Good advice from the Māori Queen

The Post reports:

Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po has called on Māori to change the trajectory for future generations, urging her people to move from the legacy of Raupatu to a future of Rauora.

In her second Koroneihana address, Te Arikinui told thousands who gathered at Tūrangawaewae Marae and beyond that the mauri of kotahitanga, carried and protected by her father, Kiingi Tuuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero te tuawhitu, now rests with everyone.

Her use of the term Raupatu refers to the impact of colonisation and intergenerational trauma that has continued to trickle across te ao Māori. Rauora symbolises wellbeing, health and prosperity. …

She challenged Māori to stop asking only what had happened to them, and instead ask what they would do now.

“The question for us is no longer only what happened to us; it is also: What will we do now? When do we decide that what we inherited will not be what we hand on?

“When do we say, ‘The trajectory changes with us’?”

Te Arikinui said the circumstances Māori were born into should not determine the limits of their lives.

“E ruhi mā, e koro mā, tamariki mā, mokopuna mā: Koinei te rā. This is the day. This is the day I say: Raupatu was part of the world I was born into, but Raupatu is not all that I am. I am an uri of Raupatu, but I will be a toa of Rauora. Ka puta. Ka ora,” she said.

“I will not allow the circumstances into which I was born to determine the limits of my life. I will learn. I will work. I will lead. I will build. And I will leave something stronger for those who come after me. Koinei te rā.

For my 2c this is very good advice. It is important to understand that events in the past, such as loss of lands, have resulted in disadvantages that extend on today.

However being overly focused on the past and grievances can be unhealthy and send out a signal that you can’t break free of the past.

It is a reality that almost every country on earth has had a past which was not just imperfect, but sometimes devastating. Cambodia had Pol Pot. Jews had the Holocaust. Germans had their country razed to the ground. Japan had cities nuked. Brazil had atrocities against the indigenous population, Argentina had military dictatorships, Eastern Europe had Soviet Rule. In my observation those countries are very aware of their pasts, but they don’t obsess over them.