Hone Harawira: Paul Holmes, Maori have plenty to protest
Paul Holmes' column in Saturday'sWeekend Herald was a nasty article from somebody who must have known it would hurt a lot of people. It was mean and mean-spirited. It was deliberately offensive and uncaring, and though he might claim that it was written to spark debate, at the end of the day it was just mean and nasty.
The way he writes it, Maori have no right to protest on Waitangi Day. We should be full of happy, happy, joy, joy.
"You know what I mean Hori - like back in the 60s when you Maoris were all so happy! Remember? When you could all play the guitar, and you all sang in such beautiful harmony, and smiled a lot, and drove trucks and bulldozers, and nobody talked about the Treaty, and none of you ever complained about anything. Why can't you be like that again?"
Well ... the world has moved on quite a bit since those days, but one thing that hasn't changed that much is protest, and in case you didn't know it Mr Holmes, Maori have been protesting at Waitangi for quite some time.Yes, there were protests at Waitangi this year, but did you know Mr Holmes, that there were protests at Waitangi in 1840 ... before they even signed the Treaty!
What? What on earth could they have had to protest about back then, I hear you say?
Well, a lot of our tupuna seriously doubted that the Governor and his cronies could be trusted, that's why. Ring a bell, Mr Holmes?
And quite a lot of them thought that Pakeha just wanted to steal our land.
And they didn't think a treaty would stop untrustworthy Pakeha traders from pushing gut-rot alcohol into Maori communities.
And they didn't think a treaty could make dirty, stinking, Pakeha whalers, sailors, thieves and brigands wash more than three times a year.
And some of my tupuna didn't like the nasty way that early Europeans treated Maori kids - you know, telling them to get out of the way, telling them to shut up, hitting them ...
And some of them were protesting because they thought that Pakeha only wanted a treaty to stall for time while they brought their military in to steal what they couldn't get honestly. Ring a bell Mr Holmes?
You see Mr Holmes, back in 1840, Maori owned the whole of Aotearoa, and although life wasn't exactly a bunch of roses, we had strong and vibrant societies dotted all round the country, until you guys introduced the gun, the Bible and the pox of course, and wreaked havoc and devastation like we'd never seen before.
So perhaps you can understand, Mr Holmes, that 172 years ago Maori weren't exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of signing a deal with an empire that had already signed and broken treaties all around the world.
But we did, and the record suggests that our tupuna did so for all the right reasons - to protect their lands and their forests and their rivers and their resources, and to provide a solid future for their mokopuna.
But things didn't quite work out that way did they? That's why we have a Treaty settlement process, with all its flaws and its failings and expectations, on both sides.
But Mr Holmes, did you know that iwi must accept that their Treaty settlements are full and final even though they're not even allowed to claim land that was actually stolen?
And can you explain why the Government is okay bailing out a failed (Pakeha) finance company down south to the tune of $1.7 billion, but doesn't want to pay Maori more than $1.4 billion for 63 million acres of dubiously acquired land and resources worth tens of billions of dollars?
When you stack the facts up like that, it's not hard to see that there's not a lot to make Maori want to smile and clap is there Mr Holmes?
And yes, life isn't just about the Treaty (even though your article was all about Waitangi Day).
Maori are also part of the broader fabric of our society. But did you know Mr Holmes, that in terms of health, welfare, education, employment, housing and justice, Maori statistics are still worse than everyone else in the country?
Not exactly something to wave pom-poms at is it? Those are just the facts Mr Holmes, but Waitangi Day is more than just facts.
So I'd also like you to know that along with a whole lot of other people (Maori and Pakeha), I enjoy going to Waitangi every year.
I enjoy the company, I enjoy the politics (both the Maori stuff and the Pakeha stuff), I enjoy the banter, I enjoy the people (both Maori and Pakeha), I enjoy having the kuia tell me they love me even when they're telling me off, I enjoy watching the kids playing sport, I enjoy the kapa haka groups, I enjoy the kai, I enjoy the march up to the top marae, I enjoy the church service, I enjoy seeing people I haven't seen in a while, I enjoy the occasion ... and yes Mr Holmes, I even enjoy the protest, because protest is every bit a part of Waitangi as anything else.
Waitangi Day is our National Day Mr Holmes. It is rightly commemorated in many different ways in many different parts of the country, but it was at Waitangi that a group of people chose to sign a Treaty that was to be the foundation of our nation, and it is to Waitangi that we rightly return every year to see how well we're doing.
It's not always going to be strawberries and cream, but it will always be a part of who we are.
Maybe I'll see you up there next year, Mr Holmes.
* MP Hone Harawira is the leader of the Mana Party.
Comments
Keith Smith ()
08:11 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Holmes is right Hone. Protest is negative, self serving and solves nothing. You are in a position to show better leadership to our people, so wake up and get yourself and your constituents sleeves rolled up to improve their life. Like everyone else in the world who is doing well has done!
Old but true saying: if you keep doing what you've always done - you'll keep getting what you've always got!
864 likes
RIKRIK10 (Mt Eden)
08:10 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Paul Holmes was spot on. Hone needs to look to the future. The world has changed and he and his ilk need to get on the bus and move on.
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Henry Smith ()
08:11 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Dear Hone. You imply Mr Holmes article is unbalanced. You on the other hand are an extremely well balanced individual. A chip on both shoulders!
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AK (Newmarket)
08:13 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
A gracious, magnanimous and eloquent response to Holmes' hateful, bigoted railings. I am so ashamed of Paul Holmes as a fellow Pakeha and want to point out that most (or at least many) of us are reasonable, compassionate, intelligent individuals who treat others properly. We're not like him.
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Dave (Wellington)
08:11 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Hone I seldom agree with you, but you are right. Paul Holmes' column was a shameful rant. Fact is a whole bunch of productive land was stolen. If some foreign country stole all of NZ's land now, and then waited 150 years to offer a small fraction back as 'full and final' settlement and then said "get over it we are equal now" I'd still be p*****. Time passing doesn't make the crime go away.
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Fa (Manukau City)
08:13 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
I have the same question that seems to pop up every Waitangi day. As a fellow Maori who has nearly completed a Science degree at University I fail to see how is it that one particular family is disadvantaged in any way compared to another family.
I worked extremely hard to get to where I am right now and I'd like to think it was my hard work that got me here rather than favouritism in our education system. When I read articles like this I feel as if my accomplishments are being somewhat debased.
I worked extremely hard to get to where I am right now and I'd like to think it was my hard work that got me here rather than favouritism in our education system. When I read articles like this I feel as if my accomplishments are being somewhat debased.
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kaz ()
08:27 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
I'm from Scotland, you won't hear Scots banging on about the Norwegians invading or the Highland clearances. I don't expect someone in London to compensate me for what their great grandparents may or may not have done to my great grandparents. Land has been stolen and stolen again for centuries all over the world. Where would we be if everyone sought reparation payments? Hone, your greed and hatred is destroying this country.
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klem39 (Auckland Region)
08:19 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
"Maori are also part of the broader fabric of our society. But did you know Mr Holmes, that in terms of health, welfare, education, employment, housing and justice, Maori statistics are still worse than everyone else in the country?"
Then why is that 5 years after I arrived here, with a pregnant wife and no friends or money, I had put a deposit on a house? Like a lot of other arrivals who also work hard and become part of our community. We never expected a hand out, subsidized house, or blamed history for our kids being sick or in jail. Many Maori are the same. So get yourselves into gear and use the money you have to help all Maori raise their standard.
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westy (New Zealand)
08:11 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Holmes's article was cheap and nasty and not worthy of this paper. His star has faded and he should retire gracefully while there is still respect for him.
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Pat Timothy ()
08:10 AM Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
Shot Hone! I was up there recently for a holiday to take my wife and children for the first time, and even my wife said it was such a peaceful place at the upper Marae but she also felt the spiritual undertones of the Marae itself and understood there was something there that wasn't right, and I told her just to look around the place, it wreaks of Pakeha abuse and wealth, and my wife and I are NZ born Samoans from West Ak, so protest and keep them honest.
