Tina Ngata

Probably one of the most enlightening and challenging chapters of Ibram X Kendi’s book “How to be an AntiRacist” is the chapter named “White”. It delves into how dismantling racism as a system demands each of us to consider how whiteness operates within all of us. It highlights how becoming hyperfocused on white people misses the mark on dismantling the system. It includes the powerful line:

In the end, anti-White racist ideas, in taking some or all of the focus off racist power, become anti-Black. In the end, hating White people becomes hating Black people.

It kind of turned my brain inside out, but led to a valuable wānanga about what it is to be Māori kiritea (light skinned Māori) and how to wield my own kiritea-tanga (light-skinned-ness) responsibly.

There are some crucial anti-racist learnings that we need to undertake as a people in order to step into tino rangatiratanga with our fullest potential, and not as vessels of white supremacist ideas. Understanding how whiteness operates as a system is crucial to that.

Now before I go further, a few 101s to set the scene:

As most of us should know, racism is not a uniform experience, and because of this, everyone’s anti-racism journey is different. The things I have to learn and un-learn, and the journey I need to take as a CIS gendered, light-skinned Ngāti Porou wāhine mau-moko, is not the same journey as a queer non-binary dark-skinned Māori, which is different again for people of other ethnicities and qualities. With that said, there are some known common-truths in the field of anti-Racism. These are not mere opinions, but established truths that result from years of expertise, research, activism and careful consideration within a community of peers dedicated to anti-racism.

One such truth is that the dominant form of racism that has come to shape the world is white European supremacy. That is the racism which has travelled the furthest, has the greatest influence on power at all levels from international through to local levels. When you speak, dress, pray, and visually present in ways that align with being a white European, you clash less with the dominant system. This means that white people have a lot to unlearn, including subtle and not-so-subtle ideas about their own supremacy. The anti-racism journey is specific for white Europeans who receive the most privilege and comfort in the dominant system, and for whom engaging with racism is entirely optional. Our journeys are different.

Terms like white-passing have more recently been utilised to describe the relative privilege experienced by those within a racialised minority who have light skin. It is utilised to describe an ability to “code-switch” and evade prejudice – an ability which is available to lighter skinned members of BIPOC communities, but unavailable to darker skinned members.

Things get a bit tricky, though, when you are applying a term that derives out of a specific racialised history from one group (Black American slave history) and try to apply it to Māori. It can become too easy to forget the history and deeper meanings behind the term. It can also be a clumsy fit with the cultural context it’s being injected into – and so for Te Ao Māori, rather than invoking a history that is not altogether ours to invoke, we can perhaps rely on terms such as white-presenting, or Māori kiritea (light skinned) which has grown into its own to describe the specific experience of being light-skinned, but having whakapapa Māori.

In both cases, though – there are two truths at play:

1. It is true that merely having light skin does not exempt you from the racism directed at your people. It can make racists more relaxed to say offensive things in your presence, and you are also more likely to experience positive racism (racist comments like “you speak so eloquently for a Māori” or being cast as a “pretty” for having light features), or having your cultural reality ignored, both by people outside of your community, and within it. It’s also true that many of the intergenerational health, economic and education outcomes of racism still land on light-skinned mokopuna.
2. In saying all of that, it is also true that having light skin means you will be less oppressed in the justice system, will not be followed through stores, will have less barriers to employment, will be treated differently in education settings, and social settings – in short, the world will treat you very differently.

Jesse Williams speaks about how he manages these two truths in the following clip, and I think there are takeaways from what he is saying that is also true for the context of being kiritea:

@biraciallounge

Jesse Williams is not interested in lightskin story telling 📸: SWAY’s UNIVERSE #jessewilliams #swaysuniverse #biracial #greysanatomy #mixed #interview #fyp #fypシ

♬ original sound – Biracial Lounge – Biracial Lounge

As he acknowledged, it’s important to approach the issue with a level of sensitivity for kiritea, but in saying that – over the years of observing conversations about colourism in Te Ao Māori, they have arisen because kiritea have not behaved in way that takes their relative whiteness into account. While some might verbally acknowledge their whiteness (and in this context I mean the lightness of their skin rather than a set of behaviours) and the privilege it brings, this is usually forgotten within a few sentences, and they are back to claiming rights and entitlements as if their whiteness is negated by their whakapapa Māori.

So let me say this clearly: Whiteness is not negated by whakapapa Māori – and whakapapa Māori is not negated by whiteness.

Let’s break that down a bit more:

Whakapapa Māori Is Not Negated By Whiteness
Your whakapapa is not reflected by the colour of your skin. My mother may be a light-skinned Māori, a child of two other light-skinned Māori. My father may be dark-skinned, from Papua New Guinea. I may have my father’s skin but that is no reflection of my whakapapa Māori. Whakapapa is its own validation system and it needs no qualifying – if your mother is Māori, you are Māori – end of discussion. Whakapapa is not based upon blood quantum. Within the context of whakapapa, we are more than the sum of our parts, we are more than walking pie-charts, we are whole and complete as Māori, while carrying non-Māori bloodlines.

Whiteness Is Not Negated By Whakapapa Māori
Probably this government more than any other (specifically Peters, Seymour, Chhour, Jones, McKee, and Potaka) has helped us to see how Māori can uphold white supremacy. Yet still, it’s a challenge for the rest of us to see how whiteness might work through us. While it’s true that your whakapapa is sacrosanct and cannot be challenged by the colour of your skin, it’s also true that the world will treat you differently regardless of your whakapapa. When a security person spots you from 50meters away, and decides whether or not to follow you through the store, they won’t know that you have whakapapa Māori. When you drive past a police car and they make a call whether to pull you up, they don’t know your whakapapa. The world around you makes decisions every day that are influenced by the dominant system of racism, and the colour of your skin. Te Ao Māori is also not exempt from anti-Blackness – from those who deny that colourism exists to implicit and explicit suggestions about beauty, strength, or appropriate roles for people according to skin-colour. Whiteness as a system exists, and can operate through you, regardless of your whakapapa.

That is not to say that, as Māori kiritea, your existence makes you a part of the problem – however, if your revulsion to whiteness leads to you denying that it operates through you, then THAT is a problem. If it leads to you pushing yourself and your angst to the foreground, demanding that others overlook your whiteness, and talking over darker skinned people about anti-Blackness – then yes, you are a part of the problem. Ironically, these are all recognisable as the argumentative tools of whiteness – evasion, fragility, denialism, centering oneself, individualising the issue. At that point, your whiteness has shifted from being the colour of your skin to being a set of behaviours informed by whiteness. At that point, it becomes harmful towards darker skinned folks in your own community. At that point, anti-whiteness becomes anti-brownness, towards others.

