It feels like my life has been spent standing alongside my Māori brothers and sisters, just as my father did. It’s been an absolute joy because, in Aotearoa, Māori are desperately disadvantaged in every measurable metric and in most others too, always have been and now, in 2025, absolutely nothing has changed.
Sadly, under this coalition government, the future is looking bleak as well.
Well, not exactly nothing.
My immediate family now whakapapa to Ngāpuhi nui tonu, the largest iwi in the country. I’m immensely proud of them and it’s great to be able to share this journey of discovery with them. For the first time ever, it means I’m the only white Honky left in our whare.
I guess the fight will never be over, especially now, because, as I finish writing this I sit down to write my submission on the Treaty Principles Bill, the most insidious piece of legislation in my entire lifetime. It’s worse even, than the Foreshore and Seabed debacle overseen by the otherwise pretty good Helen Clark. So, I have to get off my arse again, after all these bloody years, and add my voice to the outraged cacophony that is coming from the rest of the country. How I love these racist politicians and their bullshit ideas about equality.
Sorry, sarcasm alert.
There is no equality without equity and that’s a fight, but I will never walk away from.
dykiegirl 