Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori

Tomorrow is the first new public holiday I can remember in my lifetime and the first introduced in Aotearoa in recognition of something Maori.

The celebration of Matariki, both looking to the future and remembering those gone, feels positive and a good step forwards for our country.

Tirohia ake ngā whetu
Me ko Matariki e ārau ana
He tiki mai tahau i ngā mahara e kohi nei
Whakarerea ake e nā te roimata koua riringi
He puna wai kai aku kamo…

I gaze up to the stars
To the assembly of Matariki
Captured are my memories of you who have left me behind
Tears rippling
like springs in my eyes.

There has been really upbeat coverage leading up to our first Matariki - I couldn’t help thinking while watching the news that those folks who actually get angry at Te Reo being spoken on the 6 o’clock bulletin must be having a very hard week. Maybe they opened their hearts and listened and learned, possibly not - but I reckon lots of other people have and are.

Like any social progress it can feel like slow going sometimes, our maturing as a nation and recognition of the tangata whenua of this land. Like two steps forwards and one step backwards, still at least we’re going in the right direction.

It wasn’t that long ago when John Key was the leader of the opposition, a year before he became Prime Minister, that we were seeing something else altogether. You might remember the young girl Aroha Ireland from a very deprived area and the way the future Prime Minister was able to improve her lot in life.

Fortunately for John it wasn’t about addressing job opportunities or the cost of living, John identified that what young Aroha really needed was a ride in a wealthy white man’s car to go to Waitangi, a photo opportunity. No further action was required to help her situation after that, as he clearly demonstrated.  

Young Aroha was so inspired and motivated by this encounter that she made a better life for herself… in Australia.

Skip forwards a few years to the current Prime Minister at Waitangi. There she is working behind the BBQ with her senior ministers to provide kai to the people. It is a photo opportunity too, not one that says look at me I helped this poor girl out of her situation by giving her a lift. One that says I am here to serve you, to listen to you, to be humble, to show that I am a servant leader, and all I ask is that you judge me on the things we do to help people.

So that was a bit of a contrast.

Waitangi can provide a contrast, for example those who are actually there attending events seem to come away really positive that it was an experience of people coming together and a great celebration

Then contrasting that is the narrative in the media that it is contentious, it is about protest and disagreement. Each year they seem to find it harder to find a disgruntled individual to show representing events there, but they always do.

Sometimes it feels like the mountain of damage caused by all this time is impossible to tackle, some would like to draw a line under it and move on, contain the grievances in a finite fiscal envelope and be done with it – it is just too hard.

But we have a government willing to make steady progress, to chip away at things making them better. Just this week, coincidentally of course, it was announced that kaiārahi i te reo – expert advisers in te reo and tikanga Māori – would receive a 79% pay increase to address unfairness.

They chip away and they put the big things on the table – co-governance, there it is, it isn’t so scary, we just need to make one more seat at the table so our brothers can take part and can have their voice heard. It isn’t just a nice thing to do either, we also have a treaty to honour.

We have a government that looks like New Zealand – Maori, Pasifika, from Latin America and Africa, Asian, European. They look like our people – they are our people.

The elephants in the room of course sit on the other side of the chamber, or perhaps that should be the dinosaurs.

While there is huge Maori talent coming through on the government benches, anyone who watches parliament will know it is only a matter of time before Kiritapu Allan - who introduced the bill to make Matariki a public holiday is a senior minister, or maybe even a bigger role one day, the same could not be said of the opposition.

It is a sad sight in 2022 to see the National caucus, almost exclusively European, disproportionately male like something from the 1950s – probably a gentleman’s club of selective membership.

Even with the chance of a by election they could not bring themselves to look at diversity, to chip away at the problem, and selected yet another cookie cutter candidate – a wealthy white man in a suit there to serve business interests, not the community whom he was yet to meet.

It seems to me we have a government that wants to address historic crimes – do we call them crimes? No, but that is what they were. A government that wants to bring people together, giving all a voice at the table. Yes there is much more to do to address inequality and racism but their mature, progressive, inclusive approach has us heading in the right direction.

On the other hand you have a couple of parties that are happy for old divisions to fester, whose answer to inequality and hardship is to take a tougher law and order stance. Parties willing to appeal to the worst in people, playing upon fears unnecessarily, just to get elected.

And that makes me really sad, including for the people they are winding up who with the right dialogue and without misinformation could come with the rest of us and not be afraid.

Then we have the public, the great majority of who will enjoy the new day off and all the events happening. Perhaps without the history of Waitangi day divisions of old it’ll be a new day of fun and relaxation, of reflection on the past but also of looking to the future positively.

Maybe quite a few people will think - did we really get to 2022 before introducing a public holiday to recognize something Maori? That seems like something we could do better at.

Some might go and see the Dame Whina Cooper movie and consider how far we have come in our lifetime as well as how far there is to go. Imagine those who marched enjoying the rightful recognition of their efforts on a public holiday for Matakiri – that thought puts a smile on my face.

I hope all of us, whether we ‘re eager for progress, or scared by change that makes us feel like we’re not going to be considered real kiwis, will enjoy the day as something positive.

Ngā mihi o te tau hou Aotearoa.