There is another sad paradox at play here, where Māori kiritea are so hyper-sensitive; so swift, and so intent to distance themselves from their whiteness that it confirms the very issue they are arguing against – that whiteness has anything at all to do with their whakapapa, and identity. Being secure in your whakapapa should not result in feeling the need to defend it – in fact your secure identity should allow you to engage in discussions about whiteness. It should allow you to sit with discomfort, allow others to speak to their experiences of colourism, acknowledge the privilege you receive and cede space and power accordingly, without ever feeling “less Māori”. Honouring yourself as a complete Māori means embracing your entire whakapapa (both Māori and non-Māori). You cannot do this if you are anti-White. Treating your whakapapa pākehā as if it is a threat to your whakapapa Māori disrespects both your whakapapa pākehā AND your whakapapa Māori. At that point, anti-whiteness becomes anti-brownness, towards yourself.

These are the gnarly questions we must contend with as we move closer to self-determination and Tiriti justice. These questions will require courage, discipline, and confidence, balanced with humility. Like all journeys of consequence, it will necessarily include discomfort – but if we truly believe in our rangatiratanga potential, then it should be a journey we are all willing to undertake.

The Indigenous support for Palestine around the world has been overwhelming, and Aotearoa is no exception. Week after week, Tangata Whenua have shown up in support of Palestine. This alone is a mark to the depth of feeling New Zealanders have about this matter, not just that they show up, but that they KEEP showing up, every week. In an age where wrong-doers rely on the public to get bored and move on – that hasn’t happened. Quite the opposite, actually – with every week passing, more and more Tangata Whenua are committing time and effort to understanding and opposing the genocide being carried out by Israel, first and foremost as a matter of their own humanity, but also as a matter of Indigenous solidarity. Still, as we’ve seen here in Aotearoa (and in so-called United States/Canada and Australia as well), there are always a few Indigenous outliers who are co-opted into colonial agendas, and try to paint their colonialism as being Indigenous.

FARC’s Derek Tait & his gleeful public dehumanising of Palestinian protesters in the name of Destiny Church’s Tu Tangata thugs during a standoff in Ōtautahi yesterday, his racist behaviour & misappropriated haka managing to make last nights lead story on 1 News no less. pic.twitter.com/LodBTMwfNV

— Kelvin Morgan 🇳🇿 (@kelvin_morganNZ) March 3, 2024

In Aotearoa, those outliers have names, they are Destiny Church (and their political arm, the “Freedom and Rights Coalition”), and the “Indigenous Coalition for Israel”.

If this is as far as you want to read then here’s the takeaway:
This is not Indigenous support for Israel. It is Indigenous people, recruited into colonial support for Israel. It is easily debunked by the following facts:
– Israel is a product of western colonialism
– Both groups are centered on Euro-Christian conservatism
– Both groups are affiliated with the far-right and white supremacists
– Maori have made it very clear, on our most important political platforms, that we stand with Palestine.

When you see media profiling these groups as “Indigenous support for Israel“, it’s important to note that a hallmark of Western domination is the tendency to see Indigenous Peoples as a homogenous group. Even the smallest cohort of Indigenous peoples are, within a Western colonial mind (and to Western media), cast as representative of the whole.

Equally important to note is that Indigenous people, through the process of colonialism, are regularly co-opted into colonial agendas, and this is often platformed by media to suggest Indigenous support for colonialism. The most energy-efficient model of colonialism is Indigenous people carrying it out upon each other, and New Zealand’s colonial project has relied heavily upon a strategy of aggressive assimilation and recruitment.

So it’s important, when we see Indigenous peoples holding a particular position, that we look beyond how they name and present themselves, and interrogate who they are, what mandate they have, and what they stand for.

In spite of the co-option and assimilation, Indigenous Peoples have a long history of working collectively in the shared cause of dismantling colonialism. We are the second largest political movement in the world, numbering over 500million. Those involved in Indigenous rights know who other Indigenous groups are, we know the legitimate forums, we know our shared issues and many of each others’ distinct issues, we know our political histories and our political figures. The language of Indigenous rights is a shared language.

We also know colonial political language and tactics. So when it comes to Indigenous people who support Israel – while they, themselves may present as Indigenous, their politics are most certainly not.

It takes Indigenous critical analysis to identify this – that being a knowledge of:

• Indigenous rights issues and movements
• Colonial narratives and indicators
• An understanding of the Indigenous and colonial political landscape at a local, national and global level

in order to understand what we are looking at.

We will look a little closer at Destiny Church and the “Indigenous Coalition for Israel”, and their white supremacist connections soon, but first, a number of objective red-flags about support for Israel that makes it impossible to exist as an Indigenous rights issue.

The most obvious issue is that the nation-state of Israel is a product of Western colonialism, which is the source of all Indigenous oppression around the world. Were it not for the systems of Western colonial domination put in place through the Doctrine of Discovery, Israel would not have been able to establish itself as a nation-state. Israel and their Zionist supporters themselves consistently point out that Israel’s genocide project is in service to “Western civilization” – which, for any Indigenous activist – is a clear red-flag, given that “Western civilization and values”, outside of Western Europe, is code for colonial conquest. No Indigenous group worth their salt would ever claim to be protectors of Western values.

President of the occupation state Isaac Herzog on MSNBC: "This war is not only a war between Israel and Hamas, it's a war that is intended, really, truly, to save Western civilization. To save the values of Western civilization." pic.twitter.com/qRiAA1Rhn1

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 5, 2023

The fact that Israel is a colonial aggressor is articulated perhaps most clearly by Ben Gurion, the very first president of Israel, as pointed out by Gabor Mate:

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A post shared by Tina Ngata (@tinangata)

Of course, this was before Indigenous rights was placed on the global rights agenda, and so it was relatively safe for the Israeli president to be more honest about their coloniality. Since then, Indigenous rights have progressed, and colonialism is rightfully reviled for the harmful, entitled, objectively evil force that it is, which is exactly why Israelis are now trying to cloak their colonial violence by claiming Indigeneity. They are, quite simply, too late. The wealth of historical and current documentation of them openly and proudly claiming their status as Western colonizers is overwhelming.

A reminder that this isn’t just about the Jews. Or Israel. Or Zionists. This is a battle for western civilisation. #endhamas https://t.co/shdlZYRtBM

— Jeremy Leibler (@jeremyleibler) December 24, 2023

It’s clear that Israel’s claims of Indigeneity are unpracticed, clumsy, unconnected to the global Indigenous struggle and unconnected to the global Indigenous community. This is a natural consequence of the fact that they are colonizers, and up until very recently, proudly claimed that title.

Unsurprisingly, Israel did not participate in the vote to endorse the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which, if they were so passionate about their Indigenous status, you’d imagine they would. Israeli groups have, in fact, never participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (unsurprising seeing as Israel is a colonial ethno-state and is not under occupation of a colonial force). You know who DOES have a record of showing up at the United Nations as Indigenous Peoples? Indigenous Palestinians and Bedouin, both of whom have decried the colonial oppression of Israel.

Secondly, look to who is backing Israel. As many wise folk have said – if you want to know a person’s character, look at who they surround themselves with. In this case, Israel’s strongest support to date comes from the world’s greatest neo-imperial brute, the United States, along with history’s most prolific colonizer, Britain. Look to the governmental support Israel has enjoyed from the “tight 4” anti-Indigenous nations of United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (who were the only nations to oppose the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).

Notwithstanding the incredible testament to material solidarity shown by Yemen, if you look at who have been Israel’s most vocal critics on the world stage, well you have the deeply anti-colonial Republic of Ireland, and who can look past the incredible work of South Africa and their genocide case against Israel brought to the International Court of Justice, a support rooted in the legacy of the anti-apartheid and anti-colonial stances of Mandela and the ANC.

Similarly, we can understand the character of these two groups, Destiny Church/Freedom and Rights Coalition and the Indigenous Coalition for Israel, if we look beyond their performative Indigenous costumery to the company they keep. Destiny Church, for instance, is well-known in Aotearoa as a conservative evangelical, and I’d go so far as to say fundamentalist Christian organisation who courted their members down deeply far-right anti-vaxx rabbit-holes during the Covid pandemic, blamed Tūranga and Heretaunga porn-use for Cyclone Gabrielle, blamed gay sex for the Christchurch earthquake, regularly attack migrant, Muslim, LGBTQI+, takatāpui and ia whakawhiti rights, are anti-abortion, and have politically aligned themselves with far right nationalist, conservative and conspiratorial groups such as the NZ Outdoors Party, Groundswell (fashioned after similar conservative farming interest movements in Canada and the EU), white supremacist extremist group Action Zealandia and infamous white supremacist Julian Batchelor. Destiny Church are not an Indigenous rights movement, they are a conservative, fundamentalist Christian supremacist cult.

White supremacist, anti-trans, anti-women, anti-Islamic, anti-brown people, neo-Nazi Action Zealandia at Julian Batchelor & Brian Tamaki Auckland anti-governance rally. Some attended anti-trans rallies (incl Posie Parker). Also linked with National Socialist Network in Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/vZM6ePeOC6

— Dr Rawiri Taonui (@RawiriTaonui) September 24, 2023

If it seems that this is the furthest thing from progressive, anti-colonial Indigenous rights interests you could get – well stay seated, let’s look at the “Indigenous Coalition for Israel”.

Based in Aotearoa, the coalition is dominated by people who are not Indigenous to Aotearoa. As of November 2023, their governance consisted of one Māori Co-Director Sheree Trotter, a Kuki Airani (self-governing nation) Co-Director Alfred Ngaro, who is a self-described Christian Zionist, and also an anti-LGBTQI marriage rights, pro-conversion therapy, anti-abortion, ex-National MP who left the National Party because it wasn’t conservative enough for him. They had one Māori advisor on council, one Zimbabwean who lives in South Africa, a Samoan & a Tongan. After receiving loud online criticism, they have shifted their membership, still holding onto the same conservative co-leadership, but losing the Zimbawean, and gaining a Māori, and still retaining the member from self-governing Tonga and the Samoan-Niuean-Cook Island member, who happens to be the wife of Alfred Ngaro. Nobody on the panel has a public record of defending Indigenous political rights in Aotearoa, nor in the lands which they are Indigenous to. So while Destiny Church are certainly colonial and conservative in their views, they are largely, at least, Indigenous to the land they are on. To my knowledge, none of this group have a record of trans-national advocacy for Indigenous rights causes.

But that’s just the beginning. Co-founder Sheree Trotter is married to Perry Trotter, pākeha Christian bible teacher and director of the Israel Institute of New Zealand alongside fellow Christian conservative Ashley Church and Auckland academic David Cumin (the one Jewish director). One might guess that it’s Zionism (either Christian or Jewish) that brings them together, but then a closer look at Ashley Church reveals he is also a former National party candidate, founding member of the Free Speech Union and former chair of the Tax Payers Union, both far-right conservative lobby groups closely linked to the tobacco and oil industries, and both heavily criticised for being Anti-Māori. The Tax Payers Union is also an official partner of far-right think tank The Atlas Network who have worked around the world to suppress Indigenous rights.

If you need the corkboard version, here:

It’s a little bit of a spaghetti bowl of connections, but one thing is consistent – it’s not about Indigenous rights.

It’s not surprising, but it does leverage off and exploit decades of work to raise Indigenous rights in the human rights agenda. Authors like Naomi Klein have studiously detailed the “mirror world” of political doubling where people and groups assume paradox-personas (eg abusers as victims, human-rights violaters as human-rights advocates) in her book “Doppelganger”… Israel is just doing that as a nation, as are their supporters.

When all is said and done, though – Indigenous people do see each other, we recognise Indigenous struggle, and we recognise colonialism. We stand together for Standing Rock, We stand together for Mauna Kea, We stand together for West Papua, and We stand together for Palestine.

The Palestinian struggle has had Māori support not just now, but for generations. The Palestinian liberation movement, alongside other liberation movements from overseas, significantly influenced the Māori sovereignty movement over the years. THAT is why, in the most political site for Māori in Aotearoa (Waitangi), on our most political day of the year (Waitangi Day), you saw Palestinian solidarity on the agenda (there was no agenda item for Israel solidarity). That also explains the sea of Palestinian flags at Waitangi every single day (and the absence of Israeli flags).

pic.twitter.com/bXDszXiPbp

— hostile to western values 🙋🏾‍♀️ (@miiharoantifa) February 6, 2024

That’s why Kahungunu put forward an entire bracket dedicated to Palestine at their kapa haka regionals where we take our political statements to the stage (and there were none for Israel).

@te_otane1

We will remember every child kua kōhurutia e Ispoo #aotearoa #maoritiktok #maori #foryou #fyp #nztiktok #nz

♬ original sound – Te Otāne

That’s why we keep showing up every single weekend across the country, in solidarity with Palestine, even as we are embroiled in the fight for our own rights.

Because we know colonial injustice when we see it, and we will continue to stand against it.

Tangata Whenua stand with Palestine.

@te_otane1

Peace! Peace! Peace be upon the world. This is the final verse to this rorohū. We hope for an end to this madness. #maori #foryou #aotearoa #maoritiktok #fyp #nz #nztiktok

♬ original sound – Te Otāne

In all of the rich discussions we are having about the role of Te Tiriti in protecting our reo, in protecting our taiao, in protecting our whānau – there is much less discussion in how Te Tiriti might protect us from overseas threats.

Let’s talk about why that’s important.

In the first instance I want to acknowledge and center what drove thousands to meet at Tūrangawaewae:

That there is a specific and increased threat upon Te Ao Māori from this government and their proposed actions.

There are issues that arise out of our enduring colonialism, which we discuss every year, but thousands showed up because this government represents a new level of threat, one that needs a stronger response.

In order to respond we need to understand the source of the threat, and I don’t just mean Luxon, Peters or Seymour. How is it that a far-right government who is so willing to support hate and oppression towards Māori came into power in the first place?

I don’t know if it provides comfort that we are not alone – but it is important to be aware that the political rise of the right that we see here in Aotearoa is a part of a broader, global movement for the far right to seize political control. In the past decade, extreme right-wing parties have been voted into power in Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Israel, Hungary, Brazil, Argentina, Poland, USA, India, the UK and more. The global rise of the right has been well tracked and documented.

It’s also important to be aware that in every single one of those countries, the election campaigns of the right all consistently featured disinformation, and the following themes:

• Nostalgia for conservative periods (eg “We have to get back to the good old days”)
• Nationalist xenophobia (eg “Immigrants are taking over the nation”)
• Indigephobia (eg “The natives are trying to steal all the water”)
• A commitment to harsher penalties for the underclass (eg “We will crack down on crime”)

Sound familiar?

As George Monbiot noted recently , in every single case, once those far right parties have gotten into power, they have prioritized the same outcomes:

• Demolition of public services
• Privatisation of public assets
• Centralisation of political power
• Removing constraints on corporations
• Destroying protections for marginalized groups
• Removing protections for the environment
• Supporting landlords against tenants
• Criminalising protest
• Educational reforms that suppress education on the harm of racism or colonialism

If that looks familiar, that’s because it’s a neat checklist of this government’s intentions as well.

It’s almost like they’re sharing notes, right? Well that’s because they are.

To understand what has guided the extreme-right into power, we need to look at the trans-national nature of far-right social movements. The Proud Boys, The English Defence League, the Nordic Resistance Movement or the more corporate styled Atlas Network, are all examples of movements that have international networks, internationally share resources, strategies, and personnel, and regularly collaborate in mutual support. This includes the funding of far-right media outfits like Counterspin, in order to grow public discussions along the themes mentioned above – with the deliberate intent to shift the social discourse to the right and make far-right politics more electable. This would have been much more difficult to achieve in previous generations, but along with offline networks, they now have the internet to grow the support for these ideas – including entire social media platforms. The more money you have, the more space you can purchase in online and offline media spaces.

This is exactly the kind of activity that governments are charged to protect us from, except there is one problem: Most Western governments are rooted in colonialism (by virtue of the Doctrine of Discovery) which makes them completely inept for identifying the colonially violent tactics of the far-right, or addressing it. The bulk of politicians have family members, voters, lobbyists, and financial patrons who are all attached to these far-right movements – much more so than connections to movements for social or environmental justice.

The corporate world, too, who hold the strongest influence upon government, is rooted in imperialism. Let us not overlook that the New Zealand Company was the first joint-stock corporate company to operate in New Zealand, nor that this was a part of a long list of “companies” with a royal charter to carry out the tasks of colonization – including The East India Company (the first joint-stock corporation in the world, which set the scene for modern corporate frameworks), The Royal African Company, The Royal Niger Company (who still exist today as mega-corporation Unilever), The Canada Company, The Virginia Company and so on. This is the lineage of modern corporatism, and represents the transfer of the Doctrine of Discovery into the corporate business world, and corporate democracies.

When I say modern corporate empires are modeled from classic empire, it’s not a metaphor.

So when you have a corporate sector rooted in colonial violence, who influence a political sector rooted in colonial violence, naturally there will be difficulties in politically controlling colonial violence as it rises around the world. This includes the prevention of far-right social movements, and the far-right governments that they guide into power.

This is not a new phenomena, and in fact, our tipuna saw it coming.

If you look to the Paparahi o Te Raki Claim, the most thorough analysis of Te Tiriti o Waitangi that we have, it is clear that the expectations of our tipuna signatories was that Te Tiriti would provide:

peace and prosperity, protection of their lands and other taonga, the return of lands… security from mass immigration and settler aggression… and a guarantee of their ongoing independence and rangatiratanga.

Paparahi o Te Raki Report

Te Tiriti o Waitangi was, as confirmed by the tribunal, not a treaty of cession. It was, in the eyes of the signatories, an alliance that was being formed with the British Crown, to help manage all non-Māori settlers; and importantly, to work with Māori in our protection from overseas threats that were originating from the USA, France and other European nations.

That is exactly the space we find ourselves in today.

Importantly, however, there is a growing anti-colonial movement around the world as a direct response to the rise of the far right. As the far-right conservatism and hypocrisy of the West is exposed (such as the violence of Israel against Palestine and the complicitness of USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in that violence), the the previously cloaked fascism and racism of western so-called democracies is on show, and the world is recognising that colonialism is a harm that must end. No longer does the West have the social license to carry on as it once did.

This too is being mirrored in Aotearoa, where Te Ao Māori are responding to the far-right by gathering in the thousands to demand that our Tiriti finally be honoured, and implemented, as was intended, and we must prioritise this immediately, because if we miss this anticolonial opportunity to make systemic change I don’t know when the next opportunity will arise.

Worse still, I fear for what it will look like when the far-right does swing back again.

White supremacist movements overseas are growing in power, capability, violence and political and social endorsement. The mainstreaming of white hate has normalised hate speech and hate acts that would have been considered extreme and unacceptable just 10 years ago. On the current trajectory, the white supremacist movement will have even more violent expectations of those they vote in next time.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is absolutely an instrument designed to protect us from both internal and external threats to our existence, and those threats are more closely intertwined than we appreciate. In fact, I would argue that it is the only current instrument appropriate to do that job. It would guide our government to implement the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous peoples, it would guide foreign policy to support our values overseas (including in Palestine and all spaces where Indigenous rights are being attacked), it would lead more effective policies on international issues like climate change or militarism, it would do a better job at protecting us from corporate imperialism and would absolutely do a better job at protecting us from the global rise of the far-right.

If we do not respect its tapu, our own tapu will continue to be attacked. If we miss this opportunity to entrench it at the heart of our nation, everything we have fought for will remain at great risk, including the safety of our mokopuna.

He tapu Te Tiriti.
Me matua Te Tiriti.

(If you would like to hear more on this, register here to join this upcoming webinar on combating far-right politics)

There was something a little off about wishing others a Happy 2024 this year. Putting aside the fact that the past three years have left us all a bit traumatised – for many Māori, under what has been deemed the most anti-Māori government of our time, wishing people a happy 2024 seems to just fly in the face of what we all know to be the case – happiness is quite far away. After the election and drawn-out coalition talks, we saw the new government’s 100 day plan – a plan dominated by bans, repeals and removals, an appetiser of what we already knew this government would serve up: a steadfast commitment to winding back as many as possible of the hard-fought wins by Māori over the past 50 years.

For many, this is a time to question who we are and where we want to head (I thoroughly recommend reading this piece by John Campbell). Arguably, at this point, the more important question is: How did we get here. By “here” I don’t mean colonial oppression – we’ve been there since 1853 (when the NZ parliament was formed in violation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi).

What I mean is: how did we find ourselves in the hands of such an explicitly hostile anti-Māori government. How did we find ourselves in the hands of a government with such disrespect for Te Tiriti o Waitangi that it has been compared to the darkest days of our treaty history where the treaty was declared “a simple nullity”.

It’s an important question to answer, if we don’t want to simply find ourselves back here again in another few elections.

It would be easy to focus on last year’s election for our answer and condemn Labour for a campaign that lacked lustre, clarity and backbone. It would be easy to focus directly on National, or ACT, or indeed New Zealand First, but the truth is: their actions have been thoroughly predictable, they are being the servants to white colonial conservatism that they have always promised they would be, and Labour delivered us right into their hands. And if we fail to really appreciate the role played by Labour, they will continue to deliver us into the hands of white conservatives at regular intervals.

There’s a famous quote by Thomas Jefferson: “The government you elect is the government you deserve”. But political analysts have, for quite a few years now, noted that democracy is deeply influenced by corporations (and as anyone studying empire and colonialism can tell you, wealth is racialised, which makes democratic influence racialised). Political researcher Daniel Nyberg, in 2021, detailed in his paper how corporate political activity, in the form of lobbying, donations and purchased media space, has severely corroded democratic processes and count as forms of sanctioned corruption. Numerous others have noted the increasing role that disinformation has played in warping democratic processes (in a way that was also racialised). International interest groups like The Atlas Network have, for a long time now, influenced domestic and transnational policies through their networks which include national leaders. Within Aotearoa, electoral processes for Māori voters have been heavily criticized for a number of years now, and of course as has been pointed out consistently since 2010 – the fact that Māori sovereignty was never ceded means that parliamentary processes that operate under the assumption of ultimate Crown authority are in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. All of these make a mockery of democratic ideals – it’s not “the government you elect”, it’s “the government you are manipulated into electing”, “the government that you are coerced into electing“ and “the government elected by privilege and systemic racism”.

None of this was news to Labour. Labour understand full-well that sovereignty was never ceded to the Crown and they had the opportunity to address that injustice, but they refused to. It was simply “too politically risky” to stop politically colonizing us. It was also “too politically risky” to effectively address the disinformation systems warping public opinion, even when their own ministers and Prime Minister were subjected to its brutality.

Media is a source of both revenue and power, and while it’s true that the media must retain the capacity to independently report on political issues, it’s also true that the privatisation of media already limits their claim to independence. For both of these reasons, the government control of misinformation and disinformation angers conservative groups and Labour need to keep conservatives on side in order to win elections. The government failed to control disinformation it because it was too afraid to take on white conservatism and because it is also a product of white conservatism, leading to massive blindspots, some of which the government are fully cognizant of and happy to retain.

The biggest threat this planet faces is white conservatism. Not white people, white conservatism. White conservatism as a system privileges profit over people, and people over environment. It is a hierarchy of privilege, and at the top of that hierarchy we see wealthy upperclass people racialised as white. It also richly rewards non-white people who function to uphold the system (even though they will never reach the top of it, and even though it’s non-white people who are the most oppressed in that system). Seeing white conservatism as a system is the first step to understanding how it operates through both white and non-white people in distinct ways.

This helps to make sense of how 2/3 of the leadership of most anti-Māori coalition government of modern times is Māori. It helps us to see how justice does not just come from appointing someone who has Māori whakapapa to work within a colonial political system, but by redefining the political system itself. For many of you, you may be thinking of Shane Jones, David Seymour or Winston Peters when reading these words. Perhaps you’re thinking of Tama Potaka or Shane Reti, but it’s also true that Labour is full of Māori who opt for proximity to power over Māori political liberation – and who, at best, fail to dream big. They (at best) fail to see that they are ultimately conceding to white conservatism, and so they focus on the beads and blankets in place of political liberation.

They say justice delayed is justice denied. In this case, delayed political justice equals higher death rates, higher incarceration rates, higher child-uplift rates, higher poverty rates, higher homelessness rates. All around the world, where political self-determination has been denied to Indigenous peoples by colonial governments, the social, economic, health, and justice outcomes are the same. This is the trade-off made by successive New Zealand governments – Māori lives and freedom, for political power. When the Labour government refused to enter into discussions about a Tiriti-centered constitution, they did so with the full understanding that the political pendulum of this system unavoidably places Māori back in the hands of National again. Labour would rather share absolute power with white conservatives on a rotational basis than sustainably share power with Māori as Te Tiriti guarantees.

They choose to deliver us back into the hands of National on a regular basis, as a trade off to domination in the times in between. Even during Labour terms, the system still hyper-incarcerated Māori, still disproportionately took Māori children from their homes into systems of abuse, still plundered Māori lands and waters, but all of this was carried out under the guise of “kind” politics – a genre of colonization that the New Zealand government excels in and has been in place since colonization by military force because economically untenable (ie. the late 1800s).

“Kind” colonialism operates on a number of tenets:

• Allowing for lively debate and reform on the condition that ultimate colonial authority is never conceded or even questioned
• The co-option of the oppressed into maintaining colonial power
• The provision of “treats” (smaller rewards to provide the optics of progress)
• The fiction that colonization is ultimately beneficial to all

So to return to the question of “how did we get here?” We got here not just because of the last election, but because we have allowed successive governments to retain colonialism here in Aotearoa. We got here because so many of us drank the cool-aid that outside of a few bad-eggs, we are a progressive, non-racist, kind country. We got here because we have allowed the lie that there is such a thing as kind colonialism. We got here because we believed the fiction that white conservatism only exists on the extreme right, rather than across the entire western political spectrum. We got here because we (Māori) allowed our dreams to become whittled down to one where we are employed to administer the colonial system, and employed to address the harm of the colonial system, but never enabled to end the colonial system.

I don’t say this to disparage the importance of our previous wins in Te Reo, the return of ancestral place-names, or Māori ward representation, all of which have been important to stem colonial harm and commence healing – but rather to point out that these measures cannot be at the expense of political liberation, to point out that we can never take our eyes off that goal, and to point out that if we want to turn colonial harm off *at the tap* we have to change the system.

Nor do I say this to attack Labour. I say this so we understand the issue is not National, ACT, or New Zealand First – it is white conservatism. I say this to warn us that if we do not change the system, we will simply see more of the same – Labour relying on politics of fear to tell us to vote for them or face more National, all the while still violating Te Tiriti themselves, and all the while knowing that they will inevitably deliver us back into National’s hands later anyway. I say this to warn us that as time progresses, the conservative right that Labour will deliver us back to will be increasingly paranoid, and increasingly brutal.

I say this to highlight that problem is not who leads government but HOW WE DO government. The answer is not to simply vote Labour back in, it is to make the entrenchment of Te Tiriti the bottom-line of the next government. Then, and only then, can we truly aspire to happiness.

A collaborative piece between myself and Tameem Shaltoni a kiwi Palestinian, born in Jordan to a family of Palestinian Arab refugees.

In this reflective piece, edited by our respective Palestinian, Tangata Whenua and activist communities, Tameem and I consider what respectful solidarity with the Palestinian nation looks like within the context of Aotearoa.

Nau mai ra e Hina
Taiahoahotia tō tātou ara i te pō
Nau mai ra e Tāne-te-wānanga
Arahina mai i a mātou ki te ao mārama
Nau mai ra e Rongo
Kia tau mai te māramatanga
Kia tau ai te āio
Kia toi te kupu
Kia toi te mana
Kia toitū te whenua taketake huri noa i te ao
Whakairia ake ki runga kia tina, tina
Hui e, taiki e.

As we watch the acts of solidarity take place around the country, we note, respect and deeply appreciate the aroha and concern shown by so many in Aotearoa. Every week, more and more New Zealanders, across more communities, are coming together to decry the atrocities visited against Palestine. In the tens of thousands, New Zealanders are showing up to call for an end to the collective punishment, the indiscriminate killing, the unjust occupation, and to rightfully name these acts for what they are: crimes against humanity. To know that these crimes are seen, and that so many will not stand for them, but will take a stand against them, offers a sense of hope in humanity, during very dark times.

While Aotearoa has had shining moments in its history where it has stood against injustice – the Springbok tours, the nuclear free protests, and more recently Ihumātao and Black Lives Matter, we also recognise that for many, resistance and solidarity may be new. Across multiple cultures and communities in Aotearoa, the numbers of those who stand with Palestine are growing. With this growth comes complexity, and the ever present need to respect each other, while centering those most impacted and amplifying their voices. Questions arise on how to stand in solidarity in a way that is impactful, whilst also being respectful, and how to express our outrage without compounding the problem, or perpetuating colonial harm.

We offer these reflections not as a set of rules, but as observations based on our experiences, and that of our relative communities.

Tameem
Cultural and religious diversity
Palestine’s history is rich, and it has one of the oldest human civilisations in the world. In Palestinian culture, elders have an anchor role at gatherings and events, and a special honour and respect are paid to them. Being situated at the middle of the old world, at the crossroad of trade routes and at the frontiers of ancient empires. Palestinians today as are culturally linguistically and religiously diverse, and it is important that solidarity organisers reflect this diversity in their events and showcase different Palestinian cultural and religious identities when applicable. Not all Palestinians are Muslim, Sunni, and Arabic-speakers (specially here in Aotearoa New Zealand). Reflecting on Palestinians’ cultural diversity, organisers are encouraged to maintain an atmosphere of inclusiveness of all cultures and religions.

Political views and affiliation
Palestinians, like any other nation, have varying political views internally (internal Palestinian politics) and abroad (New Zealand politics). Not all Palestinians are either conservative or progressive. Not all Palestinians agree on the best way forward, e.g. two-state solution vs one-state, party politics, forms of resistance, approach for liberation, and constitution.

Organisers and speakers are encouraged to consider cross-party support, to unite attendees around the event’s particular objectives, and to ensure events are inclusive of people with differing political positions.

Privacy and security
Palestinians are one of most surveillanced people on earth through the use of advanced spying technologies by Israel through its complex security apparatus. Israel leverages Palestinians’ private information to blackmail them, prevent them from visiting home, and to oppress their whānau in Palestine. Therefore it is paramount that every effort is taken to protect the privacy of Palestinian attendees, speakers, and organisers, and not to share their photos or any identifiable information without consent.

Flags, chants, and speeches
As the solidarity events are focused on Palestine, flags, chants and speeches should be aligned with the event’s kaupapa and pre-agreed with the local Palestinian community leaders. Material that is deemed offensive or detractor as flagged by a consensus of Palestinian attendees should be removed.

Other struggles
While each anti-colonial struggle is unique, the Palestinian struggle shares characteristics with many other anti-colonial struggles across the world and here in Aotearoa New Zealand. A close look at the powers that maintain Israel’s colonisation of Palestine shows that they are the same powers that enabled colonisation across the world and that makes all anti-colonial struggles interconnected. Solidarity with Palestine cannot be a utility in other people’s oppression or a bystander to it. We build bridges between Palestinians’ struggle and other people’s to free us all.

Respect and acknowledge Tangata Whenua
As we stand and live on Māori land, we respect and acknowledge tangata whenua and mana whenua where we gather. Palestinians’ freedom and self determination also are not complete without that of Māori, as global colonial powers are one. In the next section, Tina Ngata illustrates how Palestine solidarity respects tangata whenua.

Tina Ngata
Tangata Whenua Solidarity with Palestine
Our solidarity with Palestine is informed by our own experience of colonization. In interviews of ethnic whānau for Ki Te Wheiao Ki Te Ao Mārama, they recognised in powerful terms that the racism they experience and the barriers they encounter are inextricably linked to Aotearoa-New Zealand being a colonised country. Those subjected to colonialism recognise it well, and this is a mutual relationship – as Māori we also recognise the experience of Palestine as one of colonial violence, from 1948 until now.

Our stand with Palestine is therefore one we make from one Indigenous people to another. Generations of Māori resistance throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90s have been inspired by Palestine, and we continue to stand by them as a nation with full human rights including political self-determination. Today we use the ability to stand on our own lands, and draw upon the strength from our own intergenerational struggle against colonialism to send aroha and strength to our Palestinian brothers and sisters, and challenge all governments to recognise and respond to this injustice.

The Indigenous movement is worldwide, because colonialism has also been a global project (one which arguably started in Palestine), and we know full well that while colonialism remains in force around the world, its dark threat will also hang over our own heads. Permitting colonialism here in Aotearoa allows for it in Palestine, and permitting it in Palestine allows for it here. For this reason, we call for colonialism to end, everywhere. For this same reason, solidarity against colonialism must be something we do within our resistance actions, not just with our resistance calls.

Respecting Māori Expressions of Solidarity
Māori-Palestinian solidarity is not just out of a sense of self-preservation, but a deep understanding of the injustice, and intergenerational mamae (pain and grief) caused by colonial violence, by our ability to remember what our ancestors were subjected to at the height of colonial violence, and the horror of seeing it happen again, today, that Māori stand. It is from our core tikanga of aroha-ki-te-tangata that we stand beside our Palestinian whānau. Our haka, our waiata, our karakia, are all spiritual and cultural calls for protection and resilience. When we open a rally with a karakia, we gather the strength of the lands, waters and ancestors of the place where we stand on that day, and focus it upon the purpose of those in attendance. It is the most appropriate way, most respectful way, and most powerful way to open a space for resistance and solidarity upon colonized lands, for colonized lands.

Anti-colonialism Within Colonized Lands
Understanding that Israeli oppression of Palestine is colonialism is imperative to conducting respectful solidarity for Palestine in Aotearoa. In the same way that Māori connect to Palestine as a nation subjected to colonialism, all acts of Palestinian solidarity in Aotearoa exist within a context of being on colonised lands. One of the common traps allies fall into is the need to be the one to “fix” injustice which, while noble, is borne of a combination of privilege and saviourism. Solidarity is not about “fixing” injustice on behalf of others, it is about centering those most impacted, and being present with them. This may look like:

● Checking in on what their needs are
● Amplifying their voices
● Echoing their calls
● Using your relative privilege to remove barriers that they have identified
● Standing beside them and offering protection when they are at risk
● Providing resource or supporting them to acquire necessary resource
● Getting out of their way

Be conscious of privilege
We’ve seen this happen over and over again, particularly in the climate movement. In Canada, for instance, white Extinction Rebellion protestors became provocateurs during protests, taking over megaphones and provoking the crowd towards anger in a way that resulted in violent clashes with police, and arrests. Without fail, when this happens, it is non-white people who are targeted, profiled by police and media, arrested, and carry the brunt of the consequences. Carrying out these actions with respect means understanding your relative privilege, and protecting those who will inevitably have to carry the consequences of your actions. This is a growing concern where particular NGOs/resistance groups take on names that incorporate Te Reo Māori – but the group itself is not Māori. Carrying our reo with responsibility in these spaces means being transparent in your identity and conducting yourself in a way that does not lead to Māori being targeted for your actions.

Organisers – engage mana whenua
One of the very basic ABCs that is often missed (and that belies just how far we have to go as a nation in our own decolonial journey) is that people rarely contact the mana whenua of the place where they intend to carry out an action. In my experience, they rarely even know who the mana whenua is, because they’ve not ever had to engage with them (and one can therefore deduce that they have never stood in solidarity with them). When I say mana whenua, I do not mean tangata whenua (which refers to all Maori). I mean the specific iwi and/or hapū upon whose land you are standing. Those who have to maintain relationships after you are gone, those whose land may be vandalised, those who will be left behind and potentially targeted after the action is finished. They may not see the need to be there, but they can certainly be paid the respect of being advised. This will also enable your stand against colonial racism to be localised, and longstanding.

As leading Anti-racist and Pro-Palestinian stalwart Angela Davis says: Racism is a global phenomenon, which only a global movement can eradicate. This means confronting it in Palestine, in Aotearoa, in our own communities, and confronting it in ourselves. Through listening to and centering Palestinian voices and interests, and practising mindfulness of the colonial context within which we express our solidarity, we can galvanise our united efforts for a world free of colonial violence.

Featured image: Palestinian Youth Aotearoa hold a cultural evening in Aotea Square, Tāmaki Makaurau, where they ‘built Gaza’. Photo: John Miller.

CW: The following includes references to genocide, extreme violence and Islamophobic violence including the Christchurch terrorist attacks.

If you have been to any of my workshops on the Doctrine of Discovery, you’ll know that I focus very deliberately on the text of the papal bull Dum Diversas, and talk about the collection of papal bulls as representing a point in history where a particular form of racism (ie white european supremacy) became codified as the basis for international law, and paved the way for white european supremacy to become an organising principle of the planet. I start the story here because it is a point in time where so many different factors around race, religion, economy and power converge. Understanding this period helps for us to understand how the world economy and global power structure grew around Europe’s presumed entitlement to Indigenous lands and bodies, first in Africa, and then around the world. It helps us to understand the historical (and enduring) connections between colonial economies of stolen land and colonial economies of enslavement, which underpin the global economy today. It helps us to understand how political economies grew around philosophies of empire, leading to global corporatocracies play-acting as democracies.

But there is a pro-logue to this story, inferred by the text of Dum Diversas, which gave the following entitlements to King Afonso of Portugal:

“to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed”

Dum Diversas

Saracens was the word utilised at the time for Muslim groups – pagans were any groups that were not Christian, and was usually applied to native populations, and just to make it really clear, all of us were deemed “enemies of Christ”. Islam and Indigenous peoples have been the dual-targets of the colonial project since it started. This crusade logic, with all its entitlements, was then extended to the “New World”, that is, everywhere else that was “discovered” (invaded) by European explorers, including Aotearoa.

If we, Indigenous peoples, are not conscious to this relationship, rooted in the crusades of the 11th-13th centuries, then white supremacists certainly are. The 2019 Christchurch terrorist specifically asked “What would Pope Urban II do?” in his manifesto, published online as he left to carry out his massacre of Muslim worshippers, with further crusade references daubed in white paint on his weapons (Pope Urban II is credited as the instigator of the crusades). His manifesto also went on to claim Aotearoa as “white man’s land”, and laid out hopes that his extremism would initiate a level of social disorder which would hasten the establishment of a white-supremacist state. Tarrant was a follower of Anders Brevik, the white supremacist who went on a murdering spree in Norway, who also fashioned himself as a crusader. The white supremacist chant “Deus Vult” or “God Wills It” is a direct lift from the Clermont speech of Pope Urban II which initiated the first of the Crusades. In the US, numerous white supremacist terrorists have made reference to the crusades, as a justification to violence not only against Muslim groups, but all non-white, non-European and non-Christian groups, including Jewish groups. It’s a sad truth that the Zionist extremism of the Israeli government and their supporters leverages off a power system which is absolutely ready to exact Christian supremacist violence against Jewish communities (so long as its broader agenda against Muslim and Indigenous rights is fulfilled).

Nowhere has the intersection of Islamophobia and Indigephobia been more pronounced than in Palestine, where the nation-state of Israel (formed in 1948) has carried out a sustained, drawn out genocide in front of the world, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a regular basis with little to no formal consequence from the global community. These crimes include:

• Massive seizures of land and property
• Unlawful killings of civilians, including children
• Infliction of serious injuries upon civilians, including children
• Forcible transfers
• Imposition of an apartheid regime through arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians combined with denial of basic services to Palestinian communities.
• Denial of nationality – this includes the stripping of citizenship for people who are even distantly related to Palestinian fighters.

For Māori who have learnt about our history – these experiences should ring familiar. The history of our darkest days under colonial oppression, the days of Rangiaowhia, of Rangiriri, the days of imprisonment on Rerekohu, the days of mass land theft under the Suppression of Rebellion Act – these are not historical relics for Palestinians, they are every day real occurrences.
Israeli war-crimes are not just restricted to this current conflict, they are a regular occurrence and have been for a long time in Palestine. That said, in just the first week following the Hamas attacks upon Israel, Israel responded with 18 acts that are considered, under international law, as war-crimes, crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity . Israel’s continued genocidal assault has included the bombing of a Greek Orthodox Christian Church (where displaced Palestinians were sheltering) and multiple hospitals.

In taking the brutal colonial history into consideration, however, it’s hard to escape the deduction that the Israeli government has simply taken this opportunity to press fast-forward on the colonial project that was already well underway.

