By Socialist Aotearoa member Jon Christopher Te Rau Whero Ruka

Kia Ora Te Whanau, I wanted to briefly introduce myself, and also comment on
various issues that we see in society today but I would like to approach it more from
my perspective as a Maori/Socialist. Please be aware that the following is my own
personal experience I have based all of my arguments on statistical data, and
socialist narratives but ultimately any conclusions made are my own. Feel free to
follow up with me about anything that maybe unclear or that you disagree with as it
may help us to grow together.

I was born into a mix culture family, my mum is of Irish/German/Scottish/French
heritage and my dad was Māori. We hail from the ‘Jewel in the crown’ of northland,
the mighty Hokianga! My Iwi is Nga Puhi, my Hapu is Ngati pakau me Ngai tu te
Auru. My Marae is Mahuri, my river is Taheke and my mountain is
Puhangatohoraharaha, ti hei Mauri ora!

My parents met at church, as they were both born again evangelical Christians. I had
an older sister who sadly passed before I was born so effectively, I was an only child.
For most of my childhood I followed the destructive dogma of the church until my mid
teens, when, I could no longer align what I was hearing and seeing in the church with
what I was experiencing and learning in the real world. So I rebelled. I left the church
and began a journey of self-discovery and education. I do want to iterate that I love
and respect my parents, they gave me life and love.

My mum is an extremely strong woman who gives me and my children unlimited love and support always. She was a house mom and later became a cleaner. This however does not mean that I blindly obey, nor agree with her on many issues, we do have many disagreements some
very emotionally charged, but will always keep these outside of our family dynamic. I
grew up very poor, but happy.

My dad worked on the buses (later he worked and was extremely respected in the field of Māori mental health for the dhb) I always had food on the table and a house to call home. My Dad was raised as a Tohunga ie he was raised in various households by our old people in the old ways, not ‘magical mysticism’ but instead tikanaga (lore) whakapapa (genealogy/histories) Karakia
(various spititual devices/prayers for important ceremonies eg burials etc) as well as
ways to store food such as kumara etc. I would always ask how he could align these
practices with his christian ideals, that his church would call these practices evil and
demonic, he would just smile and say that, whilst he was a believer, for him being a
tohunga was a way of life, that there was no inherent evil in any of these practices
but instead helped him remain strong as a Maori. Of course I would argue that being
part of a system that would quite happily have imprisoned him or worse not long ago
seemed like a total contradiction. He would simply laugh and say “its all good boy”.

My dad was working on an immense project that I have inherited. My great
grandfather who spoke very little english wrote, yes wrote, (I now have these books)
our family history, it is in old style of Te reo which is hard to understand, but is a
primary resource that dad was slowly deciphering and translating to become a
historical text for our whanau katoa, until his untimely passing during the second
covid lock down. I wont go into the details of trying to organize a tangi during this
time and the various hoops we had to go through, but we were able to lay him back
home where he now rests peacefully with many of my Tupuna. This project is now
mine and is still some time from completion.

Having left the church one of my dads older brothers who I later learned was an
ardent communist, saw me struggling and taught me basic, Marxist ideologies, these
ideas immediately resonated with me and we would often talk for hours on the
subject. My time at university further reinforced these beliefs I also became
disillusioned at uni, so left before I finished. I then traveled extensively living for 2
and a half years abroad in the UK and Ireland. During that time I met my now ex wife
and she became pregnant with my oldest son.

We returned to NZ and as I had no real prospects, and a very young family, second baby on the way, I joined the navy. I was in the communications branch. My time there has brought me some very close friends. My time in the NZDF ultimately allowed me to see the true nature of western
neo-liberal governments and further my beliefs that, firstly, we (govt departments
such as defense force, police etc.) were not the ‘good guys’, second that govt
agencies actual agenda is to protect the vested interests of a corrupt corporate
industrial complex, at the cost of innocent lives. Using a divided working class to
promulgate fear, hatred and ignorance to keep us docile and at odds with each other.
We were not there to protect the weak and needy but instead reinforce the barrier
that maintains people in hostility, servility and poverty. I left the navy, bewildered and
disaffected. It was a tough lesson, and I implore any one thinking of joining the
military to rethink it.

Leaving the military I had severe PTSD and depression, this is
not uncommon and in fact all other long termer’s are effected the same. It took years
of self reflection and reeducation to become a ‘normal human being’ again. Marxist
theory and ideology has strengthened me and allowed me to see my errors and
honestly work on myself, in a manner that has changed me to become more
empathetic, a better parent and challenge accepted norms that are destroying our
planet and ourselves. It has allowed me to better understand why and how, I used
incorrect preconceived ideas to try to understand me and my environment and
promulgate these falsehoods as a ‘happy and productive drone’. Now I am currently
an engineering technician learning to build, service and maintain industrial sized
water treatment plants to turn raw water into a clean drinking source. Maybe one day
I can help communities that are struggling being oppressed or genocide to at least
have clean water. Ma te wa, time will tell.

Fast forward to today, what does the narrative, that the current government who
seems so eager to push, mean? Going even deeper what does it mean to me as a
Māori? Ultimately what effects do these policies have on my whanau and why do I
consider it dangerous, not just for Māori, but for us all? At the surface level it may
seem trivial, the narrative being pushed is to bring the country together as one, that
all are equal and that everyone deserves the same rights no matter race. Sounds
good right, lets delve deeper.

Firstly let me dispel the myth of ‘being equal’. NZ under the current
Westminster parliamentary system has never been truly equal. (I wont go into either
Kawanatanga or Te Tiriti as there is already so much about this issue out there, so
let me instead concentrate on what my statistically driven opinions are of what this
government is doing to me and you). Māori for starters, have been for some time
considered second class citizens and treated as such (from a government level, this
of course trickled down into society and in no way do I place Pakeha holistically into
this, evident in the amount of Pakeha who support indigenous rights in general). The
evidence for this is overwhelming. Māori consistently under-perform in health,
education, are always the highest percentage in poverty levels, mortality rates etc.

The violence within in Māori society both from external and internal sources is staggering. Violence and crime is very specifically related to poverty so this in itself is
an effective tool used by colonizing/capitalist governments on its populace as a
means of control. Māori, however, are not alone here, early settlers from non
dominant western European countries were also heavily discriminated against. My
Māori family tree is heavily and proudly scattered with Irish, Chinese and Croatian
blood lines as the NZ colonial government forced these communities out of there
own and into the arms of the disenfranchised Māori.

Equality was and has never been on the table. This can be seen clearly by the fact that our government is being led by an ex tyrant Air New Zealand CEO, Christopher Luxon, also David Seymour linked to Atlas group (a right wing capitalist think tank) and a Far right NZ first party
under Winston Peters who pushes big oil and tobacco agendas, who consistently pushed anti trans, anti progressive and anti environment policies. All three like to use the trended catch phrase ‘anti woke’ war cry. An interesting concept, because at one stage slavery abolitionists and suffragette movements themselves were also seen as ‘woke’. Neo lib governments of which National and its allies are and sadly also the opposition parties, clearly have an agenda that does not include working class kiwis/Māori. The proof is everywhere, the boot camps the charter schools all failures, the billions of dollars given to landlords at the expense of those in dire need. The poor are still getting poorer and now the upper middle are even getting poorer, but
the super rich flourish. The economy is or has slipped into a recession and the
working class will be both blamed and told to ‘tighten the belt buckle’, made to work harder for less and give up the very few rights we have, which our Tupuna (ancestors) fought so hard for.

So surely there is no better time for us all to become one. Yes agreed. But
becoming one does not mean that one culture dominates and eventually fades out
another, it is our differences, cultural or otherwise that make us strong, it provides
the ability to adapt and change and ultimately survive. Let me provide an example. I
was personally not offended by Te Reo being taken out of govt agency titles, in fact I
wasn’t happy that these agencies used Te Reo to then turn around and oppress the
very people it proclaimed to be helping. It did however set a dangerous precedent,
one in which, capitalism itself strives to achieve everyday and that is class/cultural
division. What do I mean by this? By singling out one race of people who are a minor
part of the general population, who don’t have the means to enact any real sway over
the economy or education or health-care, who for the most part are your neighbors,
the local taxi driver or the shop worker, to then say that these same people want or
are receiving unfair benefits which is statistically untrue is a narrative that provides
friction and division amongst us all effectively making us weaker. It is an all out war
that capitalism has refined for centuries that pits us all against each other.

I have heard the rhetoric that Māori want only Māori things for Māori and no
one else. Again untrue. Let me break this down further. We have all grown up in a
Patriarchal, hierarchical society that rewards competition and personal attainments.
Therefore, when a group approaches with a radically different idea on how we
should perceive society or family or different ideas on how to govern, and how we
treat the planet it may at first seem like some elaborate trap or lie, sad that society
has conditioned us in such a way that this may be the initial reaction. BUT when you
come to the realization where these thoughts originate from, think about these new
ideas in a dialectical manner, we are very quickly able to dispel the negative ‘trap’ or
‘lie’ thought, as capitalist myth. Instead these new collective ideologies allow us a
greater understanding of differing view points that are not not overtly based on
personal competition. For instance who would take in non ‘family’ members and treat them as blood relatives, the Māori concept of Wangai ‘adoption’ goes like this, once
this family member is accepted by the whanau they are considered physically,
emotionally and spiritually part of the family. There is absolutely no difference between
them and any other family member who was born into the family unit. Concepts such
as these may seem foreign, but that doesn’t make them intrinsically wrong, just
different. Thus we can look at Māori Policy towards governing and social aspects
similarly not intrinsically wrong but different and meant for all. Beware because if we
simply dismiss this ‘new’ narrative as wrong or label it as reverse racism or reverse
Colonialism this unfortunately plays into the false narrative that currently holds us all
down.

So, I hear you ask “where does this all lead Jon its all doom and gloom!” If
you see the glass as half empty then maybe, however, that the government is
reverting to these policies can be seen as a victory of sorts, like a wounded animal it
is desperately trying to maintain its power by using these toxic policies in a last gasp
effort to remain afloat, but we see it for what it really is, a false narrative of a dying
system in its last throws.

Na reira Kia Kaha, Kia Toa, have strength, stand tall, be proud, and continue
the fight, educate and protest! Above all remember this, we are all Tangata whenua,
my roots maybe different from yours, but our goals are the same, to live a happy life,
free to enjoy the things we want to do with the ones we love, fishing, golf, watching
the warriors (NRL Team, mostly lose, and yes I am constantly heartbroken). I am
speaking to you as as one Māori from within one whanau group, which, also an
observation, doesn’t seem so different from nearly every other whanau out there, that
is to be united in a common goal. The goal? Join together not as Tauiwi or Pakeha or
Māori but as one indivisible force of nature, with proud cultural differences to achieve
happiness, and true equality for all. Finally names, things or flags mean little to my
whanau, because at the end of the day what is the most imortant thing? He tangata,
he tangata, he tangata. The people, the people, the people. Tena Kautou Katoa