Shane Te Pou: Why the Kiingitanga national hui is an opportunity for unity

Kiingi Tuuheitia didn’t call such an important meeting lightly, writes Shane Te Pou.

OPINION

Ko Potatau te tangata

Ko Tainui te waka

Ko Taupiri te Maunga

Ko Waikato te awa

Ko Waikato te iwi

Ko Ngati Mahuta te hapu.

For a Government that has defined itself in its early days by opposition to the presence of Māori culture and te reo Māori in the public space, the Kiingitanga national hui represents an opportunity to change direction. An opportunity to reset and become a Government that creates unity, rather than fomenting division.

Kiingi Tuuheitia didn’t call such an important meeting lightly. National hui are reserved for important issues. There is a well-placed fear among many Māori that this Government is seeking to drive our culture, our language and, by extension, Māori ourselves out of the political conversation and public discourse.

When the Transport Minister’s first action isn’t to fund a new project or to put more money into fixing potholes but, instead, to diminish the Māori name of one of this agencies - that strikes an alarm bell.

When the first piece of health legislation is to abolish the Māori Health Authority and the second is to repeal anti-smoking measures - that tells us something about how Māori are viewed.

When the new Finance Minister, who should be focusing on paying for her unfunded tax policy, instead spends time attacking incentives in collective contracts for public servants to learn te reo - that says te ao Māori is not valued.

By the time you’re reading this, the national hui has happened but, at time of writing, the big unanswered question is whether the Prime Minister will show up. I hope he is there. It is not enough to meet with Kiingi Tuuheitia in private. The point of a national hui is to bring everyone together, to openly discuss the issue at hand with honestly and frankness. Only then can a new path forward be charted.

We know other parties will send leaders and spokespeople. Presumably, some ministers will attend - but the Prime Minister really needs to be there. In a fractured Government with three different parties and different voices, only the Prime Minister can speak for the Government as a whole - there’s only one Prime Minister, one Rangatira and he alone needs to manage this issue.

Maybe a good place to start is requiring his support parties to turn down the heat in their rhetoric. It’s no good to see one minister saying the King is hosting a hui for troublemakers and moaners. This inflames the situation and does not create a clear pathway towards better relations. We need to hear straight from the Prime Minister that his Government is not going to pursue an anti-Māori agenda any longer.

It is entirely appropriate for Kiingitanga to take the lead and call this national hui. It is one of Aotearoa’s most important bodies, with mana that is recognised both across Maoridom and in Pākehā politics, and it has an important role in passing our culture on to the next generation.

Our mokopuna, Bowen, has recently graduated from the Kiingitanga school Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga. He told me, in te reo Māori and English, what Kiingitanga means to him as a young Māori and helped him to navigate a bicultural world one founded in te reo and tikanga Māori:

Ki au nei e tino whaitake te Kiingitanga o ngaa raa o naianei hei te tau 2024 naa te take kia kitea taatou hei whakamaua i oo taatou tikanga-aa-iwi, aa-whenua nei pera atu i ngaa poukai, ngaa koroneihana, aa, me ngaa mea moroiti nei.

To me, I think that Kiingitanga is relevant today in 2014. It provides an example to help make us remember and uphold our traditions and keep them relevant, through gatherings such as the poukai and koroneihana.

Bowen told me his Kiingitanga whakapapa gives him a real sense of belonging as well as a sense of purpose. After five fantastic years being guided by his kaiako and whānau, Bowen is about to begin his tertiary education specialising in information technology.

I reference this because the conversation we are having now about the use of Māori language and culture should be focused on the next generation - about the future, not the past.

The opposition to Māori is largely coming from the older generation, with a nostalgia for a short period in our history, in the early and mid-20th century, when Māori were mostly out of sight and out of mind.

The younger generation do not feel this way. Whether they have Māori whakapapa or not, they see the value in this country’s unique indigenous people and our culture, and they embrace it. As Kiingitanga chief of staff Archdeacon Ngira Simmonds told me: “The kōhanga reo generation are confident, well-educated and capable in Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pākehā. They are here and capable of leading - my MP is 21 and I couldn’t be more proud! We have to make space for their voice, expect it to be different and trust in it. Our tūpuna fought hard for the kōhanga reo and now we are seeing all they fought for come to life!”

So far, this Government has spent its energy trying to take us back to that past where Māori were excluded. I hope that the conversation sparked by the Kiingitanga national hui will help turn their eyes to the future, instead.

“Te kotahi te kākaho ka whati, ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati.”

If there is but one toetoe stem it will break, but if they are together in a bundle they will never break - King Tāwhiao.