NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Teuila Fuatai: Race-based rhetoric alive and well

Teuila Fuatai
By Teuila Fuatai
NZ Herald·
28 Oct, 2019 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Comments from two of senior Government ministers last week targeted NZ's Indian communities and epitomised the challenge of confronting racism in this country. Photo / Getty Images

Comments from two of senior Government ministers last week targeted NZ's Indian communities and epitomised the challenge of confronting racism in this country. Photo / Getty Images

Teuila Fuatai
Opinion by Teuila FuataiLearn more

COMMENT:

Do you remember when Donald Trump restricted immigration and travel to the US from seven Muslim countries nearly three years ago?

Were you disturbed at the flagrant display of Islamophobia?

Did you shake your head when he named Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen?

Or did you, on some level, think he had a point? Those countries are a hotbed for anti-Western terrorism. Trump, however misguided and offensive, is protecting the American way of life. Right?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Following the initial mourning after the Christchurch attack, did you pay attention to the voices of people of colour who shared experiences of racism without bullets and semi-automatic weapons?

Did you understand what they meant, and the role non-violent racism had in fuelling extremism?

Or did you say: No, mass murder is separate from the derogatory rhetoric directed at members of minority communities. After all, the massacre and the Australian at its centre "is not us". Right?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Comments from two of New Zealand's senior Government ministers last week reminded me of both events. Their words targeted New Zealand's Indian communities and epitomised the challenge of confronting racism in this country. Framed as disapproval for culturally-arranged marriages, they picked at the ignorance and intolerance which created space for hate crimes and terror. They showed how those attitudes are legitimised through public figures and laws. They also demonstrated how easily cultural supremacism was disguised as "Kiwi values" and "our way of life".

NZ First's Shane Jones led the discourse, premised on recent changes at Immigration New Zealand which effectively exclude permanent residents and citizens from participating in culturally-arranged marriages if their partner lives overseas.

Discover more

Opinion

Teuila Fuatai: Let's teach our young to put history in context

02 Sep 05:00 PM
Opinion

Teuila Fuatai: Cannabis reform critical for Māori men

16 Sep 05:00 PM
Opinion

Teuila Fuatai: Pacific people treated differently

30 Sep 04:00 PM
Opinion

Teuila Fuatai: Sport helps to filter body image fears

14 Oct 04:00 PM

"You always have the option of staying in your own country, marrying a lady over there, living there for two or three years then proving it's a genuine marriage", Jones told one media outlet.

To another, he said: "You have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand and if you don't like it, you're threatening to go home, catch the next flight home."

Backing him was Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters. Peters highlighted policy that justified targeting individuals from cultures which considered arranged marriage normal.

It was simple, Peters told RNZ. Either you are a partner under New Zealand law, or you are not.

"It's clear as daylight: They're not partners — full stop."

Culturally-arranged marriage has always been associated with a lack of choice, education and access to resources for women involved. File photo / 123RF
Culturally-arranged marriage has always been associated with a lack of choice, education and access to resources for women involved. File photo / 123RF

For those unfamiliar with culturally-arranged marriages, the practice can feel like an affront to our beliefs. In my mind, it has always been associated with a lack of choice, education and access to resources for women involved. Signalling New Zealand's opposition to the practice is a good thing. Right?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But take a closer look at Jones' and Peters' comments and this is not the issue. Rather, they are identifying the types of people they (and their Government) want here.

Shila Nair, a senior member of migrant support service Shakti NZ, works with vulnerable Asian, African and Middle Eastern women.

She understands the violence, entrapment and abandonment that occurs in arranged marriages when the sponsoring partner, principally a male, is abusive. Despite this, Nair is clear traditions of arranged marriage differ to problems of abuse and/or forced marriage.

"First, this is an issue that concerns not just Indian communities, but those within the Indian subcontinent and outside," she said. "It will also impact communities that originate from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even Afghanistan.

"These are collectivist cultures and in such collectivist cultures, marriages are not between two individuals alone, but the marriage is between two families and involves extended families."

Failing to acknowledge that is discriminatory, she said. Nair also pointed to changes to parent visa requirements which made it more difficult to sponsor a parent to live with you in New Zealand and disproportionately impacted the same migrant communities because of their culture, she said.

"Taking care of parents is very much obligatory. It goes back to being collectivist in nature. If you are not allowed to bring your parents here, then you and your wife and your children ... can't be part of that."

Like arranged marriage, elder care is normal in these cultures, Nair said. "And you have to be respectful of someone's culture. If the cultural practice is an age-old tradition, and people must do away with that to migrate to New Zealand than it is discriminatory," she said.

Nair, Jones and Peters have delved into the same issue New Zealand grappled with after March 15, and which divides the US. It is the acceptance of rhetoric that privileges certain groups of people over others based on culture, religion and race. Last week's loud objections to arranged marriage were merely a sideshow.

Understanding that is pertinent as extremism, terror and hate do not exist in a vacuum.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

02 Jul 04:05 AM
AucklandUpdated

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

02 Jul 03:57 AM
New Zealand

Motueka prepares for floods

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

From the theatre to a line mechanic: Hastings woman aims to inspire women into electrical trade

02 Jul 04:05 AM

'They just treat me like "one of the guys" but still realise I have different strengths.'

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

Dead baby found in Auckland wheelie bin, woman in custody

02 Jul 03:57 AM
Motueka prepares for floods

Motueka prepares for floods

'Potential to cause fatal accidents': Close to 1km of copper cabling stolen

'Potential to cause fatal accidents': Close to 1km of copper cabling stolen

02 Jul 03:43 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP