Hey Mr. Suit.

Hey Mr. Suit.
Are you an ocean-person?
Are you an OCEAN-person.
Are your people ocean-people.
Are your ancestors ocean-people.
Cause I am.
And always have been.
My people have lived off, and lived on, and lived with this ocean since time immemorial. They have spoken with it, and read it, and traversed it and communed with it since before yours even knew it existed
I can stand here right now and name every single ancestor that has stood before me going all the way back to the ocean itself.
And all of their blood is in me, going all the way back to THIS ocean.
Whose salty watery blood is also in me.
This ocean is my ancestor and like all my ancestors it is me.
So when I was my father – I was an ocean-person
And when I was my father’s mother – and back when I was my great great great great granddaddy too, throwing my net off the rocks at Te Pito to feed the people… back when I was him – I was this ocean, as a person.
And I remain this ocean.
So what you do to this ocean you do to me.
When you claim to be an expert on this ocean you are claiming to be an expert on me.
You are not an expert on me.
I am the expert on me.
It is my perspective that you must understand, not the other way around
It is my knowing that you must defer to, not the other way around
And if you do not get that, you are standing on the wrong land.
Noku tenei whenua, kei a au te korero
Noku tenei whenua , ko au te rangatira