This video, professionally made and showing Kiri Tamihere-Waititi doing what can only be called ranting about her oppression and that of the Māori people, and then winding up by calling for the overthrow of the New Zealand, has caused a stir in that country. I am told that Tamihere-Waititi is a powerful member of Te Pati Māori (The Māori Party). which holds six seats out of about 120 in the country’s unicameral parliament. The second video below identifies her as the Party’s “chief of staff,” and she is the wife of the current party co-leader Rawiri Waititi as well as the daughter of John Tamihere, long-standing Māori activist and now president of The Māori Party.
I was sent this video by an anonymous (of course) New Zealander, who added that “This video outlines [Tamihere-Waititi’s] position as a major leader quite specifically, and was broadcast as part of the official content of a programme produced by the state television broadcaster, Television New Zealand. It leaves the viewer in no doubt that she is a major ’embedded’ leader of the party.” As the broadcasters below say, whether what she says should worry New Zealanders depends on how widespread her views are, and that we just don’t know.
Well, I can’t vouch for that, but the video does express the anger held by some Māori about their being “minoritized”, and I was startled not just by the anger and sedition, but also by the profanity, so I should add this:
TRIGGER WARNING: If profuse profanity offends you, don’t watch. But we’ve all heard such language.
There’s a transcript, too, but it leaves out the cuss words.
It’s only 6½ minutes long, and will give you an idea of some of the anger behind the attempt to indigenize New Zealand. (I won’t translate the Māori words.) You can see, given this woman’s position, why it’s gotten wide circulation. I suspect it will be taken down soon, so watch it now. Its explicit call for the Māori to overthrow New Zealand’s government is something I haven’t encountered before.
Below is a 7½-minute video response on The Platform, a self-described “independent” radio station that’s not government-run or government-funded. The broadcaster shown here is Chris Trotter. The suggestion that New Zealand adopt a constitution is a good one, as right now the governing document of New Zealand is the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
This is what decolonization looks like :-).
I didn’t hear anything concrete that she thinks is a problem or that could be done.
Overthrow the government–that’s what could be done.
Well, that could be done, but I’m not sure how realistic it is.
From the second video it sounds like her party does not have wide support in the Maori community.
It has power by virtue of allying with other parties, and remember that the Māori themselves are deferred to by NZ governments by virtue of their being indigenous.
Please get real, Maori are NOT “indigenous” . They have only been in New Zealand (that’s the name of our country NOT “Aotearoa”) around 1,200 years, and they very proudly state they came in sailing canoes from Hawaii via French Polynesia. There’s even a place way up north where the “spirits” of dead Maori go back to their “homeland”. Real indigenous people don’t have stories of coming from another actual physical place. The Australian aborigines have been there for 50,000 years and have no stories about coming from another physical place. Maori activists are simply using a lie to get special treatment.
Sorry, pal, but first, you are rude in your first sentence. You clearly didn’t read the posting Roolz and thus won’t be posting here any more because of your lack of civility.
More important, you’re obtuse. “Indigenous” with respect to inhabitants of a country means “the first people who lived there”, usually before “colonists” come from another place. Do I have to tell you that since we all came from Africa, every “indigenous” people, including aboriginals in Australia, were migrants from other people. It has nothing to do with the peoples’ own origin stories. Where did you get that dumb idea.
Please, get real and educate yourself.
I agree: this is what decolonization looks like. As Najma Sharif said, “Vibes, papers, essays? Losers!”
I think if other NZers are going to treat this seriously, they should negotiate the return of all the benefits of industrialized western culture. They could start with the return of all her podcasting electronics and the sinister lighting that was used to make her look like Mussolini’s granddaughter.
I’m SO relieved.
There are people who mix up their meds (even) outside the USA!
Who would have thunk it?
Somehow, bizarrely comforting.
PS: The Jan 6th folk may be interested in having her digits.
My, that woman sounds angry and rabid, but puts forth no persuading arguments at all. It is an appeal to emotions, not reason. Of course that sort of appeal is easy to make, and encourages the listener to react from (the less demanding) gut feeling rather than to spend energy actually thinking.
Well, it’s interesting to hear what this fellow and his guest have to say about whether this is one extreme person speaking or whether she is speaking on behalf of her party. Also interesting that they discuss how small the party is (six seats out of 123 in the 2023 elections, per Wikipedia). Worth noting that the Maori Party is only twenty years. I don’t put much store in the talk of overthrowing the government, there are plenty of hot heads who’ve done the same in the U.S. Even if it came to that, the Maori are only ~18% of the population of New Zealand. Still, I am an advocate of written constitutions for all the former British colonies, and for Britain itself.
Wikipedia also notes that Te Pāti Māori advocated the expulsion of the Israel Ambassador following the commencement of the Hamas-Israel War.
I’m guessing she was drunk. But calling for the overthrow of your legitimate government? The Tower of London had its uses! (I’m re-reading all of Dickens and I’m currently finishing A Child’s History of England so I’m getting rather accustomed to throwing people in the Tower and lopping off their heads.)
