Progress towards more harmonious race relations has been halting and inconsistent at times but, for the past three decades, governments by and large have been rowing in the right direction.
To give credit where it’s due, the National Party deserves kudos for pursuing constructive engagement with a Māori populationfrom whom it receives only scant political support. From Jim Bolger through to Bill English, it had sought to honour the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty, as well as to support and encourage – or at least not obstruct – the revival of Māori language and cultural traditions, restoring a long-battered sense of pride in ourselves and belief in our capacity to thrive as a people into the future.
This is not to say various politicians and policies over the past 30 years haven’t run the counter to such aims, but at least in spirit, our national leaders have intended to lift up, not to put down.
Cheered on by David Seymour and Winston Peters, the National Party under Christopher Luxon has, in my opinion, abandoned the path of consensus, choosing instead to inflame divisions - which has created, for their own political benefit - as hostile an environment for Māori as we have seen since the Muldoon era.
The optimist in me had hoped signals to that effect flashing red throughout the campaign period might prove something of a false alarm. Surely, I thought, decency would prevail and once in office, Luxon and co would understand that the costs to society of an “us versus them” style of racialised politics easily outweigh the benefits.
But I was wrong. In the opening weeks and months of this Government, it’s now sadly evident that, for the Luxon-led coalition, racial resentment has been stirred up. It fills me with sadness but I fall short of despair, even if I have been forced by events to locate cause for optimism far from the halls of power in Whakatāne.
It was there, at the Te Hau Tutua Reserve just two weeks back, that another vision of bicultural partnership took mesmerising shape.
I’m referring to Tāwharautia Mataatua, a spectacular collaboration between Tame It, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and the NZ Symphony Orchestra, drawing on traditional narratives of the Mataatua waka.
Tūhoe activist and artist Tame Iti. Photo / Peter de Graaf
I wasn’t able to attend myself but my sister, Dr Miriama Postlethwaite, was one of the 2500-strong crowd, told me: ”It was an enchanting evening, with the sun setting over the heads as the haunting chants of waiata merged with the reverberating symphonic ensemble of brass, woodwinds and strings.
”Tame Iti rose like a phoenix out of the ashes as a reminder of the scorched earth campaign unleashed against Tūhoe to turn the tribe away from Te Kooti. It would have been easy to forget what the performance meant amidst the wonder of the evening and the gaiety of the people gathered in such a beautiful place, but for the last words echoed in Te Kooti’s waiata, a warning not to sell the land– tohutohu kāore te pō nei mōrikarika noa. Hai aha te hoko!”
The performance, by all accounts, was spectacular, profound and deeply moving. As Professor Wiremu Doherty, chief executive of Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, put it:
”This is what happens when an agency is unafraid of te reo Māori. Absolute magic happens. An amazing amalgam of orchestral music with ancient, traditional Māori arts. To hear some of the compositions that are over 300 years old accompanied by orchestral music, you would think they were composed to be performed that way.”
I wrote about this collaboration some time back as a model of respectful partnership and truly original artistic collaboration; the literal fusing of cultural traditions in the production of something entirely new, unique to us, extraordinary in its own right.
The contrast with the Luxon-led coalition’s zero-sum, winners-and-losers approach to race relations is striking.
By embracing partnership in an innovative and joyful way, through an approach of mutual respect with open and curious minds, it enriched and uplifted everyone involved in Tāwharautia Mataatua and created something beautiful and enduring in the process.
Therein lies the hope that resists despair – and this Christmas season, I am grabbing on to it with both hands.
Nga mihi o te wa kirihimete e hoa ma me kia pai te tau hou e heke mai nei i raro i te aroha te tika me te pono.
Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour party activist.
