#te pāti māori

[tairaawhiti]

laughing at shane jones saying hana-rawhiti should be put in jail for her haka in parliament. same guy who used a gov credit card to buy porn btw

[kateoftheunion]

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Article here.

[foxglovevibes]

As a Māori woman, seeing all these idiots talking out of their ass about how the incredible Haka performed in protest, started MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke and continued by the rest of Te Pāti Māori, in the chambers of parliament this past week, saying how it was "unprofessional" and "cringe", I just have to say:

You lot don't seem to think it's fucking "cringe" when the All Blacks do it before a rugby match.

Anytime I see footage covering Haka performed before rugby, I see how people all like to harp on about how Haka is meant to be a call to arms, a declaration of war and challenge to opponents when being met across the field of battle.

And yet.

The very second it's being utilised as it was always intended to be, in an unbelievably crucial time in our country's recent history, you all turn your noses up. You all start talking absolute fucking horseshit simply because it isn't being used in a way that's convenient for you, because it isn't being given to you in the microdoses you like to delight in for some cultural exposure.

And it all boils down to the fact that we are simply done with giving you to option to turn away, to give us a false sense of empathy and interest. Boils down to how Māori are challenging you to truly LOOK. To SEE. And UNDERSTAND just what this all means. And if you can't handle seeing how we are undaunted in our unending fight to be heard in the land that is rightfully ours, how unafraid we are to draw strength from our culture, our people and the stories of our ancestors that have survived countless attempts to be washed away?

Then you know that this challenge is meant for YOU.

[foxglovevibes]

FUCKING QUEEN SHIT.

The fact that they "named" her and suspended her from parliament for this really just goes to show just how downhill the NZ government is currently going ubder the current administration.

Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke, the youngest MP in Aotearoa, starts a haka to protest the first vote on a bill reinterpreting the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi

[russianreader]

Reading Recently (Not Necessarily Russian)

Source: “What Ukraine Has Lost,” New York Times, 3 June 2024 Memorial for actor Joachim Gottschalk. When his Jewish wife Meta and son Michael were to be deported, the whole family decided to commit suicide on November 6, 1941. The bronze figure, which was created by Theo Balden in 1967, resembles the actor. It was initially located in a park but had to be moved due to the building of the…

[mayasaura]

did you see te pati maori declared independence??

I DID NOT! Holy shit! Thanks for the news!

Okay, now reporting back from one research deep-dive, the recent context as I understand it is this:

Last November, a conservative right-wing Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, assumed office. He's got a lot of less than stellar right-wing policies, and that includes making cuts to the Ministry of Social Development and opposing co-governance with the Waitangi Tribunal and other Māori leadership organisations over the administering of public services such as education, health, and infrastructure. He's been openly critical of Māori seats in Parliament, though he hasn't (yet) opposed them. Over the course of his administration, there's been an initiative to omit or cut mentions of the Treaty of Waitangi, the foundational document of New Zealand that forms the basis of arguments for Māori protections, from official language.

Which brings us to yesterday, May 30th. Budget Day. The day the new administration would announce their first budget and a day of mass action for supporters of te Pāti Māori protesting the treatment of Māori under the new government. I don't have any concrete numbers, but RNZ reports thousands of protestors, while the NZ Herald estimates "tens of thousands" turning out nation-wide, and a walking protest that delayed rush-hour traffic in Auckland for hours.

You may have already guessed that the budget was Bad. As I understand it, the budget effectively cut any kind of targeted funding for Māori health or education, and decreased funding for Māori cultural festivals and celebrations. And again, I cannot stress enough how much I am not an expert on this topic, so there's probably a lot more in there I don't know about.

In response to the new budget, Māori Party MP Rawiri Waititi issued a Declaration of Independence to the New Zealand Parliament, (video of his speech in link) with the support of his fellow te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

There doesn't seem to be any concrete plan in place yet for the organisation of the new Māori parliament, but MPs Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer met with protestors to collect signatures for the Declaration, which they plan to bring to a hui taumata (meeting of congress) today, Friday, May 31st. The text of the Declaration can be found on te Pāti Māori website, in the form of a petition. You do not have to be Māori to sign, but I believe you do have to be kiwi.

[airandangels]

This is so helpful if you’re confused about which party’s policies best match your priorities. You can go through and mark the ones you like (you can set it to “blind” mode to see the policies without the party names attached so that doesn’t influence you) and then when you tap on “your favourites,” you’ll get a graph showing what your closest matches are. It’s simple and clear.

[dec0mposing]

very pleased with my vote rn 🖤🤍❤️

much better footage of the haka that shut down parliament today

[gayhenrycreel]

everyhing feels a bit shit right now, but its wonderful that so many people support the hīkoi. ACT is deeply unpopular right now. however leftists also need to get off their asses and vote whenever possible. dont forget the mayor elections. they have power in government and when you have leftist mayors youre more likely to get leftist MPs and then leftist PMs. if people stop collectively thinking their votes dont matter, we can actually make a difference. if your vote didn't matter they wouldn't try to get your vote

[tenearthquakes]

nz election going terribly but i have a cup of tea and a stroopwafel and will survive

[reasonsforhope]

A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday [January 30, 2025] after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand's North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.

The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain's theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country's government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.

How can a mountain be a person?

The law passed Thursday gives Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. Its legal personality has a name: Te Kāhui Tupua, which the law views as "a living and indivisible whole." It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, "incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements."

A newly created entity will be "the face and voice" of the mountain, the law says, with four members from local Māori iwi, or tribes, and four members appointed by the country's Conservation Minister.