The Paul Holmes article
Waitangi Day a complete waste
It's time to cancel our repugnant national holiday
Waitangi Day produced its usual hatred, rudeness, and violence against a clearly elected Prime Minister from a group of hateful, hate-fuelled weirdos who seem to exist in a perfect world of benefit provision. This enables them to blissfully continue to believe that New Zealand is the centre of the world, no one has to have a job and the Treaty is all that matters.
I'm over Waitangi Day. It is repugnant. It's a ghastly affair. As I lie in bed on Waitangi morning, I know that later that evening, the news will show us irrational Maori ghastliness with spitting, smugness, self-righteousness and the usual neurotic Maori politics, in which some bizarre new wrong we've never thought about will be lying on the table.
This, we will have to address and somehow apply these never-defined principles of the Treaty of Waitangi because it is, apparently, the next big resentment. There'll be lengthy discussion, we'll end up paying the usual millions into the hands of the Maori aristocracy and God knows where it'll go from there.
Well, it's a bullshit day, Waitangi. It's a day of lies. It is loony Maori fringe self-denial day. It's a day when everything is addressed, except the real stuff.
Never mind the child stats, never mind the national truancy stats, never mind the hopeless failure of Maori to educate their children and stop them bashing their babies. No, it's all the Pakeha's fault. It's all about hating whitey. Believe me, that's what it looked like the other day.
John Key speaks bravely about going there again. He should not go there again. It's over. Forget it. It is too awful and nasty and common. It is no more New Zealand day than Halloween.
Our national day is now Anzac Day. Anzac Day is a day of honour, and struggle, bravery and sacrifice. A day on which we celebrate the periods when our country embraced great efforts for international freedom and on which we weep for those who served and for those who died.
I wouldn't take my three great uncles who died at Gallipoli and in France - Reuben, Mathew and Leonard - to Waitangi Day and expect them to believe this was our national day. I wouldn't take my father, veteran of El Alamein and Cassino, there. Nor would I take my Uncle Ken who died in a Wellington bomber, then try and tell him Waitangi Day was anything but filth.
No, if Maori want Waitangi Day for themselves, let them have it. Let them go and raid a bit more kai moana than they need for the big, and feed themselves silly, speak of the injustices heaped upon them by the greedy Pakeha and work out new ways of bamboozling the Pakeha to come up with a few more millions.
When you start doing talkback or any kind of opinion broadcasting in New Zealand you learn that certain groups are loony, highly vocal, highly organised and they never rest. The second looniest are the anti-fluoride crowd. But leave them aside for today.
The looniest crowd in this country, the most irrational and bullying are La Leche, the breast feeding fascists who've become involved in the most bizarre controversy I can remember. Breast feeding is all they think about.
The row actually started with Piri Weepu filming a public health commercial in which he's seen bottle-feeding his daughter who has an allergy to dairy and the message is that she will grow up in a non-smoking house. That was the message, for God's sake. And it's a nice image. Dad, an All Black hero, Maori of the Year, bottle-feeding his little girl.
Many mothers would have appreciated seeing a baby being bottle-fed. Others appreciated that it showed a man involved in an intense part of nurturing baby. One or two mothers came forward this week and spoke about how they've been monstered by bullying women in supermarkets who berated them for buying formula.
Most mothers want to breast feed, I'm sure. No one disputes this. Some simply can't. And in the case of Piri's little girl, she can't handle dairy. But the hysterics saw a man, a bottle and a baby and were about to erupt. Never mind the positives, the non-smoking household, the All Black tenderly feeding his little girl. There was man and a baby and a bottle and it was the crime of the century.
Take it off, screamed La Leche, obviously. And suddenly the segment disappeared. The chief executive of the Health Sponsorship Council, which made the ad, is Iain Potter. Mr Potter says the council received overwhelming opposition to the bottle-feeding clip.
I bet it did. And I bet I know who from. Iain Potter should show some common sense, grow some balls, and learn to stand up to a highly organised band of intolerant people.
