Leading from the front issuu

My ultimate ‘get out of having to think about it’ card
was to deflect the blame. “Don’t blame me. I didn’t steal
the land or stop the language. It’s not my fault.” No, I
didn’t steal the land or stop the language but I have remained
completely ignorant; an ignorance that drove an
attitude that, in so many ways, justifies what was done,
but, even worse, continues to colonise.
I’d try to justify my attitude by saying: “We are all one,
now”. So, if we are all one then let’s all be Māori. After all,
whose view of ‘one’ are we following. Yes, we are one
citizen but to suggest that we are one is to deny Māori
the right to identify and be Māori. Who gave me that
right? Then, I questioned my own culture. I’m not Māori
but I’m not British or English either. I’m a Pakeha New
Zealander, so what’s my culture?
What would I wear if I was invited to a gathering for
a meal of cultures from around the World? Black singlet,
shorts, Redband gumboots? Well, I’m not a farmer.
A rugby jersey? I thought deeper than that; not about
sport or a job or iconic products like buzzy bees and Tip
Top ice cream but about my cultural values and what I
believe in. What do I stand for? What would I fall for? I
certainly grab Māori culture when it suits, such as a haka
before a rugby match and powhiri, which is the traditional
Māori welcoming of foreign dignitaries. Yep, absolutely
but hang on, I don’t know how to do a haka and I
don’t even know what it means or what they are saying,
but we are all one, right?
My community was at odds with this whole question
of Māori representation, as indeed was the country and,
although New Zealand legislation allows for a council
to establish an elected seat for Māori, just as we have
elected seats for Māori in Parliament, New Zealand legislation
also allows for a community to demand a binding
referendum on that decision. No other seat on the
Council hinges on binding referendums, it is only the
Māori representation.
On May 15 2015, 175 years since the signing of the
Treaty of Waitangi, 83 percent of my community who
voted in that referendum said ‘no’. Having stood for and
championed for fairer representation as Treaty partners,
life was never to be the same for me.
I was in Waitara, a beautiful town in Taranaki getting
some lunch and, as I was at the counter paying for my
lunch, this Māori gentleman came up and said “I want to
pay for your lunch.” I said he didn’t have to do that but
he told me he’d be offended if I didn’t allow him to pay. “I
saw you walk in and I was too shy to come over, but I had
to. Not many stand up for my people and I’d like to pay
for your lunch,” he said. A beautiful humbling moment. I
thanked him and left but waiting on the pavement was a
gentleman who came at me and said “I voted for you to
sort these natives out and you’ve mucked it up and we
all hate you for it, hate you.” A kiss and a slap within five
minutes from two strangers. But my realisation was that
I could not judge this angry man, for he is me and I am
him; both Pakeha with a deep, unjust fear within.
I decided to not seek re-election at the end of my term. I
was to be a one term mayor, not because I didn’t want to.
This wasn’t a question of potholes on roads, art galleries,
parks and rates; this was a question of who we are as New
Zealanders, how we care and love each other. I couldn’t
become the bait for the hate of an election campaign.
Not only do we remain divided, the children are watching,
the children are learning. You know I don’t speak
on behalf of, or for, Pakeha. I speak as Pakeha, and in
all of those horrendous statistics that we talk about for
Māoridom — in health, education, poverty, incarceration
rates — Pakeha are the problem. We always have been,
we take no ownership of anything into our hearts. We
simply point and blame Māori not only for what we did
but what we continue to do. It’s bad enough that we lie
to the world about how horrendously we have treated
Māori but it is worse that we lie to ourselves.
Pakeha are also the solution. Challenge the fear that
someone else has put there, we are not born this way.
Truly, truly, truly learn of our full colonial past. Not to
name, shame or to blame but to understand, to have
empathy. Demand of each other that we acknowledge
our Treaty, that we celebrate, respect our differences
but, above all, look into your heart and ask yourself the
questions because only you can be honest with you and
as the prophets of peace so messaged humanity;
He honore, he kororia ki te Atua
Honour and Glory to God
He maunga-rongo ki te whenua
Peace on Earth
He wakaaro pai ki nga (flat accent above a) tangata (accent
1st a) katoa (all on one line)
Goodwill to all Mankind
(The words from Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi,
Parihaka).
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Healing our History through Te Tiriti