February 05,2025

“Mā te oranga o te taiao, ka ora ai te iwi. Mō te takitini kāore mō te torutoru anake”

E ōku whanaunga o te Tai Tokerau, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

E kore e riro te tino rangatiratanga o Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi ki te Karauna. A, tū kaha te mana motuhake o ngā hapū o Ngāpuhi!

Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua. Whatungarongaro te Kāwanatanga, toitū te Tiriti.

E te iwi ka huri au ki te reo Pākehā, te reo o te Kawanatanga.

Te Tiriti has always been about the promise of peoples to take good care of each other.

After all what is the point of anything, if not to care for each other and our whenua?!

When our ancestors signed Te Tiriti, this was their understanding. Why would they have willingly signed up to something that would take away their mana?

And we are seeing so many diverse people - tangata whenua, tangata tauiwi, tangata moana, tangata Tiriti - come together to fight for that promise of care.

To work to uphold the mana motuhake of tangata whenua. To show that strong relationships across communities, should be at the heart of everything we do.

Tika ana to kōrero e te Matua Kipa. Kua ngaro te kaha o te Pirimia ki ona hoa tōrangapū, e raweke ana Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

This government is fanning the flames of a disinformation campaign about Te Tiriti.

They are giving oxygen to a dangerous rhetoric that looks at centuries of injustice and calls it equality, that looks at unity and calls it division, that looks at redress and calls it racism.

That's like saying the beating of my grandmother for speaking her own reo rangatira – was an education.

Kāhore.

Violent assimilation is not equality.

Taking away land from people who have cared for it for generations, is not equality.

Taking away taonga that we should be kaitiaki of – and flogging it off to the private market - is the opposite of what Te Tiriti envisaged. Te Tiriti protects Aotearoa for everyone!

E aku iwi o Te Tai Tokerau - Māori have welcomed manuhiri for centuries, as the haukainga here at Whare Runganga do generously every year.

Te Tiriti is the foundation for how we welcomed those earliest Pākehā immigrants to this land, and how we continue to welcome people today.

Imagine what Aotearoa could be like today if Te Tiriti had been truly honoured. Imagine if our government reflected the kotahitanga that people throughout Aotearoa are demonstrating.

That’s what all governments need to strive for, rather than shamelessly targeting Māori.

Ko tēnei te wā e te iwi – kei a koutou te mana ki te kaupare i tēnei kawanatanga ki te taha! Rehita e te whānau, pōti!

E te kaiarahi takirua e Chlöe, tēnā koe e te rangatira. E kitea ana te motu whānui tō whawhai mutunga kore mō te rangatiratanga o Te Iwi Māori. Nau mai ki te mahau o Te Whare Runanga e hoa, tēnā koe.

Ko te tūāpapa o Te Tiriti o Waitangi, ka manaakitia tātou e tātou anō. Koinei hoki te tūāpapa o Te Pāti Kākāriki.

Nō reira, mō te whenua me ngā mokopuna te take. Ka whawhai tonu matau – ake ake ake.

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