Pee Kay: The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree

This old adage most certainly applies when discussing Maori activist “usual suspects” and Maori politics.

The apple not falling far from the tree is more than just a comment on individual personalities. It is a lens through which we observe the construction of a power base, the propagation of ideology culminating in the transfer of power. It can also be said that traits, be they a drive for self-sufficiency, for power and wealth or a penchant for controversy, they are inherited as surely as DNA is inherited.

When we apply this to the current landscape of New Zealand Maori politics, looking at 3 influential Maori families, it raises a critical question; Is Maori politics a broad-based, collective movement, or simply the next or new branch of the same tree?

No family attracts more headlines or controversy in modern Maori politics than the John Tamihere dynasty. We’re all too familiar with the exhausting, recurring cycle of news surrounding the man. On one hand, you get his brash rhetoric about Maori self-sufficiency. On the other, you get persistent, troubling allegations of nepotism and political graft.

Tamihere has built his reputation on a brand of “tough love.” He famously lectured that “too many Maori blame others for our failure” and demanded absolute personal responsibility. But funny how things change. Now that his hands are actually gripping the levers of power, John has done a total about-face. Blaming others for Maori failure has suddenly become his daily mantra.

And as for that “personal responsibility” he used to preach? It turns out he keeps that very close to home. When you look at how the Maori Party is structured, it’s clear Tamihere has made sure his own family is very well looked after.

The Tamihere family is akin to a modern day dynasty.

Tamihere speaks with immense pride of his eldest daughter, Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology. Kiri is described as relentless force and the engine room behind her husband, Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. In Tamihere’s eyes, she represents the liberation and success his philosophy of Maori autonomy promises.

Yet, looking at the hierarchy of the Maori party, the “family tree” and the “party list” appear to be one and the same:

• The President: John Tamihere

• The Co-Leader: Rawiri Waititi (Son-in-law)

• The General Manager: Kiri Tamihere-Waititi (Daughter)

• The Secretary/Treasurer: Lance Norman (One time Tamihere “apprentice”, now Executive at Tamihere’s Whanau Ora Agency)

• The Electorate Chairs: A network of sisters-in-law and nieces, including Monica Waititi, Hinemoana Durie-Shedlock, and Te Rina Lemon.

When the majority of party office holders and nearly half of the electorate chairs are linked to one man, the line between a democratic political entity and a private family enterprise begins to blur somewhat.

As the party navigates internal friction and high-court challenges regarding its leadership style, the public is left to wonder; Is this the “self-sufficiency” Tamihere envisioned? A movement that relies entirely on the strength of a single family? Or is it even, a single family member?

While Tamihere defiantly stated that “no MP is above the party,” the crucial question remains; Is the Maori Party a broad-based movement for all Maori, or a family-run political machine?

As PDM asked a while back – “Is it a political party or a family?

I would suggest it is a most definitely a family; A family that has found a myriad of ways to insert themselves into the rich veins of taxpayers money!

A Maori activist family that isn’t quite as obvious but is just as deeply entrenched, is that of Marama Davidson.

The Green Party co-leader comes from a family deeply rooted in radical, urban Maori activism. Her father, Peter Broughton, better known as the actor Rawiri Paratene of Whale Rider fame is a lifelong activist who made his name back in the 1970s. At just 16 years old, he joined Nga Tamatoa (the “Young Warriors”), a group well known for aggressively challenging government policy and racial discrimination. He rubbed shoulders with the usual suspects of that era, like Syd Jackson, Donna Awatere, and Hone Harawira. By 1972, he was a founding member of their Wellington branch, sleeping on the steps of Parliament and presenting the Maori language petition.

Unsurprisingly, Paratene’s lifelong obsession with race politics eventually led him to the Greens, standing as a candidate for Maungakiekie in 2008.

Marama Davidson openly boasts that she was “born into a family of young, urban Maori activists,” claiming this radical upbringing fuels her work in Parliament every day. Given that she was raised on a strict diet of social grievance, followed by a ten-year stint at the Human Rights Commission, it was entirely predictable that she would bring this divisive focus straight to the halls of power.

