Hone Harawira's Open Letter to Barack Obama 31 Jul 2015
Related articles
- NZ consumers grow more upbeat, may resume spending Business
- All Whites claim historic point Sport
- Minister launches SmartGate in Wellington Travel
- Prime Minister to travel to South Africa News
- Brownlee Leads Aviation Mission To Shanghai News
- New Zealand-Russia begin FTA scoping discussions News
- NZ looking at all avenues on whaling issue News
- NZ migration bolstered by British invasion Migration
- Sludge Report #192: The Naked Budget Columns
- Budget 2010 – Building the Recovery News
Hone Harawira
Open Letter to Barack Obama President of the United States of America
30 July 2015
Hey hey, mah bruddah!!
Heard you were able to get back to your dad’s turangawaewae last week. Mean … hope you had a good catch up with the whanau.
I also hear you’re getting ready to endorse the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), and I’m asking that you hold off, for now anyway.
You might not know who I am and that’s OK because I’m not that important in the scheme of things, but my people are. We’re Maori, the indigenous people of a little country down here in the South Pacific called Aotearoa - you probably know it as New Zealand - and we want you to know that we don’t support the TPPA; in fact we hate the bloody thing.
You see back in 1840 we signed the Treaty of Waitangi with the British, which was supposed to protect our rights. It didn’t unfortunately, and now we’ve got less than 3 million of the original 66 million acres we once owned. We’ve been trying to win our Treaty rights back ever since and it hasn’t been easy. In fact, today our people suffer the same levels of deprivation in housing, justice, employment, education and health as Native Americans. Yeah bro’ … it’s that bad. There’s a long, long way to go before we get up to where we should be, and key to all of that is our Treaty, and our treaty rights.
We want to be able to look after our lands, our forests, our rivers and our seas just like the Treaty said we could, not just for Maori but for everyone in this country, and we’re really scared that the TPPA is going to make our fight an impossible one.
Maori aren’t even allowed to look at the TPPA before it gets signed off, and from what we hear it’ll compromise our sovereignty as Maori and as New Zealanders. We also hear that it will let foreign companies sue our government for protecting our rights (which admittedly they haven’t been that good at for the last 175 years!). And we hear that this TPPA will take priority over our Treaty, and that we will be denied the rights guaranteed to us by the Treaty and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And that sucks!
We got our own problems down here brother, and they’re tough enough to deal with without having this dumped on our heads, but if we have to fight this TPPA thing we will, and we’ll fight it till we beat it.
So how about givin’ us a break? Scrap the TPPA and let’s start again. In fact, come on down to Aotearoa and lets go fishing, have a feed and a few beers, and between the two of us I betcha we can come up with something that works.
Anyway, gotta go - gotta pick up the mokos. Love to the whanau!
Laterz bro
Hone
ENDS
News
Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students
29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more
New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
7 Mar 2020 News
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more
Business
NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19
17 Mar 2020 Business News
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more
NZ Government announces aviation relief package
19 Mar 2020 Business News
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more
Living
Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London
6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall.
It was the first... more
Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate
12 Jan 2022 Arts
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...
New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more
Property
Fairer rules for tenants and landlords
17 Nov 2019 Property
17 NOVEMBER 2019
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more
New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax
17 Apr 2019 Property
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more
Migration
Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued
19 Nov 2019 Migration
19 NOVEMBER 2019
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more
Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018
HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY
The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more
Travel
Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
more
Sport
The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners
27 Oct 2019 Cricket
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more
PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final
26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more
Columns
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
First published on Werewolf
The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more
Kiwi Success
Congratulations to Loder Cup winner
26 Sep 2018 People
25 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more
Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
HON JENNY SALESA
Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more
Recruitment
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
14 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
22 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more