It’s pretty ironic that Ngapuhi won’t fly the tino rangatiratanga flag at Waitangi this year.
They don’t want to be told by anyone what flag they are to fly on their own patch.
That in itself is a great demonstration of tino rangatiratanga.
Red Alert
Posts Tagged ‘tino rangatiratanga’
Pakeha have tino rangatiratanga sussed
Posted by Kelvin Davis on January 13th, 2010I think maybe pakeha practice tino rangatiratanga better than Maori?
Maori are where we are because of a heap of things that have gone down over the decades. But don’t we have that warrior gene?
That gene, which is supposed to make us so tough, should mean we can be successful despite everything the system and history has dumped on us.
Even with history against us, every Maori has the potential to live tino rangatiratanga right now – without a law to say we can, without needing a flag to inspire us to do it, without a dollar in the back pocket. All it needs is the desire and mental toughness our warrior gene gives us.
If self determination is an indicator of tino rangatiratanga then a greater percentage of pakeha than Maori have got this self determination thing sussed, and as a result they enjoy all the benefits tino rangatiratanga brings.
At its most basic level tino rangatiratanga is about making decisions for oneself – That means making decisions about, what I eat, drink, smoke, watch on TV, how well I perform at work or school, how fit I’ll be, what qualifications I’ll seek, what career I’ll have, what my belief system is, who my friends are, whether I’ll do right or wrong, be positive or negative, turn left or right, go up the stairs or take the elevator.
I’m all for Maori tino rangatiratanga? I’ve seen all the benefits that pakeha have got from it, and I want our people to be just as successful and influential, on our own terms.
When we make the right decisions for ourselves and our whanau, good things come to us, despite history. Simple really.
