#te pāti māori

[chaithetics]

THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL IS BEING PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE TOMORROW!!!!!!!

EDIT: Here's a link with more info on the Bill and it's contents and breaches!

This matters to EVERYONE in our country! If you're Māori this is about our LITERAL existence, if you're Pākehā, tauiwi, tangata Tiriti this concerns you because Tiriti is what gives you the privilege of existing on this whenua! The Waitangi Tribunal has already said this Bill will be the biggest Waitangi breach ever. YOU have a responsibility to do something.

ACT, our coalition government, and the Ministry of Justice have been intentionally keeping this bill under the wraps. Mad mihi to the MoJ analyst who leaked that draft though (I'm sure they got sacked if not massive repercussions).

What we know so far is that Te Pāti Māori, Green Party, and Labour WILL NOT be voting for this and that ACT, NZ First, and National WILL be voting for this tomorrow. NZ First and National have said that they WILL NOT support this Bill after its first reading so it will go to Select Committee and then die at first reading.

National and NZ First have said they'll only support this Bill to first reading (thankfully) but there is always the chance of closed door promises & favours and we still need to advocate for this disgusting bill to die.

I'll post more about submissions when they open for Select Committee but I'm happy to help answer questions or help with that and the process.

But the racist idiots to email and drill in that you DO NOT want this Bill are...

ACT MPs

1. David Seymour (Email: David.Seymour@parliament.govt.nz ) (the one bigoted brain cell behind this bill)

2. Brooke Van Velden (Brooke.Vanvelden@parliament.govt.nz)

3. Nicole McKee (Nicole.McKee@parliament.govt.z)

4. Todd Stephenson (Todd.Stephenson@parliament.govt.nz)

5. Andrew Hoggard (Andrew.Hoggard@parliament.govt.nz)

6. Karen Chhour (Karen.Chhour@parliament.govt.nz)

7. Mark Cameron (Mark.Cameron@parliament.govt.nz)

8. Simon Court (Simon.Court@parliament.govt.nz)

9. Parmjeet Parmat (Parmjeet.Parmat@parliament.govt.nz)

10. Laura Trask (Laura.Trask@parliament.govt.nz)

11. Cameron Luxton (Cameron.Luxton@parliament.govt.nz)

AND

- Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (Christopher.Luxon@parliament.govt.nz)

- Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters (Winston.Peters@parliament.govt.nz)

If you're able to participate with any part of the hīkoi please do and please be safe!!!!

Toitū te Tiriti! Ake ake ake!

[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.

[airyairyaucontraire]

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.

[tenearthquakes]

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

[gothwizardmagic]

The British Empire is collapsing before our eyes in real time <3

Critical support to Charles in his efforts to destroy the empire :) /s

[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

[sandiwchirlinreal]

TW TRANSPHOBIA

TL;DR, New Zealand now has a very transphobic government.

For those who do not know, New Zealand recently held an election to determine who will be in charge of the country and resulted in a victory for the right-wing National, Act, and New Zealand First parties. NZ First's leader Winston Peters ran on a platform of focusing on the "must-haves", however what Winston considers "must-haves" are very concerning. Among NZ First's election commitments were to remove gender neutral bathrooms from government buildings, removing government funding from women's sport teams that allow trans women, and removing "gender ideology" from the curriculum. Despite only winning 6% of the vote in the election, the coalition deal between the three parties includes nearly all of these policies apart from banning gender neutral bathrooms. In fact, the ban on "gender ideology" is even worse.

Under the new government, schools will no longer be allowed to teach students about any matters relating to sexuality or even having healthy relationships. As a trans teen living in Aotearoa, this major regression of trans rights is terrifying. New Zealand was the second country to legalise same-sex marriage, and has for many years been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ politics. However, the country has taken a new direction that I cannot abide by. These new policies will hurt trans people and further ostracise an already marginalised community. While the Labour Party, the Green Party, and Te Pāti Māori are likely to oppose these policies, for those living in New Zealand whose MP is not a part of Labour, Te Pāti Māori or the Greens, contact your MP right now and urge them to oppose the government's transphobic policies.

Template for Email How to contact your MP

[atalana]

Rawiri Waititi's groundbreaking speech this week declaring Māori independence, because it's making me really emotional to watch and I think everyone needs to see this (video taken from this NZ Herald article)

Two days ago there were massive protests across Aotearoa, as the new right wing government put out a budget that cut funding to Māori in a wide range of sectors, threatening to destroy initiatives to boost Māori welfare that have been decades of work to set up. Here in parliament the leader of Te Pāti Māori (the Māori party) reminds everyone that Māori deserve sovereignty over their own country, and Te Pāti Māori will no longer allow themselves to be treated as second class citizens on their homeland. They have announced that they're working towards a separate Māori parliament, "by Māori, for Māori, to Māori, kaupapa. Not by Pākeha to Māori, we've had enough of that". Representatives from both the Labour and Green party have voiced their support.

It's a huge step in indigenous rights, and I can only hope that they're successful, and that this can be an inspiration to improve indigenous rights worldwide. (Anyone who wishes to sign the petition in support can find it here)

[wild-wombytch]

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, representing Te Pāti Māori, was appointed New Zealand's youngest MP at 21 (since James Stuart-Wortley, who was elected in the country's first general election in 1853 when he was aged 20 years and 7 months).

During her maiden speech in December 2023, Maipi-Clarke criticised the National-led coalition government, claiming that it had "attacked my whole world from every corner." She identified health, the environment, water, land, natural resources and children as key areas of disagreement with the Government. She performed a haka for said maiden speech :

Maipi-Clarke has ancestry in Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Te Āti Awa, and Ngāi Tahu. The broadcaster Potaka Maipi is her father. She is the grand-niece of Māori language activist Hana Te Hemara. Taitimu Maipi, whose activism contributed to the removal of the Captain Hamilton statue in 2020, is her grandfather. Wi Katene, the first Māori MP to be appointed to the Executive Council, was her great-great-great-great-grandfather

[chaithetics]

Principles of the Treaty Bill Info/Summaries

If like David Seymour, you don't want to read the documents, here's some bullet points for Treaty Principles Bill, the Waitangi Report, and the Regulatory Impact Statement for the Bill. But if you want to read I included links (he's said on the record he didn't read the Waitangi report...)

But seriously, it is your responsibility to read and educate yourself on this and to show up, at the very least making submissions when Select Committee happens but also emailing MPs and showing up to the Toitū te Tiriti hīkoi and activations if you can. Especially if you're Pākehā or tauiwi because this whole Bill and process is MORE colonial trauma for Māori.

1st reading is next week (11th-15th Nov) ACT are the only party in Parliament that will vote for it at its 2nd reading, still disgraceful from National that they'd let this be introduced at all.

The Bill Summary

The Act would come into force 6 months after the referendum if it was successful (we know it's not getting past 2nd reading).

The Principles here wouldn't apply to historical Tribunal claims. The Act would bind the Crown.

Principle 1 is about the Executive Government having full power to govern all New Zealanders. Misinterprets Kāwangatanga.

Principle 2 is that the Crown recognises the rights of iwi and hapū as long as they don't differ from everyone else unless specified in a historical Treaty Claim. It feeds into the myth of "Māori privilege' that ACT is spinning. This also revokes the Crown's promise made in 1840. Also a breach of some of the previously established principles tino rangatiratanga, kāwanatanga, partnership, and active protection

Principle 3 is just that everyone would be 'equal under the law.' Misinterprets article 3 of the Treaty/Tiriti and is another breach of several of the above principles.

The Bills says that these principles MUST be used for interpreting enactments and other principles cannot be used. Discredits important principles in previous Tribunal cases and creates a narrow scope.

Read the Treaty of Principles Bill here.

Waitangi Tribunal Report

Says that the Bill principles are misinterpretations and misinterpretations of Tiriti/Treaty and are breaches of accepted principles from precedence like active protection, equity, tino rangatiratanga, kāwangatanga, and partnership.

There was a lack of community consultation on this Bill, especially with Māori. This aspect and the Bill itself will be extremely damaging for Māori-Crown relationships.

Introducing this Bill is a Tiriti/Treaty breach.

This Bill is trying to legislate assimilation with Māori as the indigenous peoples here. The report also states that assimilation is discredited as a phenomenon.

Māori will experience significant prejudice due to the breaches and will be carrying the brunt of the created social disorder with the introduction of the Bill and throughout the Select Committee process.

