I was delighted to have my two oldest grandchildren share with me their excited response to the haka in parliament, and the following Hikoi. That’s the first time I’ve heard them animated on a political issue. It gave me great hope for the future.
I’ve been involved in some animated debates about the haka in parliament. I know that this has been referred to the privileges committee, but the essential essence of a haka is that it is a challenge. The haka was focused on ministers Seymour and if parliaments processes rules that this breaches the protocol of parliament then they need to be changed. I thought this cartoon again from the New Zealand herald summarised Seymour’s bill perfectly:
The second major topic for my grandchildren was the Hikoi. Again, I have been engaged an animated debates about this historic event. I heard on MornIng Report several participants in the march explaining why they were there. Their understanding of the Bill was poor. However, what they didn’t say is they could tell within their family how the grand father went to the Second World War and came back emotionally shot to bits and that the land that they owned when they left had been handed over to other people.
These proud Māori warriors often resorted to alcohol which lead to family violence, families being split up, and the Royal Commission has just been attending to the results all this mess. These people could also tell how their fathers and mothers we laid off in the 1980s with the introduction of market forces in our economy. These people often never gained work again at a time when they should have been saving for their retirement.
Add these experiences to the loss of land and Mana and that’s why there was such a huge response to this hikoi. What critics generally fail to acknowledge was this huge crowd demonstrated peacefully outside parliament.
Thanks for your response to these two momentous events. Mine too amongst a deafening noise of others close to me who clearly do not have our ability to see a wider picture.
Kirihimete to you and yours.
Carol
That’s very interesting to read as I have spoken to so many people about both and have not heard one negative comment. Of course that may be because either I speak only to lefties or if they do disagree do not want to say.
You are right in what you say about your grandchildren Gary. Mine were too even the Sydney based two. Our hope is with the young people growing up who cannot understand what all the Treaty/Maori issues are about……why would anyone think Maori are getting more than us? And if they are so what? Didn’t we take almost everything off them?