That 88 iwi apparently made a call for unity asking for cohesion and collective kōrero only for Te Pāti Māori’s national council to ignore, dismiss or override them. The headline tells the story. Iwi called for unity and the party decided to expel MPs instead. There is no illusion. When push comes to shove, tikanga means nothing.
The hypocrisy of kaupapa Māori governance is clear. Te Pāti Māori presents itself as the embodiment of kaupapa Māori as a party rooted in tikanga, manaakitanga and kotahitanga. However, when iwi call for unity, the leadership acts unilaterally. When grassroots voices say something different, the national council meets behind closed doors, votes without opposition and boots MPs out.
It is not just mismanagement. It looks like dictatorship. That is what Māori supremacist Eru Kapa‑Kingi alleged when he severed his movement’s relationship with Te Pāti Māori. If you preach majority rule, you cannot then ignore the majority when it diverges. If you speak of whanaungatanga and open hui, you cannot then hold secret votes and ratify expulsions without input from those most affected.
This episode shows that for many, tikanga is mumbo jumbo and a branding exercise not a framework for decision making. Consider the dispute was internal. The iwi chairs forum hoped for reconciliation. There was talk of unity. The outcome was exclusion. This tells us that tikanga has no binding force when the powers that be decide to act otherwise.
What is the cost of this charade? A loss of legitimacy. If a political organisation that claims to represent Māori values and speaks of tikanga cannot practise internal democracy, then it forfeits moral authority. Communities will become cynical. Iwi will ask if the voice of 88 iwi was ignored, what hope is there for the voice of the many smaller hapū and marae.
It opens the door to critique from outside. Māori governance is captured. Māori politics is elite driven. Tikanga is used only when convenient. That is damaging not just for Te Pāti Māori but for every initiative that claims to operate via tikanga.
Yes, I hate to admit it, but Eru Kapa‑Kingi might have been right. This episode makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion that Te Pāti Māori is run as a dictatorship rather than as a collective movement grounded in tikanga. If iwi repeatedly call for unity and kōrero and the leadership answers by expulsion, then tikanga is shown plainly to hold no weight.
Until the mechanisms of accountability, transparency and genuine participation are embedded not just spoken about, the talk of tikanga will continue to ring hollow.
Prime minister Chris Luxon was right, Te Pāti Māori is a joke.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
It is not just mismanagement. It looks like dictatorship. That is what Māori supremacist Eru Kapa‑Kingi alleged when he severed his movement’s relationship with Te Pāti Māori. If you preach majority rule, you cannot then ignore the majority when it diverges. If you speak of whanaungatanga and open hui, you cannot then hold secret votes and ratify expulsions without input from those most affected.
This episode shows that for many, tikanga is mumbo jumbo and a branding exercise not a framework for decision making. Consider the dispute was internal. The iwi chairs forum hoped for reconciliation. There was talk of unity. The outcome was exclusion. This tells us that tikanga has no binding force when the powers that be decide to act otherwise.
What is the cost of this charade? A loss of legitimacy. If a political organisation that claims to represent Māori values and speaks of tikanga cannot practise internal democracy, then it forfeits moral authority. Communities will become cynical. Iwi will ask if the voice of 88 iwi was ignored, what hope is there for the voice of the many smaller hapū and marae.
It opens the door to critique from outside. Māori governance is captured. Māori politics is elite driven. Tikanga is used only when convenient. That is damaging not just for Te Pāti Māori but for every initiative that claims to operate via tikanga.
Yes, I hate to admit it, but Eru Kapa‑Kingi might have been right. This episode makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion that Te Pāti Māori is run as a dictatorship rather than as a collective movement grounded in tikanga. If iwi repeatedly call for unity and kōrero and the leadership answers by expulsion, then tikanga is shown plainly to hold no weight.
Until the mechanisms of accountability, transparency and genuine participation are embedded not just spoken about, the talk of tikanga will continue to ring hollow.
Prime minister Chris Luxon was right, Te Pāti Māori is a joke.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
12 comments:
What we are seeing with TPM is happening with iwi over the whole country. Tuhoe is a classic example, but it isn't only them. Calls for unity normally mean "nobody is allowed to question me". Calls for tikanga normally mean "everyone has to do things my way and bugger the law". Calls for self governance means "we don't have to fulfill our obligations as NZ citizens, while still taking advantage of the welfare, education, infrastructure and health systems". I hope ordinary Maori wake up and look at who is really benefiting them.
