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Last weekend, some members of ASTR Tāmaki and Pōneke had the privilege of visiting Parihaka thanks to Tuhi-Ao who hosted us.
We learnt about some of the critical climate and environmental issues in Taranaki related to dairy farming and the disrespect for the rāhui on collecting kaimoana. For years now, there has been a rāhui, a temporary prohibition on collecting all shellfish (except rock lobster) along the Western Taranaki coastline. This just got renewed for another two years. But they have been experiencing busloads of people from Tāmaki taking kaimoana and breaching the rāhui. We need to share the message across all communities – including our Asian communities, some of whom have been flouting the rāhui – to respect the rāhui. The shellfish are in a critical state and what is happening is unsustainable and devastating the populations. With the fast-track approvals bill, the moana and whenua will be at further risk of seabed mining and deep sea oil drilling. In the morning, we met Todd from Taranaki iwi who led us on a beach clean up where we found plastic bottles, nets, ropes from the boats at sea and tubing from the dairy farms carried there from the flooding among other random items. On the drive there we were surrounded by confiscated land turned into dairy farms. In the afternoon, we hung out at Parihaka pā where the māra is abundant with kai. Recently they supplied Te Matatini with nearly 2 tonnes of rīwai. Tuhi-Ao and Urs shared some of the stories from Parihaka and how they have been building spaces for community and alternatives to colonial relationships to land. They pointed out Rolleston Fort where the armed constabulary was stationed for the invasion of Parihaka. These soldiers were greeted with children offering food. Tuhi-Ao talked about how the colonisers would see this as a sign of weakness. But for them it was asserting their position as hosts and them as guests on the land, an assertion of their power. The people of Parihaka continue to do so through the work on the māra, a place for learning to grow kai, for community building, and for te reo Māori revitalisation where they have hosted numerous overseas visitors and Indigenous groups. For instance, they regularly host groups of Ainu people, Indigenous peoples from northern Japan, to learn from tangata whenua about language revitalisation efforts. Our hosts shared how in one part of the māra, where only te reo is allowed, the Ainu groups learnt to circumvent translation barriers and began communicating only in te reo Māori after 10 days! In the māra we learnt to dance the beans out of their shells, and winnow the beans and wheat by letting the wind carry the light husks out. We (think we) invented new ways to separate wheat grains from the stalks. After completing the tasks in the māra, we went to Putatuapō. This is where two ASTR members had visited 3 years ago to help plant harakeke with Tuhi-Ao. Since then, the harakeke have grown beautifully lush and thriving, sheltering more recently planted native tree seedlings from the wind. The three marae at Parihaka are closed for the year due to pā-wide infrastructure upgrades. We are grateful for the opportunity to strengthen and build relationships with mana whenua there and do work that takes care of the whenua. These communities of hope and resistance, material and tactile ways of learning, and friendships are increasingly critical in the midst of the growth of fascism and colonial violence. We look forward to more visits in the future.
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Greetings and messages in Malay, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Fiji-Hindi, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean & Punjabi! Learn about Te Tiriti o Waitangi in your language here.
In the 19th century, the settler colonial government imposed a poll tax on Chinese migrants entering Aotearoa. Māori MPs like Wiremu Te Wheoro spoke up in parliament opposing the racist, anti-Chinese legislation.
In the late 1800s, Parihaka men taken as prisoners of war to Ōtepoti defended Chinese mining settlements under attack from white supremacists. During the early 20th century, strong relationships developed between Māori and Indian hawkers in the Waikato, at a time when white supremacist groups were actively severing bonds of solidarity in Pukekohe. In 1902, the SS Ventnor sank off Hokianga harbour, carrying the remains of 499 Chinese goldminers being returned to their villages. Te Roroa and Te Rarawa have looked after the bones of these miners since their remains washed ashore. This Waitangi Day, we remind our Asian whānau of these incredible legacies of solidarity between Māori and Asian communities. Our lives here, as Asian tauiwi, are deeply intertwined with tangata whenua, for reasons that stretch far back into our histories. But in the midst of our government’s increased colonial assaults on Māori, and as we see nations and fascist powers intent on destroying Indigenous lives, land, and identities around the world, it is no longer enough to only know. We must organise. We must act. We must act against the concerted attempts to pull Asian communities in Aotearoa to support these political agendas that oppress Māori. We must act because our safety and collective strength does not come from white supremacists and those that maintain their structures. It can only come when we work with Māori for all of our liberation from these forces. We must act the way Māori did, when they stood alongside Asian activists leading demonstrations against neo-Nazis. The way Māori did when Racial Equity Aotearoa supported protests against the deportation of Indian international students. The way Māori did when Ngāti Whatua and Māori across the country showed love, care, and solidarity after the white supremacist terrorist attack on Muslims in Ōtautahi. The way Māori have been over the last 17 weeks, where Māori leadership have seen thousands of us stand, march and protest in solidarity with Palestine. Mai te awa ki te moana. As we witness all this, we understand that our liberation and our responsibility is not to untangle ourselves or to ‘stay out of it’. Like tangata whenua, we must see these threads not as traps but as connections, tying us closer to the global anti-colonial struggle that extend from Aotearoa to Asia. We must recognise that when David Seymour, like Don Brash, uses the same tired and boring narrative of “we are all New Zealanders” to undermine tino rangatiratanga, he is denying that New Zealand was built on top of unceded Māori land. When political parties attack Te Tiriti, they are denying that it is Te Tiriti that allowed tauiwi to be here. When they talk about so-called “Māori privilege”, they are trying to distract people from the reality of Pākehā privileges, privileges that come from global white supremacy. During these times where politicians are generating fear and confusion, trying to redefine Te Tiriti in the interests of the Crown and capital, we call on all Asian communities to remember:
Our call to action to our Asian whānau, organisations, communities and leaders:
We cannot be neutral or complicit in the face of further colonial attacks on Māori. As we continue to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, with Uyghurs, Tibetans, Kashmiris, West Papuans - and all Indigenous peoples in Asia or occupied by Asian states who have been experiencing ethnic cleansing and genocide, we must also always resist ongoing colonial attempts to deny mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga to Māori. Let’s remember the words of the late Dr. Moana Jack son: “The right to self-determination asserted by majority Indigenous populations in other countries is also the right of Māori. Human rights are never dependent on numbers but inherent in a person’s humanity.” - Dr. Moana Jackson Toitū Te Tiriti! |
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