So, the News of the Year (2009) out of New Zealand, is not Taito Phillip Fields trial nor is it this stupid Auckland supercity plan. One slip of the finger and BOOM!…the accidental Millionaire story - courtesy of a Westpac Bank systematic error, has catapulted a Rotorua based Chinese man, a former BP Petrol station owner and his NZ partner into the HISTORY BOOKS. On the run now from both NZ and International Authorities, the couple are presumed to be holed up - perhaps in a cave somewhere in the foothills of Hong Kong - China with the remaining $4 million of the original $10 million that was accidentally transferred into their account. IF IT WERE A SAMOAN COUPLE? If it were a Samoan couple, I think they would have been caught the day the money appeared in their bank account. Not because the Samoan couple would leave a trail of bread crumbs (or Kalo crumbs…) but because they’d probably be trying to withdraw $10 million using their ATM card and then trying to find a way to fly out of NZ - and to which country? (lol) They couldn’t fly home to Samoa, because the grapevine radar in Samoa is the single most powerful and innovative form of communication in the world. The thing that you’re trying to gaga in New Zealand by not telling anyone….OH PUHLEEZE! Ua leva ga iloa e kagaka i nu’u - kua backs a Samoa! (lol) SO…allow me to ask…WHERE WOULD YOU GO TO HIDE Million dollars accidentally deposited into your account?
I was invited by a mate to a special church service the other evening. It was an evangelical/pentecostal church, predominantly Pacific Islander. It was a branch of a church based in the U S of A. That night, the sermon was preached by a Pastor from the States. He commented how there’s a scene on Sione’s Wedding where there is a Palagi guy, Derek from “G-g-g-Gfield” (Glenfield on the North Shore is a affluent part of Auckland/Aukilani), acts like a “gee”. He’s a very funny character in the movie, and everyone in the crowd laughed, thinking about how hilarous it is to see a Palagi trying to act all hip-hop, down with the brown, a real “gee”. But then the Pastor said, “It’s funny you laugh, because that’s exactly how I reacted when I saw a lot of youths here in Auckland trying to act all gansta”. A reflective pause from the crowd hit home the comparison. Now I love my old school music, R’n'B, Soul, a bit of Jazz etc, and there’s no doubt the popularity of the hip-hop culture here in New Zealand/Niu Sila amongst the youth in general and more specifically Polynesian youth. There are some strong messages in the some songs, and it is easy to identify with other working class marginalised struggling non-mainstream peoples. But the line between connecting to, and being influenced by, is often crossed by Polynesian youth. It’s no secret that a significant proportion of our Samoan youth are in youth gangs which imitate movies such as “Blood in blood out” etc. Apparently Bloods and Crips have chapters here in Niu Sila, all the way on the other side of the world from LA (What the? Bahaha!). I often come across younger family members with their bebo pages fitted out in blue or red. I’m forever telling off my little cousins for wearing colours around, and hit them up with questions about if they even know anything about the US Civil Rights movement, or Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve even changed tact by asking them questions instead about the Mau movement in Samoa, or the Polynesian Panthers during the Dawn Raids. Call me old fashioned, but since when did we start calling one another “gee”? Since when did the New Zealand vernacular start sounding like an American one? Since when did joining youth gangs ever replace families? Lately, I’ve become sick and tired of it… I start seeing little hoodlums everywhere. I’ve caught myself giving a quick look of disgust at a few, judging them and thinking they are a blight on society. “They should go get a job and get off the benefit” I’d think to myself. But one day, I caught the train into town wearing my comfortable hoody. Having paid my fare once I boarded the train in South Auckland, I proceeded to have a nap, leaning forward onto my folded arms, I went for a snooze (- in Niu Sila you pay for the fare onboard). The trip is about 40 minutes into town. I woke up about two stops before my destination, when the train conductor asked if I had paid. I said yes, that I had got on at the Puhinui stop in South Auckland. Usually train conductors take passengers for their word at this point, but this guy demanded to see my ticket. Still waking up from my snooze, and with the eyes of other passengers all focused on me, I obliged and showed him my ticket. He looked at it then walked off. I sat upright and thought, ummm why did he demand it from me? I saw him walk down the carriage and never demanded to see tickets from anyone else. My thoughts were, if it were truly a random search why had he not asked anyone else? Why did he think I of all the people on the train was trying to get a free ride? With my thoughts running wild, I asked him when he came back down the carriage towards me, “Excuse me, why did you only ask me for my ticket?” He mumbled something about he has the right to ask people for the tickets. I responded by saying “But of all the people on this train why did you suspect me of trying to skip paying?” He again said incoherently something about he being the only conductor working this train and he can’t remember everyone. I retorted “I’ve been on here for a whole half hour and you suspect only me? Is it coz I’m brown? Is it coz I’m wearing a hoody?” I can get quite hysterical. But as the conductor walked off and as I was demanding an answer from him, a Palagi girl across the isle nudged the conductor and said she hasn’t paid yet. At that point all hell let loose. “You mean to say you suspect the only brown guy on this train of not paying, when you didn’t even ask her to pay?!? Why didn’t you ask her for her fare aye?!?!” Poor conductor guy. But that incident got me thinking, people are all too ready to judge people by their appearance, whether it’s their skin colour or their attire. The conductor didn’t know who I was, where I had come from, what occupation I might have, which charities I may volunteer for etc. Yet he judged me. And so did I, everytime I thought I saw a hoodlum. I was as guilty of judging brown youth as the conductor was. I’m not sure how to solve youth gang issue amongst Samoan youth, but I know that beneath the misguided gang colours and affiliation is a human being that has the potential to achieve great things. Our young brown youth are not thugs, but are potentially tomorrow’s leaders… we just need to help them find that potential.
Waitangi Day to most New Zealanders (read Palagis) is another day to go visit the garden store, to get that thing out of the way you’ve always wanted to do, to paint the house, mow the lawn, or to go to the beach. In fact, I’d say most Samoans treat Waitangi Day the same way. Well here’s my perspective on this day of historical importance. Sure it’s a Maori “thing”, but it’s also a Polynesian “thing”, and New Zealander “thing”, a human “thing” too. One of the fascinating things about live in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Niu Sila) is the interaction between the indigenous peoples (Maori) and the majority Western culture. Maori - The Polynesian people travelled the Pacific and discovered and populated nearly every island from Fiji to the west, Hawaii to the north, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the east and Aotearoa/New Zealand to the South. Maori are said to have arrived to these shores from the Cook Islands or Tuamotu’s (French Polynesia). However they did not call themselves Maori until the arrival of the Pakeha/Europeans/Palagis. Affiliations were to hapu and iwi (tribes and villages). So when confronted with the Palagis, they called themselves normal - Maori (mao’i/maoli in other Polynesian languages) - pretty logical to me. The British Palagis saw a group of sparsely populated islands the size of their own homeland, and there were calls for Britain to annex it. However, Britain at the time was in no mood for a military campaign and sent representatives of the British Crown to draw up an agreement with the Normals/Maori. So, on February 6 1840, some northern tribal Chiefs signed a treaty with the British Crown, what is known as the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and later signed by other Chiefs (but not all). In the Americas (apart from some Canadian areas who also had treaties), military force and disease created a near mass extinction and cleared the way for the modern bully that we know today as the U S of A (and the side kick Canada). Australian Aborigines fared worse because the British Palagis didn’t even consider them as humans, therefore the island continent was uninhabited and free to take over?!?! So in this respect, Maori had it easy… (disclaimer: after the signing there were military wars between various Maori tribes and the British Army. Also the South Island of Niu Sila was also thought to be uninhabited - go figure?) All because of this piece of paper. However, it wasn’t as easy as that. This piece of paper was actually two pieces of paper, the English version and the Maori version. This has become one of the greatest contentions about the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi debate: the interpretation of both treaties. The English treaty basically cedes all sovereignty from the chiefs to the British Crown. The Maori version gives ‘kawanatanga’ (transliteration for governorship) to the British Crown but leaves rangatiratanga (chieftainship) with the chiefs and guaranteed ownership and control of taonga (property or valued possessions). Guess which one the Maori chiefs signed? The Maori treaty. Instead of adhering to Te Tiriti o Waitangi or the Treaty of Waitangi, the British Palagis took over the country, implemented their own laws and institutions and basically forgot about the piece of paper (- years of neglect almost destroyed the original Treaties). Throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand’s short history, Maori have constantly tried to have their rights redressed to no avail. In 1877 the (Palagi) Court ruled it as a legal nullity and ignored, arguing New Zealand was annexed. Another Court in 1938 said it was not part of New Zealand law. Any political pressure by Maori were hindered by laws created by and enforced by Palagi New Zealanders. The fact that certain aspects of the Treaty (ie what is now known as the Treaty Principles) came in by accident. But even once the pieces of paper gained the national spotlight (1970s), mainstream New Zealand (read Palagis - again) were biased towards the Treaty of Waitangi (English version) as opposed to the Maori version. Today, a survey came out saying for the first time, the majority of Aotearoa/New Zealand now see the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document. So while Palagi New Zealand have come a long way in accepting the Treaty has a place in the constitutional make up of Aotearoa/New Zealand, this is based on the English version. I suspect that as the Maori (and Pacific) population grow, and the corresponding decrease in the Pakeha/Palagi population, there will be more change in attitudes towards the Treaty of Waitangi, and more importantly Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Unfortunately, amongst Samoans there is a great deal of apathy towards this Maori movement. And it’s understandable… “Samoans have Samoa to go to, it’s the Maori’s fault they lost their land, we didn’t sign it, will it put food on the table?”… Yet it’s for all those reasons we do need to support Maori. Sure it didn’t happen to Samoa (land loss), but it is because we are fortunate to have our homeland, that we should therefore help our fellow Polynesian brothers and sisters with their homeland. While we didn’t sign the Treaty, it was because of the signing that Samoans were allowed to be here to begin with (- technically, we are part of the people who came here under the Crown/ we are Tauiwi - visitors). But most of all, our Maori brothers and sisters are not too different to us. Many of the policy advantages Pacific people have gained was because Maori fought for it ahead of us. We all live in the same neighbourhoods, went to the same schools, work alongside each other. We all have the same genetics, biological features, linguistic similarities, shared socio-economic histories. The story of the Maori is merely a chapter in the book of the Polynesians. The betterment of Maori will also mean the betterment of Samoans here in Aotearoa/New Zealand/Niu Sila. So while we may be heading to the beach this Waitangi Day, think who’s beach it once belonged to…
