Political Reviews

Political Reviews Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 taberannang korauaba, kelly g marsh, clement yow mulalap, christina sablan, tyrone j taitano Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, christina newport, forrest wade young The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 27, Number 1, 209–293 © 2015 by University of Hawai‘i Press 209 political reviews • polynesia 273 %20Ariihau%20Tuheiava.pdf ing of the 68th session. 8 October. [accessed 22 Aug 2014]. http://webtv.un.org/watch/fourth -committee-4th-meeting-68th-general UN, United Nations. 2013a. Official -assembly/2732447142001/ [accessed Records. UN General Assembly, 67th 20 Aug 2014] session, 82nd plenary meeting, Friday, 17 May. A/67/PV.82. http://www.un.org/ en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/67/ PV.82 [accessed 20 Aug 2014] Māori Issues ———. 2013b. Press Release. As Session Concludes, Special Committee on Decolo- Before considering how decolonization nization Reaffirms Inalienable Right of manifests itself for Māori, we must French Polynesian People to Self-Determi- pause to remember those we have lost nation. Special Committee on Decoloniza- over the past year. Among our leaders tion, 9th Meeting, 21 June. http://www we bade farewell to were three who .un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gacol3258 left important legacies. In September .doc.htm [accessed 23 Aug 2014]. 2013, we lost Denis Hansen of the ———. 2013c. Question of French Poly- iwi (tribal nations) of Ngāti Kahu and nesia. Resolution adopted by the General Ngāpuhi. He had worked tirelessly for Assembly on 11 December. UN General the Māori community and was a love- Assembly, 68th session. A/RES/68/93. able rogue who lit up any gathering http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc he walked into. Thousands of people .asp?symbol=A%2FRES%2F68%2F93 had attended his eightieth birthday &Submit=Search&Lang=E [accessed 20 Aug 2014]. celebration in June. In February 2014, we lost Nin ———. 2014a. French Polynesia: Working Tomas of the Ngāti Kahu and Te paper prepared by the Secretariat. Special Rarawa nations. As an associate Committee on the Situation with regard to professor of law, Nin had trained a the Implementation of the Declaration on generation of Māori lawyers, some of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 26 March. whom are now judges. They turned up A/AC.109/2014/19. http://www.un.org/ga/ in large numbers for her tangihanga search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A%2FAC (funerary ceremony) at the University .109%2F2014%2F19&Submit=Search of Auckland’s Waipapa marae. She &Lang=E [accessed 20 Aug 2014] had fought for recognition of the first law of New Zealand, tikanga Māori ———. 2014b. Report of the Secretary- General. Information from Non-Self- (Māori law), and its application to Governing Territories transmitted under environmental issues. Article 73e of the Charter of the United In May 2014, Morvin Simon of Nations. UN General Assembly, 69th Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi iwi passed session, 17 March. A/69/69. http://www away. He was a leading music com- .un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol poser and had dedicated his life to =A%2F69%2F69&Submit=Search&Lang tutoring kapa haka (dance), compos- =E [accessed 20 Aug 2014]. ing songs, and preserving the language United Nations Web tv. 2013. Video and customs of his people of the broadcast of statements made before the Whanganui. Fourth Committee during its fourth meet- For Māori, decolonization is about 274 the contemporary pacific • 27:1 (2015) removing the oppression and mar- ing our lands, resources, and terri- ginalization visited on us by British tories, our language, our social and colonizers and repairing the resultant spiritual practices, our history and damage. The devastating effects and traditions, our identity and rights, systemic injustices that Māori have our wealth and prosperity, our self- suffered are the same as those that determination and sovereignty (Smith European colonization visited on 2012, 121; Mutu 2011). It is about almost all indigenous peoples. The deconstructing the myths of coloni- colonization strategies employed by zation, breaking free of the Pākehā the British in Aotearoa/New Zealand (European) state, reconstructing our have been extensively documented: Māori reality through our own laws genocide; land and other resource and culture, and reclaiming effective theft; usurpation of our authority, sovereignty. This includes remedying power, and sovereignty; marginal- the numerous breaches of Te Tiriti and ization; banning and denial of our restoring the balance between Māori language, institutions, and intellec- as the indigenous owners and para- tual prowess; and social and cultural mount authority of the country and dislocation