Well.tikunga is just a codeword for scam the naive whitey. I bet in private the activists can't believe the gullability of the nz people as the maori who are not even maori take nz land and resources and then demand that it's not enough. They want private land too. I mean john tamihere is a half british through his mother. It's like Hitler being half jewish and still getting away with slandering the jews by saying he doesn't recognise that half of himself. It is sn absolute piss take and scam and no one is stopping it.
Tikanga is mumbo jumbo and I agree, yet our governments have written it into our Acts and Statutes? What does that make our government?
Tikanga being undefined can mean anything. Seems to me Tamahere in acting as a rangatira, which he effectively is, and by ruling the roost is simply following avery plausible interpretation of tikanga
Some of us believe a party based solely on race is also a joke. There is no justification for this in a country which was always regarded as a leader in the race relations department. New Zealanders are very fair-minded. That is why The Maori Party has been indulged to this point. However, if the boundaries keep getting pushed to a point where other citizens become "second class" then history tells us there will be strife.
What do we have now? Areas of land being denied access to( sometimes this isn't reported in the media). Other conservation areas being claimed. Preferential business, tax, job and study criteria for part-Maori. Large cultural grants. Towns, cities, rivers, and street names being changed. Maori carvings popping up everywhere without consultation. Tikanga introduced into law. Yes, it might appear benign, but honestly are people too stupid to see where we are heading?
It is an extension to the Mad Hatter's Te Pati!
Kevan
All the more stupid for not going back and fixing it!
When Taika Waititi claimed "NZ is as racist as f#@k", I remember being appalled at the time. But when you look at all the special privileges now dished out to those identfying as Maori (just some being mentioned above by Janine), we have, indeed, more than crossed the line and it makes the feigned outrage of the 1981 'Springbok' tour a joke by comparison - for we now embrace apartheid in so many spheres of our country's activity.
As for tikanga - it's whatever the Rangatira (aka Maori elite) believe it to be and we'd be utter fools to embrace anything that's so 'fluid' and made up on the fly - more especially given it hardly presents a successful track record when looking back at the level of 'civilisation' Maori had attained pre-1840.
It's past time all this nonsense ended, for too many appear to have learnt absolutely nothing from that Suessian pearl of wisdom, 'The Sneetches'. Only a handful of our politicians actually preach this belief, and it's not difficult to identify who they are and it certainly isn't the leaders of the two main legacy parties.
To expect the woke, progressives, race-grifters, perpetually offended, faux-marginalised and socialists to abide by any kind of consistent logic or even meet their own standards is a fool’s errand.
The issue is never the issue - the ideology alone is king.
RNZ promised insight into “what was said and not said” at a meeting between the two Maori party expelled MPs and the two silent ones.
What we got was stenography with adjectives.
Lillian Hanly’s piece, like most of her peers’ work across Stuff, TVNZ, and Newshub, dutifully repeated talking points without ever asking the questions that matter. No one has asked Oriini Kaipara — sworn in barely a month ago — why she needs a “rest”, who approved it, or whether she’s still on full taxpayer pay. Once, that would’ve been political scandal territory. Now it’s treated as a vibe.
New Zealand journalism has entered its tepid phase: promising depth, but delivering mood. Reporters reach for “hui”, “kaupapa” and “wairua” as if meaning itself might be culturally insensitive. They mistake cultural caution for sophistication and call it analysis.
The Māori Party caucus is in open meltdown, but the press gallery treats it as a sacred site rather than a public institution accountable to voters. Silence is repackaged as spirituality, dysfunction as “whānau dynamics”, and absence as reflection.
This isn’t about cultural nuance — it’s about professional evasion. The msm newsrooms have become mirrors for one another, reflecting the same language, the same reverence, and the same unwillingness to look under the carpet when it comes to the Maori party.
There’s a story here about power, control, and taxpayer money. But you won’t get it from the gallery — only the soothing hum of self-censorship disguised as respect.
—PB
I propose that someone (with bigger balls than yours truly) establish Te Pati Pakeha (maoris also welcome, because, of course, there are pakehas in TPM), with the sole aim of contesting maori seats.
King John (and his daughter and son-in-law rules supreme, and he will continue pulling strings until the naive population wake up. Bring on 2026
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