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March 04, 2022
Waititi sees colonisation behind Parliament riot
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On March 4, 2022
Download AudioMāori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi is blaming the presence of many Māori in the parliament protest with colonisation.
He says the disconnection of people from their land, their language and their culture has led to dysfunctional communities.
Given that history, mistrust of government is a valid response.
“When you’ve got ministers back in the 1800s saying things like ‘the formation of this parliament was to kill the beastly communism of Māori,’ those types of kōrero, those are not accidents, we are not here by accident. The dysfunction among our people has been purposefully orchestrated and what I saw the other day was a manifestation of that,” Mr Waititi says.
He says the threats and abuse seen at the protest were not the Māori way of doing things.
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