20 Years Of Te Pāti Māori And We're Growing By The Day

In July 2004 Tariana Turia established Te Pāti Māori which has become one of the most successful modern political movements in the indigenous world.

In that 20 years we have been involved in seven elections and been victorious in six, granted 2017 wasn’t a great year but we bounced back in the following two elections, last year having our most triumphant since our inception. We are at the point now where the negativity in the mainstream non-Māori media and the rhetoric from this Government only drives our determination and increases our support, especially with the next generation of decision makers.

Former Te Pāti Māori co-leader Dr Sir Pita Sharples was at our AGM on Saturday at Hoani Waititi Marae and that was significant for two reasons. One, back in 2004 it was at this marae that resolutions were passed to register the Pāti and secondly we discovered it was Dr Sir Pita Sharples 83rd birthday on that same day. So that was a serendipitous occasion.

The other highlight at our 20th AGM was acknowledging the capability, the capacity and the build out, and in light of us being targeted by predominantly the white press and not withstanding this, we are still growing our momentum.

One in four babies in this country under five-years-old are Māori; for those under 25-years-old it’s one in three who are of Māori descent. This nation’s going nowhere unless the capacity, the capability and the potential of Māori is released for the greater common good. If we continue to be oppressed, vilified and bulldozed for our language and our culture and specifically targeted on a whole range of programmes, well of course we have to stand up and push back. The reason that lands badly with some areas of society is because that’s not what they want us to do, they want us to sit back and do what they tell us to do like good little natives.

We will resist that because that’s what you do in any democracy when all of a sudden the tyranny of a minority comes at us. And remember this is a minority-led Government if you look at both sides of it, ACT on one side and NZ First on the other.

We have the right and the entitlement to be resistant. The day that we do defend ourselves all of a sudden we’re reported and described by non-Māori media to be wrong agitators who are creating problems. They never look in the mirror.

The message at our AGM was, we don’t need them to style us, to frame us or to put us down. We have our own platforms; we have our own influencers and let’s just start using those. We don’t need them anymore. We don’t need their consent or their influence to say, “Oh you’re a good Māori boy today but don’t do this otherwise you’re going to be a naughty Māori”. We’ve had that and we’ve had enough of it.

The support base for Te Pāti Māori is growing all the time with academic and cultural intelligence creating a pool of rich political talent to take us into the future.

This makes me incredibly optimistic, especially when I see it in the eyes of our mokopuna. It is this generation who will conclude our liberation story in being able to live as Māori, by Māori, to Māori. Not having someone standing over us, constantly regulating us, telling us that we are being naughty for giving kai on a marae; that we are being naughty for writing our own waiata and singing them on our own marae as that’s being too political.

That’s the media for you. We will continue to rise up, practice who we are and organise ourselves. And we are. Whānau are connecting with us through signing up their families to be a part of our movement, becoming members of our platforms and readying themselves for when need to activate. The beauty of this Government is they continue to present huge opportunities for us to organise ourselves and expand.

Te Pāti Māori look forward to another 20 years with our next generation leading the way and continuing our kaupapa of being tipuna inspired, Tiriti led, mana motuhake driven and mokopuna focused.