Guest Editorial: Maori Party the party of mana

There are many definitions of the word mana. In politics you earn mana, for example by doing great things or by working hard. You don't just have mana because you are a politician. Georgina Te Heuheu has great mana. She worked tirelessly as an MP for many years with humility, grace and principle.

You can also lose mana just as easily, and the person who comes to mind is Donna Awatere-Huata after the Pipi Foundation scandal. Almost instantly she lost respect (mana) that many people had for her and the work she did as an activist, educationalist and Act Party MP. (I understand Donna is working again for the betterment of Maori education, and this will no doubt be rebuilding her mana).

The recent announcement of the new, albeit very similar, relationship between the Maori Party and the National-led Government should come as no surprise to anyone who follows Maori politics. In speaking with friends in the Maori Party, there is a strongly held view that there was no other sensible option. If the Maori Party is to achieve anything meaningful, they had to ensure they are in a position to have influence, a key word associated with mana.

You see, someone like Georgina Te Heuheu not only possessed great mana; she exercised it too - by having influence. Ministerial positions, my Maori Party friends tell me, are not about power and prestige (words also associated with mana) but about influencing policy and resourcing decisions and being in a position to effect positive change for the people you represent. That's mana, they tell me.

The Mana Party, or "the movement of the people" as they called themselves during the election, focused their campaign as the voice of the poor and marginalised, and at times seemed to think they were the only party that had the right to be this voice.

They told us they would bring about a "revolution" for the people. That is what their campaign song said, and that is what Hone Harawira and Annette Sykes repeated at every opportunity during the election campaign. They said they would fight for the mana of the people. What we now know from the final election results is that there was no revolution and Hone Harawira's talk about mana was exactly that - talk. Returning to Parliament, after a campaign attacking the Maori Party constantly, by only just scraping in on the Te Tai Tokerau seat is hardly a revolution. If anything, it is a lesson in both humility and reality.

The Maori Party has been smart. Despite being called traitors and sell-outs by Mana candidates, they stuck to their principles and were not distracted by the attacks. Turia and Sharples have not sold out by taking on ministerial posts. To do otherwise would have been unwise and regressive and these two people are neither of those things. Unlike Harawira and Sykes, they know that there are more gains to be made for Maori from the inside and that to sit on the opposition benches throwing stones is not mana-enhancing for anyone.

I am a huge fan of Tariana Turia. She is one of those people who actually oozes mana. It has taken a while for me to acknowledge this, as I was initially a critic of the Maori Party when it was first formed, because it seemed destined to be on the outside of power, constantly away from where the real decisions are made. How wrong I was.

The Maori Party have shown that they can work with any party to advance the agenda they have on behalf of the people they represent and that is both impressive and admirable.

The gains they have made on developing Whanau Ora, in setting up the constitutional review (although I am disappointed the review group is not focusing on the republic issue) and now having secured a ministerial committee to look into poverty are real gains for Maori people.

The Maori Party will have real influence, unlike the Mana Party, and what impresses me most is that they do it with conviction and principle and even style. That's mana.

Areti Metuamate was the inaugural chair of the Maori Youth Council and is currently a PhD scholar at the Australian National University and occasional political commentator for Maori media.