If there is one thing that we can say about social media is that it connects us all. While social media can be seen as something lacking objectivity, it can kickstart looking for the truth. It can raise awareness of what’s happening in your backyard as well as halfway around the world.
That’s what happened when Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke performed a haka in New Zealand’s parliament – it went viral. Known as a “war challenge” or “war cry” in Māori culture, the haka was traditionally performed by men before going into battle. The aggressive facial expressions were meant to scare the opponents, while the cry itself helped lift their morale and call on the gods to help them win the day. This tradition became a part of today’s validation of Māori culture and lifestyle.
In the past it meant a lot, and even today it has power. For example, during WWII skirmish, Māori soldiers were outnumbered by the Japanese, but when they chanted the haka the Japanese surrendered because they found it so beautiful.
On November 14, members of the New Zealand Parliament voted on a contentious bill that would reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi signed by the Māori and the British in 1840. That was when the youngest Māori MP stood up, ripped up a copy of the bill and started chanting a haka. She was joined by other MPs as well as spectators in the visitors’ gallery. When the Speaker declared the session suspended and asked that the gallery be cleared, supposedly a security guard could be heard joining the haka.
Later, when the session resumed, Maipe-Clarke was suspended from Parliament for the afternoon, and her action called disrespectful and disruptive. While this may be true, it is an action all too familiar to Indigenous Peoples across the world. The desire to limit or erase treaties and agreements by settler governments is nothing new and will continue as long as there are politicians ready to create divisions between Indigenous and settler residents for their own benefits.
The demagogues, or those who claim to speak for us all, love these moments. Who are they to continue to cost us? A statement that ignores the past and the present. While people will give and accept legal rights to places rented to them, the claims of Indigenous Peoples are regarded as a thing of the past and no longer valid. Even as they respect the claims of landowners and landlords to charge them rent for where they live.
Fighting for their rights in New Zealand in a traditional manner is something sublime. Years may pass by but as with mainstream society the same rights and laws should always be respected regardless of race, culture or even opinion.
The time when governments could ignore Indigenous Peoples is no longer possible. Elijah Harper with his feather would have gotten a far larger audience today via social media which unfortunately did not exist back then.
But today there are changes and we can all hope that one haka will lead to many more to ensure that we are respected as Peoples in this world.