‘Monsters on these walls’: Maori duo in stirring debut
Co-leader blasts legacy of Crown ills in maiden speech
Ma¯ori Party co-leader and Waiariki MP Rawiri Waititi says he will be an unapologetic voice for Ma¯ori — like a pebble in the shoe of Parliament.
Waititi began his maiden speech in Parliament yesterday with a stirring waiata supported by wha¯nau in the public gallery: “You’re magic people to me . . . I’m proud to be Ma¯ori.”
He said he would be a Ma¯ori voice in every piece of legislation to come to the house.
“You know what it feels like to have a pebble in your shoe? That will be my job here.”
He paid tribute to Dame Tariana Turia for crossing the floor for the foreshore and seabed law and creating the Ma¯ori Party. “Her courage has inspired a whole generation.”
Waititi told a joke to illustrate the partnership between Ma¯ori and Pakeha, where Pakeha was a great white shark that simply ate the fish that represented Ma¯ori.
He said Ma¯ori had suffered through extermination practices, assimilation, land-stealing laws, denial of tangata whenua status, and a monocultural view that almost saw the Ma¯ori language die.
He then noted media company Stuff’s apology for its racist portrayal of Ma¯ori and its commitment to do better — but he was waiting for the Crown to do the same.
“For the monocultural viewpoint that has sought to repress tangata whenua, for aiding and abetting the system of racism that strips us of our spirit.”
It was no longer acceptable for Oranga Tamariki to “steal our babies”, the justice system to “lock our people up”, the welfare system that “keeps my people poor”, the health system that “keeps my people sick”, education that “keeps my people dumb”, or a housing system that “keeps my people homeless”. “This has to stop.
It is time for Ma¯ori to look after Ma¯ori.”
He called for Ma¯ori representation on local wards, for Whanau Ora to be better resourced, with funding going to commissioning agencies rather than Crown agencies, and for all oil and gas exploration to stop.
“Enough of being assimilated, forced to do and look like everyone else. We are not like everyone else. We are unique. Being Ma¯ori is like having superpowers. There’s no one else in the world like us.
“We are in the business of empowerment. We are in the business of emancipation.”
He finished pulling his tie as if it were a noose, and quoting the song of Te Whakato¯hea chief Mokomoko, who was wrongfully hanged for murder in 1866 and was officially pardoned in 2011: “Tangohia mai te taura i taku kakı¯ kia waiata au i taku waiata (Take the rope from my neck that I may sing my song).”
Ma¯ori Party list MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was the last speaker of the day and she began on a chilling note.
“I stand here as descendant of a people who survived a holocaust, a genocide, sponsored by the House and members of Parliament whose portraits still hang from the walls ... who sought our extermination and created legislation to achieve it, that confiscated all our whenua, imprisoned us without trial and murdered and raped our women and children and [engineered] our displacement for generations to come.
“What [19th century politicians] William Fox, George Grey, John Bryce and many others did to my people was unforgivable,” she said. “Fortunately, their one-generational plan was outlived by our forever generational resolve. But the trauma of what they did to us still lives with us.
“I am the third generation born since those monsters on these walls inflicted muru raupatu on Taranaki.”
After her speech, the galleries sang the Patea Ma¯ori Club’s most famous song,
We are in the business of emancipation.
Rawiri Waititi, Ma¯ori Party co-leader