Rahui Papa supports our Asian cousins

Rahui Papa - A representative of the maori kingitanga

Wetex Kang - Botany candidate for the Maori Party

Last month the Maori Party announced their first ever Asian Candidate to stand for the Party.

Party President Tuku Morgan said, “We share whakapapa [genealogies] with our relatives from Asia”. Some studies have indicated that modern day Taiwanese share DNA with Maori and Pacifica peoples.

Mr Morgan announced the candidacy of Wetex Kang, a NZ entrepreneur of Asian descent, to stand in the Botany General Electorate. Wetex can speak a number of Chinese dialects and can also understand Malay.

Rahui Papa, a Kingitanga spokesman and Maori Party candidate for the Hauraki-Waikato seat, remembers a tongikura [tribal saying] by the second Maori King – Tawhiao when he said ‘my friends will come from the four corners of the globe’ and that Tawhiao would ‘befriend all ethnicities’.

The Kingitanga has hosted and has been hosted by many Asian delegations both in Aotearoa and in their countries.

We have struck up a close and warm relationship with the Asian community, especially those who took up residence in Pukekohe, amongst other areas, in the early 1900’s. Since then Aotearoa – NZ has grown into a multicultural and ethnic diverse nation. The duty of manaakitanga [hospitality] is a core value for the Kingitanga and the Asian Community in turn respect the Tangata Whenua or indigenous people of Aotearoa.

“We are aligned in our cultural values, our vowel pronunciation is very similar”. After the recent Dragon – Taniwha Conference hosted by Ngaati Kahungunu, even the aspirations for commercial development are aligned.

“I welcome Wetex as the Maaori Party Candidate for Botany” I wish him well as he campaigns to further all communities of Aotearoa within the values and aspirations of the Maaori Party.

Ka toro atu ngaa ringa ki waho o te moana, hei piriti mai moo te aroha.
I reach my hands out across the ocean, a bridge for compassion and respect.

ENDS

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