Waitangi Day Ennui

The Gullible and the Sly Try to Tango

The histrionics at the Ti Ti Marae on Waitangi Day have become boringly predictable.  The media might as well write up their news reports now for next year's Waitangi Day, so they can all have a decent day off.  It would be so easy to do.  In fact, why not write up ten Waitangi Day's worth, publish them in the next ten days, and then we can avoid Waitangi Day boredom for the next decade.

Here is the Veteran's take on Hone Harawira's rent-a-crowd and the failure of the Ti Ti Marae to police its own protocol.
 

Perhaps I am naive but it is sad to see what should be a time a national celebration high-jacked  by a bunch of renegade Maori; facilitated by weak leadership from the elders of Ti Ti Marae and egged on by a news media only too anxious to highlight the negative and ignore the positive.

Lets look at that.   Hone H bused in a couple of hundred ratbag supporters determined to do their best to disrupt the celebrations.   Nothing much new in that.   A small group of Maori radicals have been doing that for years.    But where it gets really sad is that the Ti Ti Marae Komatua have aided and abetted over the top protest by their abject failure to exert authority over 'their' Marae.    I understand Marae protocol.   Visitors are to be welcomed and accorded respect even though individual Marae members may have issues with them.   Debate on a Marae can be robust but guests have a right to be heard and not shouted down although they can expect to be challenged in debate.     The antics of Hone's mob breaks Marae protocol and tramples on the 'mana' of the Marae.   And just why the Marae leadership stands back and lets Titiwhai Harawiri attach herself leach like to the Prime Minister's party beggars belief.    She has no mana; she denigrates Maoridom with her presence.     If there is any light at the end of the tunnel it was to hear my old mate and fellow Vietnam veterans Dick (Rahiri) Dargaville, Marae Chair, say on national TV that enough was enough and the abuse of Marae protocol had to stop.   Dick, words are cheap and deeds count louder but if anyone can force changes then you, as a decorated Vietnam veteran, are tough enough to do it.   More power to your elbow.

Of course, The Veteran is Maori.  It is becoming clearer by the day that there is no such thing as the Maori vote, or Maori opinions. Anyone who pretends they actually exist as collective entities is self-deceived.  There is grievance Maori, socialist Maori, troughing Maori, entrepreneurial Maori, successful Maori, capitalist Maori, propertied Maori, Christian Maori, non-Christian Maori, criminal Maori, dead-beat Maori, and so on.  Opinions and convictions are equally diverse.  To use "Maori" as a collective noun has become deceptive and misleading.  It is now in the same grammatically-deceptive territory as using "European", or "feminist" as collective nouns. 

Maori diversity is to be lauded and celebrated, not ignored.  Of course there are plenty who would argue that only grievance Maori, socialist Maori, troughing Maori, criminal Maori, and dead-beat Maori speak the one authentic Maori voice.  Only lazy, indolent "obfuscators", the gullible, and sly manipulators will persist with this fabrication.