Steven Mark Gaskell writes > “Tikanga for Thee, Not for Me” – A Special Set of Rules for a Very Special Few
By now, you've probably seen the latest soft-focus explainer floating around social media and news columns: “What is Tikanga?” It’s being pitched as a living, breathing code of conduct, deeply rooted in Māori values, spirituality, and communal harmony. It guides how people should behave with respect, dignity, and balance.
All sounds lovely — in theory.
But while we’re being lectured about the sacred obligations of manaakitanga, tapu, and “showing kindness and respect,” the irony is hard to ignore. Because if there’s one place those values seem to evaporate faster than a Treaty settlement cheque, it’s Parliament.
Take Te Pāti Māori, for example. We’re told they carry the mantle of tikanga into the debating chamber. Yet their idea of respect looks more like yelling, staging intimidating haka in defiance of House protocol, and storming out when the going gets tough. Not quite the gentle embrace of wairua we were promised.
Let’s not forget their organisational brilliance — still unable to file their financial returns months after the election. (It’s May, guys. Just saying.) And while we’re at it, should we talk about those “Tikanga-enhanced” tactics seen down on the marae — like shipping in voters, bypassing ID checks, and other creative interpretations of democracy?
Or how about the proud whakapapa of mana that seems to keep turning up in court reports? If tikanga is about upholding spiritual and cultural integrity, maybe someone should’ve passed the memo along to those ending up in orange jumpsuits.
Yes, tikanga can change, we’re told — and it has. Into a handy political shield, selectively applied. Respect is demanded of others, but rarely reciprocated.
Responsibility? Optional. Accountability? Culturally insensitive.
Let’s be honest. Most Kiwis have no problem showing respect for genuine cultural tradition. We go to pōwhiri, we take our shoes off, we follow the lead. But when those preaching tikanga can’t follow basic civic rules or Parliamentary process, they’re not upholding an ancient worldview — they’re undermining it.
So next time someone tells you tikanga is a “powerful, living framework,” feel free to agree — and then politely ask if that framework includes filing your paperwork, respecting democratic norms, and maybe just once, turning up without the drama.
Because for a worldview based on balance and respect, some of its self-declared champions seem to have missed the point entirely.
Source: Facebook
Take Te Pāti Māori, for example. We’re told they carry the mantle of tikanga into the debating chamber. Yet their idea of respect looks more like yelling, staging intimidating haka in defiance of House protocol, and storming out when the going gets tough. Not quite the gentle embrace of wairua we were promised.
Let’s not forget their organisational brilliance — still unable to file their financial returns months after the election. (It’s May, guys. Just saying.) And while we’re at it, should we talk about those “Tikanga-enhanced” tactics seen down on the marae — like shipping in voters, bypassing ID checks, and other creative interpretations of democracy?
Or how about the proud whakapapa of mana that seems to keep turning up in court reports? If tikanga is about upholding spiritual and cultural integrity, maybe someone should’ve passed the memo along to those ending up in orange jumpsuits.
Yes, tikanga can change, we’re told — and it has. Into a handy political shield, selectively applied. Respect is demanded of others, but rarely reciprocated.
Responsibility? Optional. Accountability? Culturally insensitive.
Let’s be honest. Most Kiwis have no problem showing respect for genuine cultural tradition. We go to pōwhiri, we take our shoes off, we follow the lead. But when those preaching tikanga can’t follow basic civic rules or Parliamentary process, they’re not upholding an ancient worldview — they’re undermining it.
So next time someone tells you tikanga is a “powerful, living framework,” feel free to agree — and then politely ask if that framework includes filing your paperwork, respecting democratic norms, and maybe just once, turning up without the drama.
Because for a worldview based on balance and respect, some of its self-declared champions seem to have missed the point entirely.
Source: Facebook
3 comments:
Tikanga, another pre 1840 tangata Maori word that our government has allowed to be weaponized and introduced into policy to justify their corporate apartheid agenda.
Any scholarly research of the many legitimate historical accounts will tell you all you need to know about our former tribal society and the operation of tikanga, wherein looting, pillaging, raping, slavery, infanticide, warfare, murder, cannabism, and revenge were all regular occurrences to the point that the average life expectancy was circa 30 years, and that's not to mention their genocide of others. But let's put that evidence of the 'respect' shown to their fellow and other travellers aside and now be stupid and believe differently. Let's expunge the truth and believe that they lived in harmony, with great respect for each other, to the point that we all should now seek to embrace these tribal and locally fluctuating unwritten protocols in our education, healthcare, and professional development systems - along with incorporating it in the activities of our judiciary and the House of Parliament.
It being those same woke, rose-tinted, fact distorting spectacles our politicians wear when they talk of that cohort's knowledge, respect, and nurture of the environment that they purportedly lived with as one, while they went about razing forests and killing species to extinction.
Like the utmost good faith that is the foundation of any Treaty, truth (yet alone, sanity) is missing on this occasion. And just btw, when it comes to the truth, where in Te Tiriti does it say the Crown (much less, 'we all') are required to acknowledge and embrace tikanga? Or, is it that our politicians (and the woke) are determined to aid and abet the activists destroy what remains of our Nation?
Well said, Peter!
Post a Comment