Ikaroa-Rawhiti breakdown

I've posted my preliminary analysis of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection at The Daily Blog: 

Labour’s revival has been limp. After losing four seats in 2005 and another in 2008, Labour has regained one (Te Tai Tonga in 2011). Ikaroa-Rawhiti was and is a Labour seat. Its retention isn’t surprising. In 2008 – off of the back of the Urewera raids and the foreshore and seabed – Labour secured 57% of the party vote in. In 2011 – the same year the party’s national vote reached a historic low – Labour secured 50% of the party vote in Ikaroa-Rawhiti. 

In that context, 42% of the candidate vote is not exceptional.

You can read the entire piece here.

Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection coverage

Maori TV will be live streaming their coverage of the byelection from 7.00pm to 9.40pm. Follow the link.

Both Q+A (TV One) and The Nation (TV3) will cover the results on Sunday morning.

The Daily Blog is aiming to call the winner around 7.00pm. Follow their Twitter feed.

And lastly, I'll be following the results too. Follow my Twitter feed here. Depending on how hungover I am, I'll write preliminary analysis tomorrow. If not, I'll publish my full analysis on Monday at The Daily Blog.

Note: if you want to leave a comment, I won't publish it until after 7pm (to avoid breaking election rules).   

Kua hinga he totara i te wao nui a Tane

This post originally appeared at The Daily Blog. 

The Hon. Parekura Horomia and PM Helen Clark

He called everyone chief: “hey chief”, “oi chief” and “shut up chief”. From the Prime Minister to the lads at the freezing works, everyone was a chief.

Born in 1950 to an ariki line, Parekura Horomia grew up Mangatuna. He was a fencer, a shearer, a scrub-cutter, a printer, a bureaucrat and an MP. Parekura never forgot who he was or where he came from. A staunch union man, a serious farmer and and a strong advocate for female speakers on the paepae, Parekura covered it all. He had (literally) a big heart – from his curls to his tiny feet – the man had time for everyone.

Parekura gave me my first job. Every morning he’d turn up at 9am, I’d hand him his mail and he’d shuffle into his office. He’d read it, he’d call people and then he’d yell “chief, chief”. I’d stroll into his office not entirely sure whether I’d be on the receiving end of a growling or a story. Most times it was a story. He’d sit me down and ask two things: where do you live and who do you live with. He liked to know those sorts of things. I’d tell him I live in Thorndon with seven mates. He wouldn’t say anything, but he’d reach for his wallet and pull out a note – it was my lunch money. It was his way of saying that he worries that I’m not eating. Being a student I think he thought I was living in poverty. That might have even being the reason he offered me a job in the first place. I’m not sure. It was hard to get a straight answer out of him; he was a politician’s politician.

Little known fact: Parekura was also a man of faith. He didn’t talk much about it – I never heard him mention it – but I knew it was there from what other people had said. I think that’s where he drew much of his generosity from. He was also from the old Maori world. He had a different code of honour and I know that he worried about being one of the last to have seen full paepae, one of the last to have seen ancient tikanga and so on. That’s the last thing he told me: he was one of the last. I think that worried him and made him happy in equal measure. He was the last to know the old ways, but also one of the last to suffer the open injustices of colonial New Zealand.

I don’t think my experiences with Parekura are uncommon. Across the motu people have their own Parekura stories. He treated everyone with the same generosity, kindness and respect. From his colleagues to his staff. From his people on the coast to Maori across the country. I don’t think we’ll see another Parekura Horomia in Maori politics. He transcended the conflict that comes with being fiercely Maori, but he also dodged the conflict that came with the foreshore and seabed and other acts of injustice. Such was the respect Maori and many New Zealanders had for the man.

The debate about his political legacy will be mixed, but the time isn't now. Now is the time to reflect on his personal legacy. One of the last Maori statesmen.

Moe mai ra e te rangatira, moe mai ra e hoa ma. Rest easy Chief.

The latest from The Daily Blog

Here's a link to my latest post at The Daily Blog. The post tackles Simon Bridges' decision to criminalise offshore protest and discusses how that decision is a triumph of neoliberlism.

"We’re sailing in dangerous territory when the government is prepared to extend the criminal law to protect economic rights, and the economic rights of foreign companies at that, and supress social and political rights. It’s dangerously authoritarian because the criminal law is at the heart of the state’s coercive power. Usually, criminalising dissent signals a drowning order."

Reclaiming names, redneck in Palmy and the Treaty at TDB

It’s not renaming, it’s acknowledging the original names

New Zealanders might be the passionless people. After all, our main islands are named the North Island and the South Island. That says, er, interesting things about the national character. 

After receiving proposals for a name change, the New Zealand Geographic Board is going to “publicly consult on proposals to formally assign official alternative names”. The usual suspects are apoplectic, but they’re misrepresenting the issue. Key words: consult, proposals, alternative. The board’s changes will mean that the North Island and South Island is interchangeable with Te Ika-a-Maui and Te Waipounamu.