through the systematic British immigrants, who are here at ripping apart of our communities, our invitation and under our author- urbanization, incarceration, and relo- ity (Jackson 2004, 101). In the face of cation offshore to Australia (Jackson the often-ruthless exercise of unilateral 2004, 104; Smith 2012, 147; Mutu Crown power, Māori have engaged 2011; Webb 2012). The diseases of in peaceful protest. We also organize poverty that reduce our quality of life and run decolonization programs to and shorten our life expectancy, the empower our communities to take internalized violence born of oppres- back control of their lives and their sion, and the despair among young territories. And we continue to fight Māori shaped by an unemployment the government through its own rate almost four times higher than the tribunal and courts, ever hopeful that general population rate are all prod- it will eventually take heed of Māori ucts of the dispossession wrought by and international pressure to do what colonization (Jackson 2004, 104). is right and uphold widely recog- And this is all in violation of Te Tiriti nized international indigenous human o Waitangi, the 1840 treaty between rights instruments such as the United Māori and the British Crown that Nations Declaration on the Rights confirmed Māori sovereignty and of Indigenous Peoples (unga 2014), control of the country and guaranteed which it had endorsed in 2010. to the Crown control of her hitherto Decolonization in New Zealand “lawless” subjects. has been painfully slow. Pākehā have Decolonization in Aotearoa/New fought to retain unilateral power Zealand has therefore focused on and privilege, to continue to assert honoring, upholding, and implement- White supremacy, and to recreate and ing the treaty. It is about surviving readjust the myths that underpin these as Māori and recovering from the assertions. This is the only way they devastation of colonization: recover- can keep justifying their illegitimate political reviews • polynesia 275 status. For Māori, decolonization has Party and the Mana Party—although to start with what is often referred they have been restricted by the par- to as “decolonization of the mind.” liamentary system they operate within, The journey has been one fraught which is defined and controlled by and with political conflict and social strife. for Pākehā. Since 1840, the colonizers have fought Training Māori lawyers has con- to colonize the Māori mind and to tributed to some consideration of replace the Pacific history, traditions, Māori culture in the courts but has yet knowledge, language, laws, and social to result in a reduction in the rates of and political power structures of our Māori incarcerations (Webb 2012). ancestors with those of their culture, Training Māori doctors and health whose origins lie on the other side of professionals has started to improve the world. Empowering our culture the shocking Māori health statistics. to survive by privileging the world of On this front, there was a certain our ancestors over that of our English irony about a young Māori doctor, visitors can be bewildering and pain- Dr Lance O’Sullivan, being named ful for some. But as the devastation New Zealander of the Year for 2014 of colonization gnaws at the core of after being named Māori of the Year our existence, and the will to sur- for 2012. He has publicly highlighted vive as Māori under our own mana the racism in the health sector (incur- (power and authority derived from ring the wrath of his employers and the gods) pervades Māori communi- of Pākehā practitioners) and has set ties, submitting to the oppression of in place his own programs to combat the colonizer is an option that Māori that racism and to address the health are increasingly rejecting. Decoloniza- of Māori children and families in the tion wānanga (workshops and semi- Far North (Mutu 2014, 212). nars) have been operating in Māori At the international level, Māori communities for more than twenty have been engaging with other years. They work on encouraging oral indigenous communities in work- debate, confirming Māori culture and ing toward the implementation of identity through our own history, tra- widely recognized international ditions, language, and values; on iden- human rights instruments such as tifying and deconstructing the myths the UN Declaration on the Rights of of colonization; and on challenging Indigenous Peoples. Alliances have us to break free of the suffocating been formed not only through United oppression of the colonizers and to Nations groups such as the Working regain control of our lives. Māori Group on Indigenous Populations, immersion schools were established in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous the 1980s to ensure that our children Issues, the Expert Mechanism on

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