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This Is Not Us”: but Actually It Is

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This Is Not Us”: but Actually It Is “This is not us”: But actually it is. “This is not us”: But actually, it is. Talking about when to raise the issue of colonisation. Waikaremoana Waitoki University of Waikato, Māori and Psychology Research Unit This paper is a commentary on some of the responses to the public narrative of the events after the March 15th Christchurch attack. Several colleagues had publicly and privately, offered their views on the Government’s and media outlets use of terms such as ‘unprecedented’, ‘our loss of innocence’ and ‘our darkest day’. A fiery and empassioned exchange of words emerged on social media about the statement: ‘This is not us’. By exposing the counternarrative to these emotion laden terms, a shady past, and in invisible present was revealed. However, the timing of the talk about colonisation also seemed out of step with the need for sensitivity. This paper also explores the role of White supremacy and casual racism in New Zealand. A personal I/we/us narrative style is used throughout the paper to describe how Muslim and Māori lives intersected prior to, and after the attack. The timeline of events is primarily 1 week, and up to 6 weeks post the attack. March 15th culture that has othered them. The health system (Came, McCreanor, On the afternoon of the 15th March I portrayal of Muslim and Māori as savage, Manson, & Nuku, 2019). Or, will they was waiting at the Hamilton airport to misogynistic, undeserving, troublesome have to fight for every inch of their rights pick up my daughter and her family. and uncultured is a narrative we have because the society they live in tells them When I received an email from the lived with since colonisation stepped on to every-single-day, in some overt and University alerting staff to the shooting our foreshore (McCreanor, 1997). The covert way, that they are not good in Christchurch, I checked the news words Māori and Foreshore are now enough? I worry about them because we webpage and saw images of the synomous with extreme colonisation. So live in a country that Taika Waititi ambulance, and police situated at Dean’s the question of whether ‘this is not us’, or eloquently described as ‘Racist as f**k’. Ave. The tall trees of Hagley Park formed not, takes Māori to a place where they He was vilified, and some called to have a backdrop of serenity that was at odds have been before. his award ‘New Zealander of the Year’, with the chaos that had happened hours This commentary offers a lens on the taken from him. earlier; images of distraught people were social media conversations that occurred If we can be proud of Taika and his prominent. At the same time, the plane immediately after the attack in achievements, why do we recoil in disgust disembarked and my family came through Christchurch. What was readily apparent and anger when he tells us, and the world, the gate – shock on their faces. I felt a was that some were uncomfortable raising that we are not quite the race-relations terror creep up and be swallowed with the role of racism and colonisation, while haven we try to portray to the world, and relief as I saw that they were all safe. They others felt that white supremacy had to be to ourselves? Was there a collective were on one of the last planes to leave talked about because to do so is to call out introspection where the nation asked Christchurch that afternoon. the institutions and social groups that itself, ‘what does he mean?’ Why did our My grandson’s creche backs onto benefit the most from it. The need to be country have to hit rock bottom and lose Dean’s Ave, close to the Al Noor Mosque. sensitive and careful, were uppermost in 50 lives before we asked ourselves to look My daughter should have been at the my mind, but so too was the need to inwards at the institutions that enabled creche that day but instead she travelled consider how marginalised peoples feel racism to thrive? Alongside that with her family to attend the Annual about racism. introspection, did we look at our own Regatta in Ngāruawāhia, and my son-in- actions, or inactions that foster racism, not Being Brown, and Being the Other law’s kapa haka group was set to perform only towards Māori, but to anyone who How do Māori experiences have any for the Māori King and accompanying was not Christian and Caucasian? connection to the attack in Christchurch? visitors. My son-in-law was also The conversation I had with my daughter When is it ok to talk about scheduled to do a ‘mataora’, a facial about what could have happened to her colonisation? tattoo, or emblishment for a family friend. was frightening because we do not really The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, My daughter and I spoke about what ever feel safe in our own country. I have and others used terms like ‘our darkest might have happened had she or her brown siblings, brown children, and days’, ‘lost innocence’, and husband been driving or walking down brown nephews and neices. I worry about ‘unprecedented’ to describe reactions to Dean’s Ave that day. My son-in-law is them: will they get a job with their Māori the Christchurch attack. At the same time, tall, brown and wears a long bushy beard. names and Māori faces? Will they be my colleagues hit back on social media We have no doubts about what might have given a choice of homes they same way saying that the attack was not happened had the shooter seen them, or that Pākehā are given choices? Will their unprecedented, and that we were never their children. But more than this, our Māoriness be undervalued? Will they fall innocent. We argued that ‘this is not us’, children, like Muslim children, live in a through the casual racism gaps in our really meant, ‘actually, yes it is’. If it New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 48, No. 1 April 2019 140 “This is not us”: But actually it is. wasn’t why did the New Zealand and white supremacy, which underpinned because we were not there to experience Settlement Act (1863) happen? ‘This is them, did not come about in a non- it. They further claimed that Māori not us’, yet the New Zealand Wars contextualised vacuum. Jackson also portray a one-sided, revisionist view of (1800s) happened. ‘This is not us’ and the argued that the colonisation of New history and colonisation, while ignoring Treaty of Waitangi became a legal nullity Zealand has a whakapapa – a geneology, the benefits of being colonised, and seek (1877). In 2004, Don Brash’s Orewa premised on brutality, Christianity, an to blame, and be angry at a specific ethnic Speech happened. So if this is not us, how enduring belief in racial superiority, and a group (the British) while conveniently did the rise of the alt-right happen? view of Māori as the noble savage overlooking the trauma at the hands of our Former Society Bicultural Director, Dr (McCreanor, 1997) who cannot attain own pre-European Māori. Rose Black commented that ‘We Pākehā high intellectual functions, and certainly What then about Muslim experiences of sit on the continuum from superiority to should not have resources that Pākehā trauma? It is convenient to say that trauma white supremacy, and we don’t even know could put to better use. does not pass down to future generations that we are’ (personal communication, It may seem strange to say this in a simply because we tell ourselves about it? 2019). learned journal, but I am reminded of the As we were not there (when the trauma My own view on the public times I watched Thomas the Tank Engine happened) how could we be traumatised? commentaries was that as tangihanga had with my son. Each time the character This statements show a disregard for not even started, now was not the time to Diesel appeared, (he was the black train) human experiences and overlooks the talk about colonisation. While Māori Middle Eastern music played. Diesel power of narrative history as a tool for funeral custom is to raise concerns as a always seemed to be dirty, oily and slick. healing, and for reconciliation. (see also, way of paying respect to the the deceased, He was also cast as arrogant, Pihama, Smith, Evans-Campbell, Kopu- and honouring their family, the funeral untrustworthy, and deceitful. That same Morgan, et al, 2017) for a nuanced had not yet happened. I made, what I language, with its racist connotations, is exploration of historical trauma). thought was a brave decision to challenge used to describe Māori and Muslim Many of us will have a future narrative my colleagues on social media – ‘Wait, I communities. about the Christchurch attack, and it is said. ‘Raise these issues later, at least Recognising our colonial history important that it is one based on recovery until after the burials’. This is not to say and learning. It is concerning that if we that I didn’t agree with them. Because I Within a day of the attack, and largely cannot accept that Māori have a collective did. prompted by the media headlines stating experience of colonisation and trauma, My colleagues disagreed with me. They that the attack was unprecedented - how are we going to manage what we hear were angry and they knew that everything angry commentaries spoke of the in the future? Anjun Rahman the leader of they had been saying about land massacre at Rangiowhia in 1864.
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