The Tribunal supports its previous finding from the earlier report that this Bill should be abandoned. They then say that if the Government won't abandon it, due its constitutional significance it should be referred to the Tribunal under the Treaty Act (1975).

You can read the recently published Waitangi Tribunal report here.

Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS)

A RIS is a document from the relevant Government Agency that looks at the proposed legislation and analyses its risks, impacts etc. This RIS reflects a lot of the Waitangi Tribunal's report.

For upholding Tiriti/Treaty obligations, maintaining constituional legitimacy, promoting social cohesion, and creating greater clarity the Ministry of Justice believes that the Waitangi Tribunal and Courts are best to continue articulating these principles in line with precedence.

The RIS also says the Bill misinterprets Tiriti, especially article 2.

MOJ mentioned time constraints as a limitation of this RIS. A RIS Quality Assurance panel of MOJ and Ministry of Regulation (Seymour's newly formed Ministry) employees said it did not meet quality assurance criteria though because of the lack of options and time constraints. I think it raises fair points.

You can read the Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) here.

Toitū te Tiriti!

[everybody-votes]

Poll 8 - New Zealand Politics

okay so australia was popular, lets try this

[mayasaura]

I don't really know where this lands on the scale of basic to hot take, but I don't see the locked tomb as a very overtly political series. Like yeah, it has a lot of subtext you can interpret politically, obviously, if that's your jam. but to me, the series has always been an intimate exploration of existing as a badly uncomfortable and isolated person. there are a lot of different reasons people in the series are fucked up, but the important thing to me is that they are. and that they're being witnessed. To me it's a love letter to all the deeply fucked up people out there (esp the deeply fucked up lesbians) saying "you exist, and someone sees you"

Edit: Since apparently people are linking to this post to interpret and argue with it indirectly, let me clarify. I don't mean the story is apolitical. I mean that as I see the story unfolding, the central narrative is focused on the characters, and the heart of the narrative is human connection and character exploration. Of course there are political themes being explored—I've posted a lot about them myself—but that exploration is about asking a lot of questions I don't expect the series to necessarily answer.

Tamsyn Muir doesn't have the answer to colonialism. She does have the answer as to what will happen to two mentally unwell painfully lonely girls I suspect we've all grown quite attached to.

[tloaak]

today rawiri waititi, co leader of te pāti māori* during question time today asked a question of the acting prime minister winston peters in te reo māori without an english translation. the acting prime minister initially refuse to answer the question, on the grounds that he had not understood the question, which brought up a long and thorough constitutional debate. te reo māori is an official language of aoteroa new zealand, a protection it is given explicitly to allow for its use in public settings such as parliament. i've included the full discussion, as i think its both interesting as an exploration of parliamentary procedure, and useful as a window into the current party motivations and dynamics around te tiriti. cw for some sexism from winston peters and some appalling racism from shane jones

*trans. the māori party, a minor political party advocating for anti colonial, tiriti o waitangi based policies

[ellynoo]

Te Pāti Māori sweep

[ierotits]

quick run down for people unaware of what is happening here rn

tonight is election night in aotearoa. currently, it is looking like the next government will be formed by the right wing block

here we typically have 120 seats in parliament. either 1 party gets over half and forms a government, or they form on in coalition with other parties

as of the current numbers (11pm election night) National is sitting around 50 seats (major right wing party) ACT at around 12 seats (far right party). this means they could get 62 together and form a government

HOWEVER due to Te Pāti Māori currently winning 4 or 5 of the māori electorate seats, that could add another 2/3 seats to parliament, increasing the number of seats needed to create a parliament

this is where Uncle Winston Peters comes in, head of the NZ First party, which is currently at 8 seats. due to tbe Māori electorates, they are likely to also need Winnie in their coalition. Winnie is somewhere in the centre, currently more right wing, but really hes there to cause as many problems as possible for everyone everywhere in the house

we are facing the next 3 years of a government made up of 3 racist right wing parties, who aim to give money to landlords, strip rights from māori and gender minorities, to take back everything we've fought for the last few years. this is going to be absolutely devestating for anyone who isnt a white middle class land owner

we do however currently look like we will have a record number of Green party and Māori party mps, which should help hold them back a little, but it will be a very very tough few years

send a virtual hug (or a real one if you can) to your kiwi mutuals and friends tonight. we fucking need it