December 05, 2022
Mayoral karakia veto attack on Māori identity
Māori Party president John Tamihere says the new Kaipara mayor’s refusal to allow karakia at council meetings is a deliberate and premeditated attack on Māori.
Craig Jepson stood on a platform of opposition to three waters reforms, Maori wards and Her Puapua, and he repeatedly blocked Maori ward councilor Pera Paniora when she tried to start the council meeting in te reo Māori.
He says he wants to run a secular council, and he doesn’t have to include any religion or culture.
Mr Tamihere says while prayer may be about religion for pakeha, for Maori it’s about wairuatanga.
“The day you attack our wairuatanga you attack our essence, the very heart and soul of who we are as a people, and that’s what this mongrel has done, and they dress it up as if it’s secular versus religion. That’s just a lit. It’s an our and out attack on who we are as a people. Without our wairuatanga we couldn’t have survived colonists like this mayor,” he says.
Mr Tamihere says Mayor Jepson’s action is an exercise of white privilege designed to appeal to the sort of anti-government voters behind the Groundswell movement.