Shaneel Lal: Reaction to Marama Davidson's Whittaker's post highlights Labour's hypocrisy

Marama Davidson, Shaneel Lal and Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman. Photo / Becki Moss

Opinion

On Monday, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson posted a video of herself holding five Whittaker's creamy milk chocolate bars outside Parliament. "F***en don't even like this flavour. But like @WhittakersNZ chocolate. And love #ReoMāori," Davidson wrote. The chocolate has been targeted by racists lately after the company translated creamy milk on the packaging. Whittaker's gave us Miraka Kirīmi: 33% Koko. New Zealanders gave us White Fragility: 100% Racism.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Davidson should remove her social media post. Ardern has referred Davidson's post to the Cabinet Office, stating it breached the Cabinet guidelines which prohibit ministers from endorsing or promoting any products or services.

It was clear that Davidson was not promoting Whittaker's. She was promoting the practice of brands supporting the survival of te reo Māori. But public backlash soared after the post and the news she'd potentially breached guidelines. At this point, racists will use anything against Māori to suppress the resurgence of te reo Māori.

In June 2019, Ardern posted a picture of the Women's Weekly kids' party cakes book to her Instagram before endeavouring to bake a cake. Ardern also posed with Zespri kiwifruit mascots in Japan and launched Silver Fern Farms Net Carbon Zero beef in New York. Ardern has been on promotional tours to Costco stores. Does the Cabinet manual not apply to the Prime Minister promoting wealthy corporates?

Her minister Chris Hipkins has been a walking ad for Coke Zero. On 2019 Budget Day, Finance Minister Grant Robertson tweeted a picture of himself and Ardern with cheese rolls and captioned it "Budget Day tradition - cheese rolls, this time from Dunedin itself, specifically Starfish cafe." The Prime Minister raised no concerns about Cabinet manual breaches.

Why, then, is the Prime Minister against Davidson's social media post promoting the use of te reo Māori? The Prime Minister has been caught red-handed being a hypocrite.

Davidson has since edited her post's caption to read, "F***en don't even like this flavour. But love te reo Māori." If New Zealanders weren't so racist, Māori would not have to put themselves in the firing line to defend their language. The solution is not to penalise Māori for what they are compelled to do for their language's survival; instead, it is to focus on annihilating racism.

The country is not up in arms about a breach of the Cabinet manual. Most people upset at Davidson's post did not know any such manual existed until a Twitter user threw it out there for racists to use as ammunition against Davidson. The one thing that racists hate more than people of colour is our courage to stand up to racism. People are furious that a Māori woman dared to stand up to racism.

The fact that something as simple as two te reo Māori words on a chocolate packaging has caused national outrage demonstrates that New Zealanders hold deeply anti-Māori views. Why aren't people equally furious at words like sauvignon blanc and pinot gris? Is it because those words are derived from European languages?

Te reo Māori was once Aotearoa's only language, but it almost became extinct after colonisation. Te reo Māori was made an official language 35 years ago, more than 140 years after the signing of the treaties. Under the treaties, the Crown was under an obligation to protect te reo Māori, but instead, the 1867 Native Schools Act practically banned te reo Māori in schools. Children who spoke te reo Māori were physically punished and made to write, "I will not speak Māori."

And racists are offended by chocolate packaging? If you do not like it, consider turning a blind eye to it as you have to the ramifications of colonisation felt by Māori for generations.

I have lost one of my indigenous tongues. The pain of not knowing your indigenous language is excruciating. Aotearoa is embracing te reo Māori, and I think that is beautiful. It is powerful to experience the healing of the indigenous people of Aotearoa. Tauiwi and Pākehā owe it to Māori to support the resurgence of te reo Māori. Whaea's post was sweet as!

Shaneel Shavneel Lal (they/them) was instrumental in the bill to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand. They are a law and psychology student, model and influencer.