I have embarked on that “all of Dickens” quest. So, having read several of the more well-known works, I went to the beginning. Problem is that The Pickwick Papers is bogging me down! (40 pages to go.) I like some of the short stories it contains, but the overall work is just not my cup of tea. I have never looked so forward to Oliver Twist!
I rather like Pickwick, though I’m sorry the suit for breach of promise succeeded!
Before you know it you’ll be giving Uriah his just desserts and sending the Micawbers off to the New World, then bracing yourself for Little Nell and an overdose of saccharine.
The broadcaster is Sean Plunket; the interviewee is Chris Trotter, formerly a Labour Party organiser but with the illiberalisation of that party, now politically homeless, like many of us.
And while the Maori Party won 6 of the race-based Maori seats (a hang-over from the 1860s when the franchise extended to landowners) in parliament, it won a mere 3% of the vote.
For as much profanity as she used she knows very few words (although it is possible some of the Maori vocabulary contained many more – I cannot judge that). If I were an ally of hers I would suggest she come to her next unhinged rant with a bigger box of obscenities to help keep the interest of the viewer.
Psychologically, this seems to be the inevitable result of identity-based politics — of the Manichaean division into “good” and “bad” people, the consequent judging of all arguments merely by who is making them, and the new or redefined vocabulary that allows people to feel their hypocrisy and double standards are justified and virtuous. Since there is no evidence-base to their assertions, there is no end-point to their demands, no means to tell when their goal has been achieved. There is just a continual escalation of dehumanizing rhetoric that ends up consuming its adherents in an ever-increasing spiral of anger and hatred.
Brilliant pithy encapsulation of a constant of our times! Thank you.
That’s one creepy pottymouth. But seriously, I do sincerely hope that campus protestors calling for “decolonization” here in the U.S. and elsewhere aren’t as rabid as she is. That would truly be scary.
Most protesters are concerned that they appeal to a large audience. Unhinged ranting and swearing may turn people off.
I get the impression that she feels very entitled and is not looking for more allies. The NZ government has capitulated a lot and that fuels her attitude.
Exactly. People of this mindset are controlling bullies, and capitulation always incentivizes them to escalate and demand more.
Trigger warning? Jerry I’m disappointed in you lol.
Tamihere-Waititi’s diatribe is nothing unusal, freedom of speech allows it and it’s not a first. Criticisms are warranted in all political systems so go for it even if it is scary.
For her colonialism concerns well, the horse has bolted. Change the goals (from separatism) based on reality to organize and make gains, then we may have movement in the right direction.
I’m a little sceptical as her father John Tamihere organization provides services under contract to the government. Perhaps Tamihere-Waititi thinks he needs more money to fund tunnels (I jest darkly) or to support their politcal, social goals.
Those puzzled by Laingholm’s last two sentences and interested in the minutiae of NZ politics and the Maori Party as a force for decolonisation, or perhaps as a vehicle for BLM (Buy Large Mansions – NZ franchise) might like to read this:
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/07/dr-bryce-edwards-te-pati-maori.html
A report is due sometime on plausible and serious allegations about electoral corruption and the entanglement of John Tamihere’s charitable organisations with the Maori Party. On past experience, even if the corruption allegations prove entirely true, I wouldn’t expect much more than wet bus ticket punishment, especially as any sanctions will be immediately rejected as a racist imposition by settler colonists on struggling indigenous people.
On the topic of the post, after seven generations of intermarriage, it will be difficult to disentangle government services and political institutions as desired by the Maori Party, and NZ’s many Asian immigrants might have little patience with marching backward to the early nineteenth century.
Spot on.
The trad Maori notion of government is “rangitiratanga”, roughly “chieftainship”. The chief is a petty king, controlling a particular territory and frequently at war with his neighbouring chiefs to defend / acquire territory. The petty king’s relatives are the petty royalty (Maori “ariki”, Hawai’ian “ali’i”), which necessarily leads to nepotism.
Similar nepotism is still present, as evidenced by Kiri Tamihere-Waititi being a close relative the two party leaders. Personally I would strongly decline to subject myself to any such regime; I expect most Kiwis feel similarly.
TPM Party often comes off as part of the nobility and aristocracy to me.
HA! Every country has its small(ish) group of low IQ bigots. Her particular brand of racism negatively co-relates with IQ according to the literature.
Charismatic ones – almost always psychopaths in the clinical sense – often rise to the top of their small, loud, obnoxious heaps. Unfortunately.
For the larger movement, as noted above, she is precisely what “decolonization” means. Writ large it involves parachutists and music festivals, for a recent example.
D.A.
NYC
As a parent who does the 2024 equivalent of reading the newspaper, which includes playing embedded videos, while the kids are reading/playing nearby, I appreciate the profanity warning. Such words of caution and other bleepings are not just good for the linguistic prudes, they also allow those of us with children to not have to cram all the not-PG content (podcasts, etc.) into however little post-bedtime free time we have.