Multiple campaigns declare crisis for Māori rights
New Zealand’s Indigenous rights record is being called to
account from
numerous campaigns following weeks of
flashpoints around the nation.
Campaign leaders are
citing a lack of government leadership and
protection
around Māori land alienation, state removal of
children,
and water pollution as indications that the
Māori nation are “under
threat from the deeply
entrenched colonial racism of the New
Zealand
government”.
At Auckland’s Ihumātao,
local Māori descendants and their supporters
continue
their occupation of lands in opposition to
government
eviction for a proposed housing development.
Tensions have increased
as police escalated their
activity on the site in spite of a
consistently peaceful
approach by the movement. Local leader Pania
Newton says
these new developments have eroded the trust and
good
faith in the process. A national day of action for
Ihumātao has seen
protests and community expressions of
solidarity across the country.
Kelly Klink from Aotea
(Great Barrier Island) has highlighted that
the
government’s lack of leadership is not only
impacting upon human and
land rights, but also water
rights. Earlier this year, despite
widespread opposition
from local Māori, the Environmental Protection
Authority
(EPA), granted a large corporation consent to dump
250,000
cubic meters of toxic marine sludge off the coast
of Aotea, a move
that has resulted in largescale protests
in the Auckland CBD.
“This is an abuse of our
fundamental rights including the right of
free prior and
informed consent when big corporations dump toxic
waste
in our moana - it will cause irreparable harm to
our beautiful marine
environment which our people have
relied upon for countless
generations” says
Klink.
The Ihumātao and Aotea uprisings accompany further
nationwide protests
last week regarding the excessive
state removal of Māori children from
homes and abuse
while in state care. ‘Hands Off Our Tamariki’
Campaign
organisers Leonie Pihama, Paora Crawford-Moyle &
Rihi Te Nana have
highlighted the United Nations
definition of genocide, which includes
the forceable
transfer of children from one group to another,
and
described this ongoing issue as New Zealand’s
“Stolen Generation”.
Dr Pihama notes:
“We were
told in 2016 that a change in legislation would make
Child
Youth and Family (CYFs) more accountable to Māori
for their absolute
incompetency in supporting our people,
yet there continues to be a
denial by the government of
the need for significant change to be
made.”
Last
week’s nationwide protests were spearheaded by a rally
in
Wellington which included a large march to Parliament
steps to deliver
an Open Letter with over 17,000
signatures to the Government calling
for an end to the
forced removal of Māori children. It also
highlights
that Māori are continually stifled by
government legislation, limited
resourcing and structural
racism.
The connections across these campaigns is
recognised by Dr Pihama:
“What we see is a government
that has said it is committed to the
Treaty but fails to
make any meaningful engagement with critical
issues such
as Ihumātao, Aotea, or the destruction of our
children’s
lives by its own Ministry. There is too
much denial and defensiveness
over the past months by
this government, as was the case with the
previous
National government. There continues to be a denial
of
fundamental Treaty rights to do with our whanau, our
lands, our seas,
everything. Hands Off Our Tamariki
voices our solidarity with all
Māori and Indigenous
Nations that are standing in protection of sacred
places,
sacred spaces, sacred future generations.”
Tina Ngata,
spokesperson for the Kia Mau campaign opposing the
2019
anniversary celebrations of Captain Cook’s arrival
notes that these
are clear examples of why the events are
an inappropriate and
insensitive investment by this
government: “We were promised a kind
and progressive
government under Jacinda Ardern, but these
multiple
flashpoints amount to a nation in crisis. The
deeply entrenched
colonial racism of the New Zealand
government presents an ongoing
threat to our lands,
waters, and to us as a people. It’s appalling
and
insulting that the government would pump tens of
millions of dollars
into celebrating our “dual
heritage” whilst continuing the Imperial
project of
Indigenous dispossession and genocide. This
all
demonstrates clearly how far away this government is
from truly
appreciating the depth of the issues we need
to address before we can
even claim basic respect for our
human, environmental and Indigenous
rights, let alone any
semblance of bicultural harmony or
political
kindness.”