This is hardly radical; the islands carried those names for centuries and remain in informal use. Like QoT says, we’re changing the names back not giving new ones. And Marty Mars is right to advocate for the formal restoration of the indigenous names because” they mean something, they have context”. Not radical. Half of the country (if not more) is named in Maori: From Kaitaia to Rakuira, from Remuera to Waimakariri. 26 US states have their names derived from Native American languages (i.e. more than half) and Hawai’i is (obviously) from Ōlelo Hawaiʻi (the indigenous language). Many Australian place names retain their original names while other places retain names derived from Aboriginal languages too.

This is becoming a theme of my writing and feels redundant, but it demands repetition: reclaiming indigenous names doesn't make New Zealand an outlier, to some extent we already are. 

Foot in mouth:

From Stuff:

A suggestion by a Palmerston North city councillor that Maori women be sterilised to stop them smoking in front of their children has outraged councillors and Maori health advocates. 

The comment drew a shocked response from other councillors, and he quickly said he was not advocating the idea.

He also said it was not something he would say to the media.

Repeat: “he also said it was not something he would say to the media”. In other words, I’d say it and sing it in like-minded company. If Councillor Wilson realised how repugnant and inappropriate his comment was shouldn’t he have said that he wouldn’t say it to neither the media nor anyone else? Privately, Wilson will retain his racist views, but cover his redneck in public. Like Marty Mars (who's in terrific form) says, Wilson’s justifications really “mean keeping his private thoughts to himself rather than spewing them in public”. Wilson won’t let the façade slip so easily again, but the ingrained superiority complex will remain.   

Also see QoT (who's in superb form).

The Treaty at The Daily Blog

Here's the link to my latest post at TDB.

we’re expected to keep to our agreements – governments are no different. The Treaty doesn’t have a time lapse, an out clause or a guarantee that rednecks have the right to make post-facto decisions about its moral and legal force. The Treaty was created, offered and accepted under the assumption that it would bind the Crown and Maori. It’s a basic question of human decency and the rule of law: if men and women are held to their agreements, shouldn’t society and governments be expected to do the same? If anything, society and governments should be held to a far, far higher standard.

April Fools

A bit late, but see The Chur button. Did anyone fall for it?

  

Latest from the Daily Blog

My latest post for the Daily Blog went live this morning. It's titled What the New Zealand Left must learn from Obama.

Taking the heat out of the Maori radical movement? (and Putahi)

You can take a look at my first post for the Daily Blog here. I couldn't spend nearly as much time crafting the post as I'd have liked (it's the first week of uni and other stuff is getting in the way), but the overall point remains. Are Court decisions taking the heat out of the Maori radical movement? Debate here.

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On a side note, Putahi is screening on Maori TV. Hosted by Precious Clark, Putahi is a panel show exploring and debating issues important to Maori. The show screens every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until the end of April. I featured on an episode discussing political engagement among Maori. It airs next week. It was, I think, one of the most interesting panel discussion I've had. The other panelists were Helen Te Hira and Jeremy Lambert. Speaking about TV, I've also filmed two episodes with Think Tank. Think Tank screens on TV3 and is hosted by John Tamihere. I featured on a customary rights episode and a Maori politics episode. Again, two of the more interesting panel discussions I've had. Think Tank screens later this year.

The Daily Blog, Native Affairs and Rongoa

The Daily Blog

I'm excited to be part of the Daily Blog - a congregation of "weak, stupid, effeminate, erectile dysfunctional, naïve, apologist, namby-pamby, thumb-sucking, lefty pinko fantasy-land moron [sic]". Note that that's meant as a compliment and a sign of affection.

In Bomber's words

TheDailyBlog.co.nz will bring together 30 of the best left-wing bloggers and progressive opinion shapers in NZ all onto one site to critique the news, the media, and politics to provide the other side of the story.

The first challenge is to build a community. The first step in that challenge is easy - bring together a community of bloggers and their readers. The second step is harder - build a community of readers and commenters from outside of the leftwing blogosphere. I'm optimistic about that.

Native Affairs 

I'm sure most of you know, but for those that don't Julian Wilcox (the country's best news and current affairs presenter) is the new head of news and current affairs at Maori TV. His replacement on Native is Mihingarangi Forbes. She's a great addition to the strongest line-up in current affairs. Julian had a hypnotic voice and manner. He could lull guests into a false sense of security and hit them. Mihi is more combative - witness her demolition of Alasdair Thompson. I'm looking forward to it. The show returns March 11 at 8.30pm.


Winston has a go at Rongoa Maori

Winston's back up to his old tricks:

Rongoa Māori is under attack from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who says the Health Ministry is shelling out almost $2 million a year supporting traditional healers without any monitoring or accountability.

$2m is peanuts in the context of Vote Health's $14b appropriation. In other words, Rongoa Maori funding accounts for about 0.01% of the Health budget. The Silver Fox isn't really concerned about an unaccountable $2m, it's the idea of unaccountable Maori money. Although, there should be accountability for any and all taxpayer money, but that isn't to diminish the place of Rongoa Maori - even if it were only operating as a placebo.