Overseas, just to change the subject and keep an elegant internationalism in the column, can you believe Russia's and China's intransigence at the United Nations Security Council on the matter of Syria?
So now Syria will grind on in broken, abject misery for the rest of the year until they shoot the despot.
I can't figure old rat-face Bashir. He must know that he's going the way of Gaddafi, with a refuge in a filthy sewer pipe for a while before the bullet in the head, being towed backwards through the streets to public display in a meat locker.
He's married to a very beautiful British woman, Bashir, a real English rose. One report suggested she and her family had tried to leave Syria last week but the convoy had been seen and turned back.
She must know what's coming. Armageddon is what's coming. One dreads to imagine what they'll do to her pretty face.
Comments
ABs ()
03:44 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
Paul, I completely agree - I am moving back to NZ with my foreign born wife, and while I'm excited to show her our country, I am deeply ashamed that 'New Zealand Day' is this disgraceful white-bashing event. I'm not sure how to tell her yet that as a white person she will be subject to this politically endorsed racism, regardless of her own personal character and nature or family history. Worse, how do I tell her that our daughter will be a second-class citizen in our home? It's time the NZ psyche moved on from this foolishness, the PC thing is very 90s and 2000s. The 150-year-old-victim gravy-train needs to end so that NZ can move forward.
253 likes
Too_Much (Waikato)
03:34 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
As a half Maori,half European I agree 100% with your comments Paul,I am so over this Waitangi day .
Unfortunately the very weak John Key doesn't see it this way although there were protesters from occupy Auckland there.John Key prefers to put up with the abuse & it should be mentioned that there were armed gang members that were stopped from going anywhere near there.
Time for a united national New Zealand day & boycott Waitangi.
Unfortunately the very weak John Key doesn't see it this way although there were protesters from occupy Auckland there.John Key prefers to put up with the abuse & it should be mentioned that there were armed gang members that were stopped from going anywhere near there.
Time for a united national New Zealand day & boycott Waitangi.
241 likes
Not a fan of Len Brown (Glenfield)
03:44 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
WOW!
Some strong words there!
Glad someone at the Herald has the balls to say what a lot of us think.
Some strong words there!
Glad someone at the Herald has the balls to say what a lot of us think.
224 likes
phil davids ()
03:43 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
The best commentary I have ever read from Paul. You have absolutely hit the bulls eye with these statements. I hope they shake a few people up.
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Machiavelli (Waitakere City)
03:45 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
I think this is the best thing Paul Holmes has ever written. Of course the PC brigade, who see some sort of self-serving hero status in defending perceived injustices, will be jumping up and down.
But damn if this isn't the truth. The time we actually get on with being one New Zealand will be when we shed what is holding us back. It's like trying to box with one hand tied behind your back.
But damn if this isn't the truth. The time we actually get on with being one New Zealand will be when we shed what is holding us back. It's like trying to box with one hand tied behind your back.
208 likes
LJ (Upper Hutt)
03:42 PM Saturday, 11 Feb 2012
Paul, I would suggest you have encapsulated the feelings of the majority of New Zealanders in your article. It is a shame it has come to this. Most maori I know can't stand the bunch of "red necks" in Northland. I deliberately say "red necks" because their attitudes reflect that group. However, unfortunately there was also your usual bunch of emotionally driven, misguided, white folk, who are guilt ridden that they are white and middle class. The Breast feeding zealots did make fools of themselves and out their cause back considerably in NZ. Zealots, people without balance in their lives, make these types of ill conceived stands. I, like you, have a considerable amount of time for Piri. He is what we want men to be, manly, but sensitive, his family is the centre of his life, he enjoys life and is unaffected by his success. Well done with the article.
206 likes
Barry Eastwood (New Zealand)
We have decided as a family that this Waitangi Day was the last we would try to celebrate as a special day. The goodwill our family has tried to extend to Maori and the conscious effort to understand their place in our society has also come to an end. Until there is a change in behaviour and a willingness to take responsibility for their own behaviour / problems we are not interested in their history or way of life.