Research

The only way to fix the system is to get Māori in on it – give us the money and genuine leadership to do these things. Not just tick the boxes.

There’s people from the Crown have gone around to the Iwi and asked forgiveness. It needs to be the PM at that time to go around and try to unite. I don’t know how they would do it, but it needs to come from the top, not from a flunky half-way down the ladder. The Iwi from the top need to all get together. I’ve seen other Iwi, inter-fight in their own group, one person is jealous of this person who’s got a piece of land and they try to manipulate the Treaty. And you’ve got the European coming in and try to buy the land. Before Europeans came Māori owned 100% of the land, now it’s 6% if that. Their mana has been robbed, this is why we’ve got problems in this country. That would be with any indigenous place, Aborigines, Native Americans.

How do we engage Māori as Māori? We look at Māori history and what we can do to bring it in for social justice. We went to different symposiums to try to shift the thinking away from mainstream because it wasn’t working for our kids.

The world is top and everything is underneath it. The whole thing about kaupapa, family and extended family – my friend s are my family and my family are in the UK. Around Māori – why don’t we all do this more and we look at the euro centric way but it’s so backward and colonised and it doesn’t work.

I’d like to have some type of Māori governance. Māori government.

The current constitution needs to change to a tikanga/ Te Ao Māori model. But people need to change before this change is possible. Decentralisation of Government and the creation of genuine treaty partnerships to enable this is also needed. Allow mana motuhake to occur by enabling and empowering Iwi,hapu and whanau to govern themselves and their wider communities (non Māori included).

They killed our people in 1847. From the clothes shop on the corner used to be swamp. It was a blood bath. Soldiers came to my land. We have a voice, you’re not letting us speak. Māori health, Māori education, Māori doctors, I want a facility at top of town for Māori, so we can be treated with mana.

Our Westminster [system] has to go. Constitutional change would be everything. Not a dual system, not a semi-Westminster system. A te ao Māori way of doing things. A lot of migrants relate to our culture, our treatment of people, our value of whakapapa like others do. I live and breathe a lot of legislation in my work. I know if we make these changes, it would be really hard, what works for Māori works for all. If we could move to a model that would be a tikanga Māori approach, it would be better, realistic, holistic, mana for all. Not living the dream but a step in the right direction. Dont’ know if that would ever happen knowing the people I work with, they hold on to the current system. They think they will miss out, white males would apparently miss out moving to a tikanga approach.

The current constitution needs to change to a tikanga/ Te Ao Māori model. But people need to change before this change is possible. Decentralisation of Government and the creation of genuine treaty partnerships to enable this is also needed. Allow mana motuhake to occur by enabling and empowering Iwi,hapu and whanau to govern themselves and their wider communities (non Māori included).

Our Westminster [system] has to go. Constitutional change would be everything. Not a dual system, not a semi-Westminster system. A te ao Māori way of doing things. A lot of migrants relate to our culture, our treatment of people, our value of whakapapa like others do. I live and breathe a lot of legislation in my work. I know if we make these changes, it would be really hard, what works for Māori works for all. If we could move to a model that would be a tikanga Māori approach, it would be better, realistic, holistic, mana for all. Not living the dream but a step in the right direction. Dont’ know if that would ever happen knowing the people I work with, they hold on to the current system. They think they will miss out, white males would apparently miss out moving to a tikanga approach.

I’d like to have some type of Māori governance. Māori government.

Tino rangatiratanga is really important. At the moment we’ve got our Pākehā way of doing things. Constitutional transformation is essential. The Pākehā system needs to come down, and we all need to know that we are all on Māori land, we are manuhiri.

Change our governments, get rid of what we’ve got in power. First and foremost, we need to unite all the iwis. All Māori need to unite first, at the moment they’re all inter-fighting as well. They need to unite so we can work together as a country. I’ve seen the pain in our groups, the worst is Black Power, they see the white man is our greater enemy. But the white man needs to understand the culture. I’ve seen the racism from both sides on Facebook, it’s horrid.

