Source: Radio New Zealand
Green Party MP Tamatha Paul gave evidence at the Waitangi Tribunal’s Mana Wahine inquiry on Thursday (file photo). VNP / Phil Smith
The Waitangi Tribunal has heard of the violence directed at Māori women in public positions including online abuse, stalking and threats of physical violence.
The tribunal has been hearing from wāhine in leadership roles this week as part of the long-running Mana Wahine inquiry – which is examining the alleged denial of the inherent mana of Māori women and the systemic discrimination, deprivation, and inequities experienced as a result.
Among those giving evidence on Thursday was Green Party MP Tamatha Paul, who spoke of how she has been a public figure her entire adult life and had become desensitised to the violent comments she receives and was only reminded that it was not normal when her family was exposed to it.
“My partner picks me up and drops me off to everything because he doesn’t trust that someone won’t be waiting for me outside of my workplace because of everything that’s happened to me and it’s a tremendous sacrifice that he makes.”
Paul said when she was in local government the violence she experienced happened mostly online; since moving into Parliament, that violence had become real.
“The nature of the violence that I experience is not casual, it’s not someone being mean to me because they don’t like what I say and they don’t like my views. These are people who have fallen victim to extremist ideologies about women and about Māori.”
Paul said people with a fixation on her have attended public events with the intention of speaking with her.
“I’ve had messages from a person who showed up to one of my public events and told me that he was waiting by the bathrooms for me, [for] that whole event for me to go to the bathroom.
“And what happens in these situations – and they’re not just one, they are many – is that these people are referred on by Parliamentary Services to the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, and one solution I’d like to put to the Tribunal for consideration is that this centre needs to be better resourced.”
Paul told the tribunal she wanted to put an emphasis on the experience of rangatahi.
“We live in a completely different world and I think in order for the recommendations of the tribunal to be enduring they need to consider the world that future mana wahine will live in.”
A long-runninginquiry
The Mana Wahine Kaupapa Inquiry is one of the Waitangi Tribunal’s kaupapa or thematic inquiries which deal with nationally significant issues affecting Māori as a whole.
A Mana Wahine Kaupapa Inquiry hearing at the Waitangi Tribunal in 2021. RNZ
It stems from a claim originally lodged in 1993 by 16 prominent Māori women leaders, including Dame Whina Cooper and Dame Mira Szaszy.
The central question in the inquiry is the alleged denial of the inherent mana of wāhine Māori and the systemic discrimination, deprivation, and inequities experienced as a result. Four pou frame the inquiry: rangatiratanga, whenua, whakapapa/whānau, and whai rawa.
In 2018 the chairperson of the tribunal formally initiated the Mana Wahine Kaupapa Inquiry and appointed Judge Sarah Reeves as the presiding officer, with Dr Robyn Anderson, Dr Ruakere Hond, Kim Ngarimu and Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith appointed later as panel members.
The tribunal conducted a range of initial hearings beginning in 2021, to provide a tūāpapa (foundation) for the wider inquiry.
Hearings continue at the Tribunal on Friday.
‘If you’renot visible your experiences tend to get averaged out’
The tribunal also heard from University of Waikato professor of demography Tahu Kukutai on Thursday, who spoke about gaps in high-quality statistics about wāhine Māori.
University of Waikato professor of demography Tahu Kukutai (file photo). RNZ /Dom Thomas
Data was a tool of power and was absolutely indispensable in the modern world, she said
“Data makes visible groups and statistics, if you’re not visible your experiences tend to get averaged out or hidden in broader population data, so we become all women, or we become all Māori rather than wāhine Māori.”
Kukutai said there was an urgent need for Māori data sovereignty and advocated for the implementation of the Māori Data Governance Model which would see Māori data, including data about wāhine, in Māori hands.
“Data is power and I think that’s never been more true than now. And that would fundamentally mean rewiring those power relationships and vesting authority in Māori, and I think agencies will find that hard, but one of the useful things about the model is it provides a clear pathway.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand