COMMENT Future leaders ready to be heard right now
communications and the growth of our movement for tino rangatiratanga. They spoke of the sadness they feel sitting in mainstream classrooms and not having their voices heard.
We shouldn’t have to set up kaupapa like this in order for young people to feel heard.
Too many times we hear leaders and representatives talk about succession and the decisions they make for future generations, but how often do we see them actively hand over the baton? When we talk succession, we mean it.
Rangatahi are not the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today.
I’m very clear that my role in Parliament is as a bridge for the next generation to come through.
When my Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi and I walked into the debating chamber on Monday afternoon, we were overcome with emotion at seeing our rangatahi filling the house with their unapologetically Māori energy, wairua and kōrero.
Our rangatahi aren’t here to learn how to become part of the system.
They are learning how to infiltrate the system and overthrow it from the inside.
In the words of my Youth MP, Luke Orbell (Kai Tahu), “I have an opportunity to speak for my whānau, for my iwi and I’m not taking that lightly. I’m seeing more rangatahi actually standing up for what they believe in like climate change, land back, healthcare rights, for hı¯tori to be taught in schools.”
When our rangatahi stand in their power and communicate their reality as young people in the 21st century, it stops me in my tracks and gives me real hope for the future.