Phil Green
The political atmosphere has heated up recently, with events in Kaipara attracting the attention of both the MSM and political columnists trying to bring some sense and propaganda into the debate over ‘How much are we owned by Maori interests’.
Quite a lot actually, if the sabre-rattling going on up north is any indication: https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/kaipara-district-council-does-another-u-turn-on-karakia/ar-AA15hdsc
At the heart of all discussions (or bullying – you decide), is the prevalence of a term I’d never heard in my 56 years as a New Zealand citizen: tikanga. My 81-year-old father, who grew up in a predominately Maori rural area and went to a largely Maori school said he too had never heard of the word tikanga.
Funny that, having been brought up around Maori and having Maori teachers, nobody back then ever thought to mention this magical word: the word that unlocks every doomsday scenario for Westerners, Europeans, Settlers (take your pick), when discussing anything with a Maori or Pakeha activist, who are quite interchangeable.
You can’t even tell from their surname or skin colour. Just ask David Seymour.
What’s different is their ‘belief’. The belief that tikanga provides the life force for determining what’s right and wrong for just about everything in the world according to whichever activist is saying it at the time.
This was said by Ngati Hine iwi leader, Waihoroi Shortland, about denying Judith Collins a speaking place at Waitangi in 2021: “Collins’ claim of sexism reflected her lack of understanding of tikanga.”
And then remarkably went on to say, “Maori believe when visitors arrive at the marae, the God of War Tumatauenga is present, with protecting women paramount.”
https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/06/22/judith-collins-wont-attend-waitangi-if-she-cant-speak/
As you can guess, the wolf pack tore into Collins.
As it’s now possible that Pakeha academics and apologists likely outnumber sincere Maori activists, I’ll just bundle them into the same group and simply refer to them both from here as ‘activists’.
Given that we’ve mostly married into each other along the way, and/or have had Maori/Pakeha partners, I’m assuming that the majority of Maori are as confused by all this as I am. I’m as careful as the next person not to turn this into a race war.
Or forget the incendiary term ‘race war’, but call it the battle for hearts and minds. Much better when it’s sanitised, which it needs to be when we’re all intermingled and loving each other the way we have for the past 200 years.
This is about money and greed. Tikanga is simply another term we’re being introduced to, one that means whatever the speaker wants it to, e.g. “While changes may come to marae at Waitangi, all marae are unique and have their own tikanga.” (From the same article as referenced above by TV1 in 2021.) Which in local parlance means that tikanga Maori is whatever they decide at the time is in the best interests of Maori (elites) and can be used to smack you on the head with.
The reason this is important for me is that, whilst not being a religious person, I do refer to a greater power, as unpopular as that is. This tikanga is taking on all the appearances of a religious cult we thought we sorted out centuries ago when disentangling ourselves from the hegemonic Catholic Church.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 (when they should’ve known better) in particular stand out as an exercise in insanity; which incidentally had nothing to do with the Catholic Church, but bears good witness to the insanity of the tikanga cult.
And it is a cult. This is what we’re seeing now, where activists can say whatever they want, without any fear or retribution from the law or established institutions inhibiting or scrutinising their words. It’s a done deal.
I’ve thought about this childhood phrase a lot recently, “Sticks and stones may break bones but words will never hurt me.” I’ve come to learn that words have a lot more power than sticks and stones, and we should all be very worried about where this is headed.
