So apparently now, before we launch a ship, open a school, or God forbid start a building project, we need to check in with the spiritual hotline of ancient deities. Because nothing screams modern infrastructure quite like pausing for a karakia to appease Tāne Mahuta before the digger moves an inch. Welcome to New Zealand 2.0, where taxpayer funded spirituality gets wheeled out with more regularity than a traffic cone on State Highway
You’d think we were building pyramids to honour the gods of the forest, not classrooms and council buildings. Karakia is now the go to ritual for everything from opening a mop closet to planting native shrubs. But don’t worry it’s not religious, they say. Just deeply spiritual, ancestral, metaphysical, and involving gods. Totally different. And if you object, well, clearly you're a coloniser who doesn’t respect the Treaty. Never mind your right to freedom of belief or secular government spaces.
