Black Power to the Maori

“We will not have you tell us how we will respond to the issues that concern us. We will decide how we respond. We are not going away. If you find our response unreasonable, illogical, perhaps it is because we have been reasonable and logical for far too long.” Allan Hawea, Maori Community Worker.

Having read John Henley’s report in the Guardian Weekly about continued Maori resistance to colonialism and white domination. It struck me how similar the liberation struggles across the Black world have been in resisting European domination and exploitation. Just as in the African struggles of the Mau Mau in Kenya, the Shona in Zimbabwe and New Afrikans in the united states, the Maori place land at the center of their struggle: “And yes, I can see a day we will go back to our land and reclaim it. There will not be military action, because that is not our way, but we will go on to the state-owned farms, into the forests, to the wild places where very few people live, and we will say: ‘This is ours, now try and stop us taking it. We’ve been patient, we’ve believed your fine words, for too long. We know what is right.” (Professor Margaret Mutu, University of Auckland).

In addition, the tactics of the Europeans was similar. John Henley writes about the deception and use of the church to subjugate the indigenous people of Aotearoa (known by the Europeans as New Zealand). The same strategy of purposely writing different treaty texts in the European language than in the language of the non-Europeans was used in Aotearoa by the British as it was used in Ethiopia by the Italians.

Today, the same issues of land grabbing under the guise of gentrification, massive unemployment, police brutality and mass incarceration are among the social, economic and political ills that face Black communities throughout the globe. In the 60’s and 70’s the call for Black Power first emerging in the united states was met with echoes throughout youth culture and popular movements globally including among the Aboriginal people of Australia and the Maori of Aotearoa. A similar call for unity in struggle is long overdue.

Black Power to the continued resistance of the Maori!