February 11, 2022
Claudette Hauiti: Messy as protest
I’ve been watching the Parliament protesters for a whole week now. I can’t help thinking what our Māori activists would make of these agitators. In my opinion, they are leaderless, their kaupapa unarticulated, they are abusive and quite frankly paru, littering Wellington streets and the grounds of Parliament.
But then the likes of Hone Harawira, Reuben Taipari, Annette Sykes, Tere Harrison, Kelly Klink, they’re probably not thinking of that lot at Parliament. They’re busy doing real mahi, protecting whānau, protecting whenua, protecting moana, speaking and progressing te reo Māori, actualising rangatiratanga.
This lot at Parliament are like tumble weeds, they got a bit of wind up them, and blew into town. Each with their own definition of anti-mandate, anti-vaccination, pro-freedom of choice. Their incoherent messaging is further confused by their actions. They champion freedom of choice; but spit, yell abuse at everyday people wearing masks going about their business. They are anti-mandate but fly the ANZAC hāki ignorant of the fact that soldiers were summarily vaccinated before going off to fight the World Wars. They fly maga flags heralding President Donald Trump as the champion of the anti-vac’ed but ignore the fact he fast tracked COVID19 vaccinations in the United States. Credibility, zich.
But to me whānau, they are gutless. They assault our taitama wāhine, pelting eggs at innocent rangatahi in school uniform wearing masks on their way to buy kai. A carload of thugs assaulting our tamāriki surely that’s a matter to be followed up by Police? They are also thieves, stealing our intellectual property our hāki; Tinorangatiratanga, He Whakaputanga flying these icons, beacons of Māori indigenous sovereignty hoisting it up the same pole as the ‘maga’ flag and even alongside swastika? I’ll even stick my neck on the line and say on behalf of the Māori nation the kaupapa these hāki represent are not those you espouse, you messy babble of protesters, so stop wearing them, flying them, put them down.
Just a few minutes ago, a wāhine Pākehā on the loudspeaker, told the gathered, they are a family friendly protest, they are a protest of many nationalities, they are a peaceful protest. She’s wrong, the people gathered here are none of these things.
These protesters come from a mix of socio- economic and educational backgrounds. There are men, women, families and different age groups. This is a protest of mainly Pākehā about 90% and a few whānau Māori, not many. I’m not sure they’re dangerous as some have labelled them but they are confused, and I’m not sure they’re the poor and working class either, but they are the fringe dwellers of wider society, protesting their right to remain there.
The issues they bring to parliament are devoid of anything that speaks of Māori or national prosperity, partnership, or unity. They are single-minded individualistic ideologies fuelled by international conspiracies via social media. I feel nothing but aroha for them, their abusive behaviour has bought them nothing but scorn. Go home, and tidy up your mess before you go.