Māori Party and the Marae o Tū
The Maori Party has recently made statements in the media saying that they were appalled at the behaviour by Ngāpuhi representatives during their conference to discuss potential candidates to stand against Hone Harawira in the upcoming by-election in the Taitokerau electorate. Tariana Turia describes her marae experience as ‘abusive, disruptive and terrible’. She continues by saying that while on the marae Mana Party members attacked her personality by directly ‘shouting, abusing and swearing’ at her calling her a ‘bloody liar and a snake’. Peter Sharples made similar statements on television.
Tariana Tūria and Peter Sharples forget the idea that at a gathering on the marae, any marae, two important concepts are played out, these being the Marae o Tū and the Marae o Rongo. The Marae o Tū is a fundamental institution on the marae where robust even verbally violent debate occurs. This phenomenon is considered acceptable by the Maori community in a marae style setting.
Tariana Turia’s statements as co-leader of the so called Māori Party clearly display a lack of understanding of her Māori tikanga. At the same time, Peter Sharples has forgotten the concept of the Marae o Tū. What has happened is that both Tariana Turia and Peter Sharples have condemned other Māori and their Māori behaviour based on European attitudes and standards of behaviour. It is a grave mistake by the Māori Party to assess the Te Tii Marae gathering based on values determined by the coloniser.
What is important to remember here is that Māori should not measure Māori behaviour based on a yard stick invented by European standards as it will be seen that they have assimilated well into European culture. I would caution Turia and Sharples when making statements on behalf of a Māori Party that they should not allow their European heritage to overcome them in a Māori setting. It is clear that they have both assessed their marae experience based on their European heritage as they are half Māori. Besides, only 16 people turned up to that hui and Sharples says that hes going to win that electorate seat. I don’t think so.
My last words are:
“Think like a Māori in a Māori Party and not like a Pakeha or else you defeat the purpose of a so called Māori voice representing the Māori community”.