“Everything is a culture shock, for someone who’s come out of Kōhanga Reo,” says one of Aotearoa’s newest MPs, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, comparing her growing up immersed in te ao Māori with the colonial-era style of Parliament.
“When you get into the House, my God, even that carpet, the buildings. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
The Herald sits down with Maipi-Clarke and Tākuta Ferris in their first week in Parliament, and already the newest representatives of the “unapologetically Māori” political party are brimming with ideas about how to further shake up the place they dub a “shrine to colonialism”.
They join re-elected co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, the latter of whom managed, in his first few months in the job in 2021, to have the tie rule dropped - which he dubbed a “colonial noose” - saying it needed to be inclusive of other cultures, and for him to wear his pounamu hei tiki necklace.
Over the past few years, there have been other changes in Parliament to better recognise mana whenua Te Āti Awa, with pou installed on the forecourt and entrance last year, while Speaker Adrian Rurawhe has also overseen a dramatic increase in the use of te reo Māori in the House.
The mihi whakatau for new MPs is also conducted by Te Āti Awa.
But Ferris also has a few things to say about the induction process, and what he sees as a lack of acknowledgement of Parliament’s relationship with the Treaty of Waitangi.
“They explained we’re responsible for the Parliament, but we’re not responsible for the sovereign,” he said.
“Well, if Parliament’s responsible for the House, but not responsible for the sovereign, and the Treaty is an agreement with the sovereign and tangata whenua, then where is the articulation of Parliament’s relationship with the Treaty? Nobody could answer that.”
Maipi-Clarke also brings up the oath of allegiance to King Charles, but no option to pledge allegiance to the Kiingitanga.
“That was my first question... Can I give my oath also to the monarchy here which is the Kiingitanga, to the first movement that I’ve ever come from?
“And they said no, that’s the rules, which is quite strange as King Charles and Kiingi Tūheitia have a relationship but the bureaucrats in Wellington stop that moving forward.”
Ferris did acknowledge some surprises for himself, including all the new National Party MPs doing a mihi in te reo Māori, which was a part of their candidate selections.
The two new MPs have cemented a resurgence for Te Pāti Māori, which under a different leadership was booted out of Parliament in 2017 after nine years working alongside National.
The party was back in 2020 with a rebranding - and name change from the Māori Party - after Waititi won Waiariki, and both he and Ngarewa-Packer set about rebuilding the party’s reputation and holding the Government to account. Both of them secured massive majorities in their electorates this time, with wider party support flowing into the other seats amid a general dissatisfaction with Labour relative to 2020.
They are also in with a chance at taking Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki Makaurau off Labour’s Kelvin Davis and Peeni Henare respectively after the special votes have been counted, with Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Takutai Kemp each behind by just under 500 votes.
Maipi-Clarke at 21 is Aotearoa’s youngest MP in 170 years. To earn her place, she wrested Hauraki-Waikato off the mighty Nanaia Mahuta, who held it since its formation in 2008 and has been an MP since 1996.
Maipi-Clarke was up against the “Princess of the Kiingitanga”, a moniker from some commentators given Mahuta’s deep connections to the movement.
But Maipi-Clarke too has grown up in and around the Kiingitanga and is also of Waikato Tainui. She credits her win with not only appealing to youth but disaffected Māori voters generally.
She described two campaigns: one being aimed at youth, focused on social media - she’s amassed nearly 20,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok each - and the other travelling the entire electorate, visiting marae and kaumātua.
She said they had never elected Te Pāti Māori there before, but believed they would for the right candidate, one they trusted.
Still, she said it was “definitely a surprise” to win, spending the evening in her hometown of Huntly.
“But it was not so much a competition with Nanaia as much as those who weren’t engaged in politics. That was my competition and I think we won that competition.”
Mahuta, who became an MP herself at age 26, delivered a special message to Maipi-Clarke on election night as she conceded, pledging to support the new MP.
“This isn’t the end for her at all, another chapter,” said Maipi-Clarke of Mahuta.
Maipi-Clarke also came into the public spotlight during the campaign with reports of harassment at her home.
Police issued a trespass notice but didn’t take any further action.
Maipi-Clarke described the incidents not so much as violent but “unwanted attention”, and she had ongoing concerns around security at home.
With the current political climate, she feared it might not disappear anytime soon.
It’s not Maipi-Clarke’s first time at Parliament, having impressed many with her kōrero at the 50th anniversary of the Māori language petition, delivered by her grand aunty and namesake Hana Te Hemara in 1972.
She also has a special place inside the Parliament buildings themselves, with great-great-great-great-grandfather Wiremu Katene the country’s first Māori minister in Parliament.
“I had to find my tūpuna [ancestor], who was going to look after me, the wairua [spirit] in this house, knowing that young people, woman and Māori, this place was not built for us whatsoever,” Maipi-Clarke said.
She said her big focus would be her local electorate, along with generally pursuing better outcomes for Māori.
She was also conscious of the role she played for young people, alongside the Green Party’s new MP for Wellington Central, Tamatha Paul, who is 26.
“It is an achievement coming in here and being young, because this place wasn’t designed for young people,” Maipi-Clarke said.
“I hope that this is not just for young Māori people, but all people. Whether you’re Māori or non-Māori, the next generation, my hope, is that politics can be done in a much cleaner way than the paru [dirty] way that is done in here.”
Ferris, meanwhile, said he was quietly confident about taking Te Tai Tonga off Labour’s Rino Tirikatene, who had held it since 2011.
Ferris was with whānau watching the results come in from Whakatū (Nelson).
Their team had worked out Tirikatene generally gained about 10,000 votes at the election, with the 14,000 in 2020 an outlier given Labour’s overall boost (Ferris got 7422 votes).
“We knew we had a good shot. We worked out the gap was only about 2000 votes... and then the efforts of Labour over three years sort of shot themselves in the foot.
“They didn’t do enough, all our people numbers, worse. Our people are waking up.”
The other “secret” was he was not focused on winning.
“We’re here to build something for our kids.”
Ferris, a descendant of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kuia, is a keen fisherman, a diver, and carver of toi Māori. He has worked as a lecturer and Māori advisor to Massey University.
A focus for him would be around marine protections, and in particular mahinga kai, or customary food gathering.
He said the big issues facing his electorate were similar to across the motu: cost of living, food and housing.
“They used to be poor, now they are poor and homeless.”
He said more generally, he would work over the term to educate and engage more people with politics.
“This [Parliament] touches everyone in this country, whether our whānau know it or not or like it or not.
“It has a great determination on what our lives look like out there. So get involved.”