One of the concerns I have, there is talk at Otago medical school of cutting back on Māori students. We need to have representation of our communities, we need to see that diversity. Inclusivity isn’t about including people, it’s about the legal frameworks and being able to give people the equal education opportunities and equal employment opportunities. That has to be much more strengthened.

I think Te Tiriti and Matike Mai, the new constitution, offers a lot of potential.

It’s cool that people are talking about it now. We need a total deconstruction of government. We need to go back to Te Tiriti and value the people. At the moment there’s a lot of people who have no access to land and that is wrong. (still tearful). It blows my mind how ignorant and naïve I’ve been my whole life and it’s taken ‘til now to know.

The only way to fix the system is to get Māori in on it – give us the money and genuine leadership to do these things. Not just tick the boxes.

There’s people from the Crown have gone around to the Iwi and asked forgiveness. It needs to be the PM at that time to go around and try to unite. I don’t know how they would do it, but it needs to come from the top, not from a flunky half-way down the ladder. The Iwi from the top need to all get together. I’ve seen other Iwi, inter-fight in their own group, one person is jealous of this person who’s got a piece of land and they try to manipulate the Treaty. And you’ve got the European coming in and try to buy the land. Before Europeans came Māori owned 100% of the land, now it’s 6% if that. Their mana has been robbed, this is why we’ve got problems in this country. That would be with any indigenous place, Aborigines, Native Americans.

The problem is they [Māori] have lived with 6 and 7 generations of land being taken away, being oppressed, being held down. If I could have a wish, it would be to remove the ancestral burden that they feel they can’t succeed and if there’s anything to do to remove that hurt, I would like to see that healing and that their right to the land, their authority, be respected. To take away the hurt so they feel free to participate and engage. I think a lot of people like that feel they can’t engage or participate fully.

We probably get at least a 70% success rate [from the men's programme]. The ones forced to come through, we try, but if they’re not willing to change then nothing’s going to work for them. Because we see predominantly Māori, the biggest thing is colonisation. The European not honouring what the Treaty is, or misrepresenting what it should be. If Māori do well, the country will do well. That’s one of the slogans I’ve seen floating around of late. I’m not Māori, but I do relate to them. That’s one of the biggest things needed to sort, then Māori will have belonging in their own country.

[in regards to entering a workforce] induction, but that is led by Māori and about the values compass and what honouring Te Tiriti, when they go back into workplace, these are decision makers, they run specialisms and Human Resources, if you do that properly, these people go back to the way they do their job from the moment they start. This may create as much value for young people by mentality shift here. That increases profitability.

There’s people from the Crown have gone around to the Iwi and asked forgiveness. It needs to be the PM at that time to go around and try to unite. I don’t know how they would do it, but it needs to come from the top, not from a flunky half-way down the ladder. The Iwi from the top need to all get together. I’ve seen other Iwi, inter-fight in their own group, one person is jealous of this person who’s got a piece of land and they try to manipulate the Treaty. And you’ve got the European coming in and try to buy the land. Before Europeans came Māori owned 100% of the land, now it’s 6% if that. Their mana has been robbed, this is why we’ve got problems in this country. That would be with any indigenous place, Aborigines, Native Americans.

The only way to fix the system is to get Māori in on it – give us the money and genuine leadership to do these things. Not just tick the boxes.

Have information accessible to people. The education system is the place to start, from early childhood on, with NZ history in the curriculum, that’s a start. Te reo needs to become compulsory, so te reo Māori is normalized. Make a concerted effort to change our education system, it would make a big difference.

You can see why Māori today are affected because in the 1800s their land was taken, their rights were denied. I can see why it is the way it is now, but how do you change it? I can’t change someone’s DNA, but I can change the way I respond to people.

If you look at the medical council register, 1% of NZ people who get paid to be doctors happen to have Māori whakapapa. The fellows at Otago, when they made it more possible for Māori or Pacific to enter, they thought they were doing the right thing, when you let the same proportion of people in as the NZ population, but that’s not closing the gap. Matiu Rata [talked about] closing the gaps. It took off in Australia.

Don’t belong to the government. You can feel our sensitivity and our feelings. Our own [Māori] politicians are not catering to us. They go and join the beast.