Our visit to Waitangi this year was totally different to my last trip three decades ago.
Back then people came by horseback, barefoot, by car, airplane and by sea. They came from the north and south, the east and west. And it was all handled so peacefully. As the lower marae was being rebuilt, there was a temporary marae onsite for the people to arrive for pōhiri.
My return to Waitangi was quite overwhelming — thousands and thousands of people, including from three overseas liners that called into Paihia, showing the interest within Aotearoa and overseas reverberating from statements the new Government has made and its policies.
The haka pōhiri to the Government at the upper marae was an amazing sight. There was so much security around its Ministers that people started feeling there were two levels of society. Comment included, “What are they afraid of?” and “Why didn’t they walk amongst the people and hear the feedback on their 100-day plan”.
Maybe it’s time senior MPs looked at themselves and realise they are elected by their constituents. It is the people who elect them that are the real “movers and shakers”.
Annette Sykes and others spoke about the Iwi Chairs Forum being held in Kerikeri away from the people. The concern of the people was that iwi power had become so overwhelming, they were becoming isolated; that their hapū voice was not coming out.
It was wonderful to see Ngā Puhi come together as one, and the dignity with which they held themselves over these days.
We were invited to submit a paper on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which the Government is preparing to “cancel out” by not recognising it as having any binding legal effect on New Zealand — their excuse being that it has never come to the people of Aotearoa.
Yet in the 2000s Sir Paul Reeves chaired multiple meetings throughout Aotearoa over years to help create this document. The meetings were well attended and were reported back to the United Nations each year, after speaking with Goverment.
The second document we were asked to table was my column “All should understand history of Te Tiriti”, written for The Gisborne Herald, December 16, 2023.
We printed 200 copies and it was very well received, including by people from the cruise ships who said it was a simple guideline of how we came to be, through to this very day.
If the Goverment is so keen to save money, why did they have so much security? What were they afraid of? Everything was so peaceful — even the marchers who arrived from the North.
The rush to complete their 100-day plan, to wipe so many laws, does not seem good for our country. It’s almost as though we are being held at ransom, to disestablish one law and not have another in place. It seems an abuse of power. Maybe the Māori health organisation should have remained until they had something worthwhile for the people to see.
Three members of my family are doctors and they say that over the past 20 years the Government has hardly raised the capitation grant to the medical profession. Where else would you go where there is no increase in wages for years? Maybe this is why our doctors are leaving.
Instead of cancelling out Smokefree policies and Te Aka Whai Ora, and wanting to build a new medical school in Waikato (because they say there aren’t enough doctors), the Goverment needs to properly resource doctors so they can continue to do their hard work providing good, healthy outcomes in Aotearoa.
Finally, my comments come from myself and my family as I cannot speak for all Māori generally.