The world’s colonial governments (and most vocally the US government) have not only looked on, but have supported the Israeli government with rhetoric bound in references to “shared values”. What is less-explicit in the rhetoric is that these shared values are the values of colonial entitlement to occupy, state violence against Indigenous groups, the legitimising of genocide and the colonial compulsion to restrict where Indigenous peoples can exist. So prolific is the expertise of the Israeli Defence Forces in colonial police violence against Indigenous groups, that colonial states from around the world have sent their forces to the IDF for training in the matter. Mexico received IDF training for their police forces in order to suppress the Zapatista movement, after concerns about Indigenous resistance in Chiapas were raised by the American Chase-Manhattan Bank as a part of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Israel has provided helicopters, missile boats and weapons to Mexico for the specific purpose of Indigenous oppression. Israel further provided arms, training, and strategic to the Guatemalan and El Salvadorian governments in their scorched-earth policies against Indigenous groups – Israel is the “go-to” state for anti-Indigenous oppression, specifically because of their longstanding practices in oppressing and displacing Palestinian peoples.

Our own NZ Prime Ministers have held longstanding alliances with Zionists in Aotearoa which maintain political influence today. Numerous calls for New Zealand to recognise Palestinian rights and condemn the violent Israeli apartheid regime have been countered by New Zealand’s Zionist community, which is a very small but very vocal group with overlaps to the NZ alt-right community through the Free Speech Union and Tax Payers Union, and is more concerned with far-right politics than representing Jewish interests in New Zealand. As vocal as they are, they are certainly not representative of the broader New Zealand Jewish community, which includes many pro-Palestinian and Indigenous rights advocates. The Zionists have nevertheless managed to leverage off a long history of Zionist political activity in New Zealand. Palestinian communities in Aotearoa (like all Middle-East, African and Muslim communities) continue to experience racism and live at disproportionate levels of risk due to the New Zealand government’s inability to address white supremacy here (and it will continue to be ineffective in addressing white supremacy here, because the New Zealand government is founded upon it, and has still not reckoned with that fact).

The New Zealand government explicitly supported the establishment of the nation-state of Israel through the 1947 UN partition resolution, has never officially recognised Palestinian sovereignty, and to date has only explicitly named Hamas in its condemnation of violence, in spite of Israel’s continued violence against innocent Palestinian civilians which far outweighs that of Hamas against Israel. New Zealand’s domestic Zionist political activity aside, the New Zealand government position (in which only the Green Party and Te Paati Māori have explicitly condemned the Israeli war-crimes) is undoubtedly influenced by its political-economic alliances with the US, UK, Australia and Canada, all of which operate upon a backdrop of colonial imperialism.

@whaeadeb

#peace #freepalestine🇵🇸

♬ original sound – WhaeaDeb

We may be on opposite sides of the planet from Palestine, but it would be foolish to think that this conflict has nothing to do with us. For over 500 years, the destinies of Muslim and Indigenous peoples around the world have been intertwined through the logic of crusades, which is manifest in the Israeli government’s colonial oppression of Palestinian peoples. The lands and people of Palestine have been subjected to colonial violence either as Muslim, or as Indigenous peoples, for nearly 1000 years. The Israeli occupation of Palestine and oppression of Palestinian peoples is racist, imperialist, Islamophobic and Indigephobic. The oppression of Palestinian communities is borne of the same logic that oppresses Māori, and all Indigenous peoples, and their liberation is very much connected to the liberation of Indigenous peoples everywhere.

From the river, to the sea, Palestine must be free.

GUEST BLOG BY DR. ARAMA RATA

(Feaured image: Image: Palestine march, Tāmaki Makaurau. Photo: (with permission) billiebird_was_here

For the past two weeks we’ve watched in horror as Israel commits genocide against Palestinians, airstrikes killing over 4,500 including at least 1,873 children, and reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble. Israel cut off food, water, and electricity to the region, and issued an evacuation order to 1 million people in the North, but proceeded to bombard Gaza indiscriminately.

Of course these are not the first war crimes committed by the state of Israel against Palestinians. Israel was founded in 1948 through events described by Palestinians as the Nakba – the ‘catastrophe’, what we might call a pāhua.

Two weeks ago, despite the overwhelming military superiority of the Israel Occupation Forces, Palestinian militants evaded Israeli intelligence, breaking the blockade and re-entering territory occupied by Israel for the first time since the Nakba 75 years ago. 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed.

Since the 7th of October, Western leaders have ramped up reckless rhetoric, in an attempt to justify the collective punishment of all Palestinian people. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated his genocidal intentions openly: to reduce Gaza to rubble. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”

US President Joe Biden condemned Hamas as a ‘terrorist’ organisation, and affirmed “Israel’s right to defend itself”. Here in New Zealand, in the lead up to our general election, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s reiterated Biden’s statements.

The only political candidate to speak strongly against these atrocities ahead of the election was Te Pati Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who stated, “We cannot be in denial and can’t expect peace while one extremely powerful force has, for the last 80 plus years, been colonising and blocking another who hasn’t been able to live… We cannot judge this in isolation… our role as Te Pāti Māori is understanding the bigger picture and what has been happening here in the last 80 years and the absolute genocide that has been going on that everyone pretends hasn’t.”

Since the election, we’ve watched the social media accounts of our politicians as they gleefully take their place in parliament, while remaining silent on the unfolding atrocities. Many of us campaigned to get our people out to vote for ‘progressive’ parties. And yet, despite thousands here taking to the streets in support of Palestine and to oppose Israel’s war crimes, it took Labour 10 days to announce a $5 million package to address humanitarian needs ‘in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank’ (emphasis added), and 11 days for Te Pati Māori and the Greens to break their social media silence, during which time 3,500 Palestinians were killed.

The statements issued by all of our political parties have condemned the actions of Hamas, implicitly or explicitly reaffirming the right of Israel to ‘defend itself’. Extreme acts of violence were committed by Hamas. Of this there is no doubt. But what right does Israel have to claim victimhood when there are libraries of accumulated evidence of Israel’s ongoing war crimes? What right do the guards of a concentration camp have to ‘defend’ themselves? And what right does any Western leader have to condemn the tactics of a people whose oppression the West is responsible for? The answer to these questions is: no right whatsoever.

The rallies held across Aotearoa in support of Palestinian liberation over the past two weeks have attracted little to no attention from our mainstream media, who have instead continued to reproduce Washington/Tel Aviv talking points and platformed pro-apartheid, pro-ethnic cleansing groups in the interests of presenting a ‘balanced story’. Not since Operation 8 have we felt such widespread rage at the media establishment, so blatantly presenting false narratives to condemn an Indigenous resistance movement as terrorists.

We must continue to expose Israel’s atrocities, to cut through mainstream media propaganda. We must mobilise and build power outside of parliament. We must demand the end to Israel’s illegal occupation, and be part of the international movement for the liberation of Palestine.

While the siegebreakers have been accused of causing an escalation in violence, in reality they have challenged the West to account for our complicity in the oppression of Palestinian people. As Western leaders double-down on their support for Israel despite the mass movement in support of Palestinian liberation, the siegebreakers have shattered whatever’s left of the illusion of Western democracy. They have destroyed any remaining legitimacy of the so-called ‘international rules based order’, and in doing so the siegebreakers have broadened the horizon of political possibility towards decolonisation for us all.