Labour list MP and grandson of Sir James Henare, Peeni Henare, at a recent meeting of the Waitangi Tribunal. Photo / Peter de Graaf/RNZ
Former minister Peeni Henare stripped off his coat and stepped to the microphone.
“When you take off your jacket,” he said, “it’s to get ready for a fight.”
And then he launched into it. “The bugle has sounded and we have heard the call,” declared the Labour Party’s senior orator. “This is a fight that will not be fought just in Parliament. I lift my gun, and I let the shots do the talking.”
He was quick to clarify: “That’s a figurative gun, not an actual gun.”
Still, fighting words are fighting words and Henare was angry. So were most of the speakers – among the mana whenua and the manuhiri (visitors) – at the pōwhiri to welcome the parliamentary Opposition to Waitangi on Saturday.
The whero, or challenge, was enormously spirited. So were the welcoming speeches.
“Welcome back, Chippy,” they said to former prime minister Chris Hipkins. “Lick your wounds, make a plan, work out how you will move us forward. But don’t take too long.”
Hipkins, when it was his turn, promised they would try.
He quoted Henare’s grandfather, Sir James Henare. “We have done too much to stop now, we have come too far not to go further.”
And as they spoke, the wind roared over the Treaty Grounds, a wildness in the high pohutukawa, sending even the bark chips around their trunks scudding along the ground. The rain came, the sun followed, the wind came back again. Wildness was in the air.
Teanau Tuiono from the Green Party, the first speaker for the manuhiri, called the tripartite coalition Government “a three-headed taniwha” and said of the mana whenua, “Ngāpuhi are the best at fighting and we are here to support you.”
And he spoke of the “spirit of unity” which should “guide us, even though this current Government is trying to divide us”. Unity for the fight: it was the theme of the day.
There hasn’t been a separate pōwhiri for the Opposition for many years: the usual approach has been for all the political parties to be welcomed together, and for all of them to be challenged together. A larger spirit of unity has been encouraged.
This year, said Labour’s Willie Jackson, the New Zealand First minister Shane Jones had stopped that.
“Shane Jones did not want a united pōwhiri . He’s on record saying it.”
Te Pāti Māori weren’t there either. They’ve chosen to arrive tomorrow, with a Māori delegation led by Kīngi Tūheitia.
James Shaw made his last speech at a Waitangi pōwhiri, as the just-resigned Greens’ co-leader, and thanked Ngāpuhi for all they had taught him.
Labour’s former deputy leader Kelvin Davis made his last speech as an MP at the pōwhiri: his resignation takes effect on Tuesday. Like Henare and Tuiono, he spoke of the fight. When talking about Act Party leader David Seymour, he made bitter reference to people who side with “thieves and criminals”.
“If I was David Seymour,” he said, “I would have gone home to my people, to get their support. But he has not once gone home to his people.”
Seymour whakapapas to Ngāpuhi, whose opposition to his treaty principles bill was repeatedly voiced.
The rhetoric grew stronger. “The spiders are coming for us on Monday,” said Davis, referring to the partners of the coalition Government. “The den of lions is coming. We must not speak to them like lambs.”
Asked later about the fighting talk, Hipkins said people talk about fighting every day, which is especially true for politicians in Parliament. The talk of weapons isn’t real, but the anger is. He added that marae rhetoric is rich in metaphor.
This is how we speak on the marae, added Henare. He said he would not stand by when his reo was challenged and responding with the full rhetorical depth of marae speechmaking was the best thing he could do.
The pōwhiri ended with the Ngā Pūawai Ō Ngāpuhi, known in these parts as the “Ngāpuhi anthem”.
It’s lyrical and lovely and inescapably sad, although it is also a waiata of hope.
Whakarongo mai, ki te reo e tangi nei e ringihia mai ana, mai i aku kamo, nga roimata e ...
Listen to the voice that is crying out, and see, pouring out from my eyes, the tears. But as the sun shines, the the pain disappears and the sadness falls away. Don’t hold any anger, for this is another day …
We are people who stand proud. We, the descendants of those who have been lost in the night. This is the thanks we give to you, to our aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers.
Here we are, the fruit of your labour. Blossoming before you.
It’s going to be a big few days.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.