Since becoming Greens co-leader in 2018, Davidson has abandoned the traditional environmental conservation issues you’d actually expect from a “Green” party. Instead, she clearly perceives far more political mileage in stoking the flames of identity politics and culture wars.

Who can possibly forget her unhinged outburst as Violence Prevention Minister: “I am the violence prevention minister—and I know who causes violence in the world—it is white cis men.” Such is the toxic state of today’s Maori politics. Davidson felt so completely emboldened and untouchable that she happily broadcast a statement that insulted a massive portion of the population and invited widespread public contempt.

My last example of modern Maori politics and the reality of family connections is the Maipi family. In this family we see three generations of activism, much of it incredibly radical.

The story of the Maipi family is one of unbroken service to the Kiingitanga movement and a relentless pursuit of Maori sovereignty. Spanning union halls, international delegations, and now the halls of Parliament, three generations, Timi, Potaka, and Hana-Rawhiti have left an indelible mark on New Zealand’s political landscape.

The family’s activist roots run deep. Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s grandfather, Timi Te Maipi, was a Huntly miner, unionist, and early Nga Tamatoa member. Back in the day, Timi and his fellow sovereignty activists clearly caught the eye of handlers in Communist China who were looking for fertile, impressionable minds.

Timi was part of a historic five-member Maori workers’ delegation to the People’s Republic of China. That trip has close comparisons to and gives off serious shades of activists Donna Awatere-Huata, Ripeka Evans and Josie Keelan infamous 1979 trip to Cuba.

This trip to Communist China was organised by the Communist Party of New Zealand and included fellow radical Tame Iti and poet Hone Tuwhare. The official excuse for the trip was to study how socialist China addressed its minority populations.

I bet they didn’t get to meet any of the persecuted Uyghur Chinese on that tour.

Timi’s greater claim to fame, or is that infamy, was his highly controversial role in the movement to tear down the statue of Captain Hamilton from Hamiltons Civic Square in 2020. He publicly ranted that celebrating colonial figures was an insult to his ancestors, branding Hamilton a “murderous @r$ehole who was displayed in the city as though he was a hero!”

Maipi’s campaign was certainly helped by arch wokster, mayor Paula Southgate who said that the global push to remove symbols of racism and oppression around the world meant it was the right time to do the same in New Zealand!

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s father, Potaka Maipi, was nowhere as prominent in Maori activism as his father and daughter. He is an award winning broadcaster and media specialist. After working for TVNZ for a decade he founded Taniwha Media Ltd, a Hamilton-based firm that manages major contracts for Waikato-Tainui and Māori Television.

Potaka describes his proudest achievement as supporting his daughter’s rise. He credits the guidance of the Late Kingi Tuheitia in helping mentor her into leadership.

In 2023, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke became the youngest Member of Parliament in over 170 years. Her election for the Maori Party in the Hauraki-Waikato seat was seen as the arrival of Maori youth into politics, the “Kōhanga Reo generation.”

Hana-Rawhiti often references her lineage as her primary driver. A further branch of family activism is that of grand aunt Hana Te Hemara. Hana Te Hemara was, again, another one of the founding members of Nga Tamatoa. A prominent Māori leader and activist who was passionate about the revival of the Māori language and was involved with Rawiri Paratene in delivering the landmark 1972 Te Reo Māori petition to Parliament.

When you connect the dots between the Tamihere, Davidson, and Maipi families, a deeply troubling picture of modern Maori politics emerges. This isn’t a grassroots, broad-based movement fighting for ordinary people; it is a highly coordinated network of multigenerational activist families treating our political system like a private family enterprise. Tribalism in action!

From the blatant nepotism, many would say racism, of the Maori Party to the divisive culture wars of the Greens and the radical, sovereignty-driven agendas rooted in old school socialism, the playbook remains exactly the same. They use public crises and government restructuring to carve out tribal territories, hijack taxpayer funding, and cement permanent control over regional resources.

The warning for New Zealand is very clear. If we continue to let these unelected political dynasties dictate the country’s direction, the equal voting rights of ordinary ratepayers will be wiped out entirely, leaving local democracy completely dismantled.

The next step, MAORI SOVEREIGNTY by 2040!

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; it simply grows a stronger branch for the next generation.”

Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE