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About this Episode
New Zealand's Parliament House is a strikingly colonial edifice. So how does it feel to be Māori in that space?
On Parliament's black and white tiles sits one of the building's many pieces of art. The bust of Āpirana Ngata, commissioned in 1942, watches over the day-to-day frenzy of bridge runs and general parliamentary busyness.
The bust, like so many pieces in Parliament's collection, pays tribute to the work of a highly eulogised individual who once walked the halls of power.
What makes it especially unique though, is that it's one of the few visual signs of te ao Māori at Parliament - albeit a more diverse and representative parliament than existed in the days of Ngata. Yet the edifice is still strikingly colonial.
This week on The House, we kōrero with three first-term Māori MPs who share their personal experiences of navigating Parliament and being Māori. To listen, click the link below.
"A shrine to colonialism": Te Pāti Māori's Tākuta Ferris
As we stood outside the marble Edwardian baroque facade of Parliament House, MP for Te Tai Tonga, Tākuta Ferris forthrightly described the building as, "a shrine to colonialism."
Ferris is unflinching in the furtherance of Te ao Māori, something Te Pāti Māori have become well known for this term in Parliament.
The MP attributes the unprecedented engagement levels that Te Pāti Māori have received to the hard work of previous generations of Te iwi Māori, and a deep understanding of history. "We arrive here fully equipped with all of that. The constitutional foundation that sets this whole parliament up, allows this parliament to be here, is a two-party agreement. It's a two-party relationship."
Ferris envisions Parliament one day being a lot more representative of this relationship, both structurally, and aesthetically.
The former, he says, "can be in the model that Whatarangi Winiata and many others of Te iwi Māori proposed through the through the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, which is the two House model; where, in effect, you have a House that represents the Crown (and the government is just the executive administrator of the crown)."
The latter he says, somewhat flippantly, "would look a lot flasher."
David Macleod was elected in 2023.
The Politics of Māori Identity: David Macleod
Te Pati Māori (and opposition Māori MPs more generally), have been vocal in their opposition to the coalition government's policies. This has manifested as hostility in the House, protests outside it, and a steady stream of news headlines.
The House was curious to hear from a Māori governing-party MP about what it's like being on the other side of the House during all this…
Hosts & Guests
No transcript available for this episode.
