Matariki 2016 Most Important Year Yet for Maori

5 June 2016

Matariki 2016 which appears tomorrow night will be the start of the most important year yet for Maoridom in modern times, according to the president of the Maori Party, Rangimarie Naida Glavish.

“What we Maori regard as our New Year’s Day starts tomorrow with the first appearance of the stars we know as Matariki,” said Ms Glavish. “By the end of this coming Maori year, we will be on the cusp of General Election 2017, an event that will be vital to the future of not just te iwi Maori but all New Zealanders. For us, as for peoples of the whole free world, the years 2018 to 2020 will be decisive in creating living standards that will define the 21st century. It essential we get it right when we vote later next year for who governs us for those vital three years.

“We Maori have a key role to play in that process of creating better and more enduring standards of living for everyone. Our traditional principles of tika (doing what is right and proper), pono (doing what is just and fair), mana (living in a way that earns you respect), tapu (respecting the mana of others) and aroha (love for others), are not for Maori alone, but for everyone, everywhere. But to have them accepted and practised, we need to be at the table of the government of Aotearoa, not on the Opposition benches, and to be in government in numbers sufficient to give us a definitive say in whatever decisions have to be made.

“Thus, for Maori, the decision is simple: we have already our own independent political voice, the Maori Party; there are seven separate Maori seats. The Maori Party should hold them all to assure ourselves of the balance of power, the power to decide who will form the government after 2017.

“This is a challenge to iwi, hapu and whanau throughout Aotearoa; not just a challenge but a unique opportunity. I hope our people will accept that challenge, and seize this opportunity. We have this Matariki year to gather our forces, to unite, and to show our fellow Kiwis the true meaning of being tangata whenua,” declared Ms Glavish.

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