Karen Chhour is frequently accused of not understanding Māori culture and last week it was more of the same when Chhour presented a bill introducing sentencing for a new category of criminals known as “young serious offenders” and opened the door for military bootcamps. Māori offenders are disproportionately represented in the youth justice system.
The Māori Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, told Chhour in a Select Committee meeting that she doesn’t “understand the essence of being Māori”.
Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi just told Karen Chhour MP in Select Committee that she doesn’t “understand the essence of being Māori” and labelled idea that the safety of a child should matter more than their ancestry as “abhorrent”.
— ACT New Zealand (@actparty) January 28, 2025
This shameful rhetoric tells you… pic.twitter.com/ZvUqX8K8Zy
The funny thing is: Chhour not only is Māori but she had an unprivileged childhood and grew up in state care without becoming another statistic of Māori youth offending.
In stark contrast, prior to entering parliament Kapa-Kingi ate from the silver spoon of treaty settlements, making her waka, in the privilege stakes, way out in front of Chhour’s.
Before entering parliament, Kapa-Kingi was a project specialist for Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa, Chief Executive of Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri Trust, the post-settlement governance entity for her iwi, and was involved in the iwi response to Covid-19 in the Far North. She said it was her involvement in the community response to Covid-19 that inspired her to enter politics.
Wikipedia
Kapa-Kingi has been a political activist almost forever, as her activist son Eru Kapa-Kingi recollects.
When I was growing up, I thought that it was quite normal to speak about our rights as tangata whenua, Te Tiriti, and political matters at the dinner table. Anything other than small talk was our tikanga at home, and Māmā and Pāpā were deliberate in encouraging us to engage in those conversations, as opposed to just being listeners.
E-Tangata
Kapa-Kingi asked Chhour how she would incorporate te ao Māori into the processes outlined in the bill. This was not a trick question: Māori activists are fixated on incorporating Māori culture into every aspect of the life of every New Zealander. In the culture stakes, the Māori waka is streets ahead of anyone else.
I’m still trying to get my head around the latest taxpayer-funded debacle of spending $4M on addressing kauri tree dieback by playing whale sounds to trees. Who knew kauri trees could hear or that whales had something meaningful to say to them? Māori culture of course.
Kapa-Kingi’s Māori Party received 3.08 per cent of the votes in the 2023 election for six seats while Chhour’s ACT Party received 8.64 per cent of the vote for only 11 seats, giving the Māori waka an disproportionate political advantage, which naturally they are reluctant to give up.