party. She said she stood as the descendant of a people who survived a holocaust, ‘‘a genocide sponsored by this House’’.
They confiscated all her people’s lands, imprisoned them without trial, and murdered and raped their women and children.
She said fortunately the resolve and strength of her whakapapa (heritage) outlived the efforts of ‘‘‘the monsters on these walls’’ who inflicted their atrocities on Taranaki. Her mum was Pa¯keha¯ and her dad was Ma¯ori – a kind of embodiment of the Treaty of Waitangi, she said.
Back in the 80s, the economic downturn hit her South Taranaki hometown of Patea hard, she said.
‘‘They were really dark times, there wasn’t a lot of hope.’’
Despite that there had been incredible achievements – the likes of ‘‘one of our larger-than-life uncles’’ Dalvanius Prime, who had against all odds created the biggest-selling music hit in 1984, with Poi E by the Patea Ma¯ori Club. It was the only Ma¯ori waiata to make it to number one, she said. ‘‘I’m proud to say many of those aunties and uncles, my role models, are here today.’’
When Waititi’s speech finished, one of the first to congratulate him with a hongi was his Waiariki rival, Labour MP Ta¯mati Coffey. When NgarewaPacker’s speech finished, the packed public gallery stood and belted out a multi-part harmony version of Poi E that reverberated out the chamber and through the halls of Parliament.