Table of Contents
Steve Chick
Conservative Party spokesman on culture and heritage.
Many have noticed a marked increase in the incidence of compelled spiritually significant Māori practice such as karakia in the public sphere.
Technically, New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy established on 6 February, 1840. The development of a liberal democracy with a Judeo/Christian legal base started with the formation of a national government in 1856. This means the default spirituality and associated culture is Christian (the monarch being the head of the Anglican Church). Being liberal, the rights of the individual take pre-eminence. To allow the widest variety of people to operate in the public sphere, the concept of secularity is employed, thus ensuring functional working relationships between people with incompatible spiritualities and cultural values.
This plurality goes all the way back to Waitangi 1840, where the governor is reported to have said: “...of the several faiths of England, of the Wesleyans, of Rome and also of Māori custom shall alike be protected by him”. Until recently, in practical terms, this meant that any time a ritual of spiritual significance was carried out in the public space, non-attendance/participation held no consequence for the dissenter.
Why has that changed? Sedition: our society is infested at every level with people who behave as if our governance structure is illegitimate. Against all hard evidence, the thesis is: the hundreds of warlord chiefs that signed the Waitangi document in 1840 did not relinquish ultimate authority to the Queen. Instead, they authorised the Queen to appoint a local governor to help manage the unruly visitors.
Our current democracy does not represent the partnership that was agreed to, so it must be radically reformed. A class of people called tangata whenua (land people), who have local ancestry before European contact and who embrace the te Ao Māori worldview (structure/culture/spirituality) must be elevated. The rest is known as tangata treaty or tau iwi (treaty of foreign people), and are forever guests of these guardians of the land.
There is a reason sedition was a capital offence!
Authentic te Ao Māori is fundamentally incompatible with Western civilisation at almost every level. A polytheist, animist and ancestor-worshipping spirituality is at its core. Atua (gods) are many, and all activity has a spiritual component. Rituals are many and time-consuming. The performing arts are central, with the role of the performer being possessed by ancestors to influence the audience. Politically, creating fear to enhance mana is very important (thugs veto) and utu (revenge) for real or imagined slights is all-consuming.
With the foregoing in mind, the compulsion to suffer or participate in frankly baffling rituals is more understandable. The seditious takeover movement is strong in the institutions of state but still relatively weak in the general population, so social conditioning is employed top down to normalise te Ao Māori practice, softening us for the political changes to come.
The Bill of Rights gives clear rights of religious belief and is a formidable hurdle. To bypass it the argument is made that there is such a thing as non-religious te Ao Māori ritual that mana whenua (land authorities) can require us to participate in.
Regarding karakia, it is a ritual chant, incantation, or spell that invokes the spiritual powers to ensure the positive outcome of a proposed activity. There are types of karakia depending on content, but at its core, it is still a pagan practice incompatible with the monotheistic religions and atheism. Whether various atua are named or one recites the alphabet backwards, it is still invoking spiritual powers. One can pray (inoi) a prayer (rawiri) without it being a karakia.
So how does one deal with the ever-expanding coverage of te Ao Māori practice in public life. Be it Manglish (Māori/English), pōwhiri, haka, waiata, rahui or unelected authorities clipping the ticket. As much as possible, do not comply: interrupt, stand up, walk out, vote, stand for political office and use your influence to derail this corruption of our civilisation.
Unfortunately for some vocations, the central government has devolved authority to capture professional standards organisations that mandate compliance in this area and this has been backed by the courts.
