February 16, 2022
Opinion: Pakeha protesters now know how Māori feel
Pakeha protesters now know how Māori feel by John Tamihere
The right to peaceful protest is extraordinarily important in keeping all governments accountable.
The protesters at Parliament demonstrate a most unusual coming together. On one hand you have the Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church followers, protestors against water reorganisation, protestors against climate change legalisation, protestors about the new world order, conspiracies about Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford being on home detention, protestors about the Government being too kind to Māori and of course, and rightly so, those protesting around vaccination mandates.
The government must declare a time when vaccination mandates be removed. We have one of the most successful rollouts of vaccination uptake in the world, according to the source of all truth, Dr Ashely Bloomfield and the Ministry of Health.
On that basis, the health system should not be overwhelmed.
What we must be wary of is when politics fuse with the so called experts, science and medicine.
The tipping point for all this fusion is now starting to occur, and as a consequence citizens have a right to demand when vaccination mandates will be lifted.
Reality is, I am as likely to contract Covid from a vaccinated person as an unvaccinated person. That is the simple science of it.
I turn now to the predominantly Pākeha protest groups camped outside of Parliament.
I reflect deeply upon my own participation and protest, whether it was at Bastion Point 1978, or standing in several protests and marches against the Springbok Tour of 1981, alongside many Pakeha New Zealanders who also stood against the tour.
I also reflect on the protest march led by Whina Cooper over the confiscation of our lands, the suppression of our language and the destruction of our culture as an indigenous people of Aotearoa.
Roll the camera rapidly forward to 2004 and we have the largest protest march ever in the history of Aotearoa over the Foreshore and Seabed Legislation. These protests were well organised, with clear lines of leadership and one common agenda.
I was an MP at this time of the Foreshore and Seabed March and myself and colleagues chose to go down and face the music. It was a risk to face the crowd but it was our people on the same page fighting for one cause, so we went down.
It is also our tikanga to hui matters through. Pakeha call this a group therapy session.
Following the Foreshore and Seabed March, I read a Pakeha commentator advising Māori protestors to go home, get educated, and get a real job and act like nice Pākeha New Zealanders.
The writer also wanted to know where were the Māori elders who could reign their young people in from protesting at Parliament and become nice, like Pākeha New Zealanders.
Let’s flip the narrative for a moment, read those lines again as though a Māori commentator advising Pākeha protestors to go home, get educated, get a job and act like nice Māori New Zealanders. Asking where are the Pākeha elders who could reign in their young people in from protesting at Parliament and become nice, like Māori New Zealanders.
From 1975 up to today all Māori protest is met with contempt, particularly by Pākeha, the large number of folk who just happen to be protesting at Parliament right now.
Their six month of vaccination terror inflicted by their own government gives todays Wellington protesters a taste of what 182 years of struggle for Māori is all about. Now they know the true gravity of the power of the State in taking away rights.
I wonder when the protesters leave Parliament, whether they will be supportive of Māori rights as we continue to request equality of opportunity in this country.
Like allowing Māori to have their own data to support Māori communities in uplifting their rights in vaccination status, like the establishment of a Māori Education Authority, like the establishment of a Māori Parliament.
So wake up Pākeha people. A party born out of protest, The Māori Party, is the only political voice with a policy that demands the removal of Government vaccination mandates that are used to demonise fellow citizens.
And by the way, I actually have a heap of Pākeha friends as well.
John Tamihere is the CEO of Whānau Ora Commissioning and West Auckland Urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira. He is also a former MP.
Ends