Yes the following is an emotional piece because this morning I woke up feeling very emotional about some of the experiences I have had recently with various Pākehā.
I am frustrated with how people who do not understand how racism operates in this country call me either a white women gone native or a deluded apologist with no backbone. I know what racism is, I was on the wrong side of it as a you...ng unaware youth. As an adult I learnt about the other side of racism, firstly, through the Springbok Tour and then through the second occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point. This lead to years of reading and participating in action that I hoped would bring about Māori sovereignty. On entering university I moved away from politics all together and concentrated on my studies, finally receiving my doctorate in 2010, a year after Jordan Robert Herewini was murdered.
Jordan's death and the trail of the man who killed him brought me back to the realities of racism in this country. At the time some ignorant Pākehā wrote that such a death was bound to happen to such places as Mururpara. Later I watched as Pākehā judges and lawyers, journalists and tv presenters spat their institutionalised racism across the lives of Jordan, the witnesses and Quentin Pukeroa. It was here that I tasted some of the racism that Māori experience every bloody day in this country and it tastes like burning flesh. I smelt and tasted it in every word spoken in that courtroom, in every inference made about places like Mururpara and those who live there. I lived it intensely for 4 weeks in that Pākehā dominated courtroom and because I am Pākehā I was given the choice to walk away from it when the trial ended.
Well I didn't walk away. So I want to say to all those people on pro punitive justice sites, anti treaty sites and all those who feel for our story but cannot look beyond the 'oh that is sad but...' comments and especially to those who believe that institutional racism is somehow an excuse for allowing Māori get away with murder and all other imagined crimes - IT IS NOT. I have not meet one single Māori who believes that racism is an excuse to kill or maim people. What they - what we argue is that racism underpins our whole system, placing all that is 'white' - right (simplistic analogy but if I tried to explain this would be way to long).
Well the tide is turning people, because people like myself are no longer sitting back an leaving it to Māori to bring about sweeping constitutional and attitudinal changes. We are uniting under the banner of tino rangatiratanga and under the kaupapa of MANA to ensure a more progressive country. we are working help Aotearoa is a place where we can all hold our heads high and be accountable of our shared history and ultimately proud of our beautiful country. That's why I encourage all Māori in Ikaroa Rawhiti to VOTE and especially VOTE for MANA's representative Te Hamua Nikora. Please do it for Jordan Herewini and all those people we have lost to institutional racism...do it for our past, our present and our future.
Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi
I am frustrated with how people who do not understand how racism operates in this country call me either a white women gone native or a deluded apologist with no backbone. I know what racism is, I was on the wrong side of it as a you...ng unaware youth. As an adult I learnt about the other side of racism, firstly, through the Springbok Tour and then through the second occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point. This lead to years of reading and participating in action that I hoped would bring about Māori sovereignty. On entering university I moved away from politics all together and concentrated on my studies, finally receiving my doctorate in 2010, a year after Jordan Robert Herewini was murdered.
Jordan's death and the trail of the man who killed him brought me back to the realities of racism in this country. At the time some ignorant Pākehā wrote that such a death was bound to happen to such places as Mururpara. Later I watched as Pākehā judges and lawyers, journalists and tv presenters spat their institutionalised racism across the lives of Jordan, the witnesses and Quentin Pukeroa. It was here that I tasted some of the racism that Māori experience every bloody day in this country and it tastes like burning flesh. I smelt and tasted it in every word spoken in that courtroom, in every inference made about places like Mururpara and those who live there. I lived it intensely for 4 weeks in that Pākehā dominated courtroom and because I am Pākehā I was given the choice to walk away from it when the trial ended.
Well I didn't walk away. So I want to say to all those people on pro punitive justice sites, anti treaty sites and all those who feel for our story but cannot look beyond the 'oh that is sad but...' comments and especially to those who believe that institutional racism is somehow an excuse for allowing Māori get away with murder and all other imagined crimes - IT IS NOT. I have not meet one single Māori who believes that racism is an excuse to kill or maim people. What they - what we argue is that racism underpins our whole system, placing all that is 'white' - right (simplistic analogy but if I tried to explain this would be way to long).
Well the tide is turning people, because people like myself are no longer sitting back an leaving it to Māori to bring about sweeping constitutional and attitudinal changes. We are uniting under the banner of tino rangatiratanga and under the kaupapa of MANA to ensure a more progressive country. we are working help Aotearoa is a place where we can all hold our heads high and be accountable of our shared history and ultimately proud of our beautiful country. That's why I encourage all Māori in Ikaroa Rawhiti to VOTE and especially VOTE for MANA's representative Te Hamua Nikora. Please do it for Jordan Herewini and all those people we have lost to institutional racism...do it for our past, our present and our future.
Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi
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