Why is this mountain special?

"The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place," Paul Goldsmith, the lawmaker responsible for the settlements between the government and Māori tribes, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday.

But colonizers of New Zealand in the 18th and 19th centuries took first the name of Taranaki and then the mountain itself. In 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the peak from his ship and named it Mount Egmont.

In 1840, Māori tribes and representatives of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi — New Zealand's founding document — in which the Crown promised Māori would retain rights to their land and resources. But the Māori and English versions of the treaty differed — and Crown breaches of both began immediately.

In 1865, a vast swathe of Taranaki land, including the mountain, was confiscated to punish Māori for rebeling against the Crown. Over the next century hunting and sports groups had a say in the mountain's management — but Māori did not.

"Traditional Māori practices associated with the mountain were banned while tourism was promoted," Goldsmith said. But a Māori protest movement of the 1970s and '80s has led to a surge of recognition for the Māori language, culture and rights in New Zealand law.

Redress has included billions of dollars in Treaty of Waitangi settlements — such as the agreement with the eight tribes of Taranaki, signed in 2023.

How will the mountain use its rights?

"Today, Taranaki, our maunga, our maunga tupuna, is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate," said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori and a descendant of the Taranaki tribes, using a phrase that means ancestral mountain.

"We grew up knowing there was nothing anyone could do to make us any less connected," she added.

The mountain's legal rights are intended to uphold its health and wellbeing. They will be employed to stop forced sales, restore its traditional uses and allow conservation work to protect the native wildlife that flourishes there. Public access will remain.

Do other parts of New Zealand have personhood?

New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize natural features as people when a law passed in 2014 granted personhood to Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island. Government ownership ceased and the tribe Tūhoe became its guardian.

"Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure, and remote beauty," the law begins, before describing its spiritual significance to Māori. In 2017, New Zealand recognized the Whanganui River as human, as part of a settlement with its local iwi.

How much support did the law receive?

The bill recognizing the mountain's personhood was affirmed unanimously by Parliament's 123 lawmakers. The vote was greeted by a ringing waiata — a Māori song — from the public gallery, packed with dozens who had traveled to the capital, Wellington, from Taranaki.

The unity provided brief respite in a tense period for race relations in New Zealand. In November, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament to protest a law that would reshape the Treaty of Waitangi by setting rigid legal definitions for each clause. Detractors say the law — which is not expected to pass — would strip Māori of legal rights and dramatically reverse progress from the past five decades.

-via NPR, January 31, 2025

--

Note: The article doesn't get fully into the implications of the broader, global "rights of nature" movement (of which this is part), which is powerful tool for not only recognizing Indigenous ways of relating to the world, but also preventing ecological damage.

Examples of rights of nature include rivers having the right to not be polluted, etc. Powerful tool for leveraging the courts and legal frameworks against environmental destruction.

[tairaawhiti]

i adore hana-rawhiti maipi-clarke

te pāti māori haka in response to the first vote on the racist anti māori treaty principles bill introduced to parliament today by david seymour and the act party. toitū te tiriti

[fairyfawm]

if you live in aotearoa NZ, or otherwise have some knowledge around what's currently happening here with the treaty principled bill, please consider making a submission opposing the treaty principles bill.

if you don't know, this is what the treaty principles bill will look like. the waitangi tribunal report is a good place to start as to what the bill would actually mean for aotearoa, and they have summaries so you don't have to read the whole thing to get the basics. here is the first summary, and the second.

submissions don't have to be long or fancy, even if all you can do is a short submission stating that you oppose this bill that's still helpful! the only thing is it can't be directly copy-pasted from someone else or it won't be counted. however there are some very helpful guides to help you make a submission:

from ngā haumi: guide/template - google doc

from koekoeā: explanation of process, what you need to know, and FAQs - PDF ; info on oral submissions - PDF, explanation of the origins and function of the treaty principles - instagram post

from te pāti māori: FAQs about submitting on this bill - instagram post

from the green party: general info - instagram post ; short guide based on how long you wanna spend on your submission - instagram post ; longer guide - website

from people against prisons aotearoa: generic guide to making select committee submissions (this is not a specific guide for this bill, however if you've never made a submission like this before it will likely give some helpful explanations!) - website

listening to speeches made by te pāti māori and green MPs on this bill may also be a helpful way to get ideas of what you may want to say! they often post speeches on their instagram accounts, and specifically i think this speech from chlöe swarbrick and this one from rawiri waitiri are really good.

submissions close on the 7th of january next year, so as of now (20th november) you have about seven weeks, however it's important to not forget, so i'd encourage people to do it now or set reminders! let's make sure the government knows that the opposition to this bill is strong!!

[beta-lactam-allergic]

This legislation in the Aotearoa Parliament will probably fail, but it's still very concerning that the ACT Party tried to effectively rewrite a 184 year old treaty without the consent of one of the two signatory parties. @xclowniex can provide more detail on this as she lives in Aotearoa, I don't (I live across the ditch in Australia & have visited Aotearoa a grand total of once, back in January/February of the year this post was made).

[ierotits]

absolute fucking icons in te pāti māori already on their first day in parliament refusing to bow down to british colonialism, along with the protests theyre running today against the national/act/nz first coalition anti māori policies. we'll get through the next few years together, with them and the greens pushing back against the racist government harder than ever

[angstandhappiness]

NICE

I love my people and it's amazing to see so many of us turn up today, but it's like herding very friendly cats 😂