Marama Davidson

“On any given day my political achievements could amount to finding the energy and the means just to feed my little buggers. So I take my hat off to any mother of dependent children who can find the physical, intellectual and spiritual space to engage in politics beyond feeding kids and keeping them clean. I also acknowledge the many wonderful male figures that are warriors for their children and are proactively supporting mothers to be the best they can be. It is in all our interests that men negotiate their own strong identities. Considering the macho crap men have to swim through, how any land safely on the enlightened side is beyond me sometimes.”

You can read this blog post from Marama Davidson here at The Daily Blog.

TV3′s episode of Think Tank from Sunday 05 May 2013.

Marama Davidson

Please go to TheDailyBlog here for Marama Davidson’s post on inspiring more activism.

“We all have a responsibility to be politically active.

There – I said it. But the definition for being political is wide ranging. How people manifest their political action is up to them. For me it is simply making that conscious link between our personal lives to the political agenda of the day. From the breakfast we get to eat (or don’t), to the level of comfort (or not) that get we lay our heads on every night. As people have said, there is no longer the luxury of not being an activist of your own making. A new world is coming that will either suffocate us or revive us – it is up to us to make the new world a working one.”

Dr Leonie Pihama

Was asked recently why I advocate so strongly for Kaupapa Maori and for Maori control over Maori frameworks. The question has also been asked recently by a Pakeha academic around who gets to determine the boundaries for kaupapa Maori? It’s simple. We do. For the past 200 years the majority  of our land has been stolen or taken through the use of foreign systems, structures & definitions, our language, culture, knowledge, practices and structures have been systematically subjucated, attacked and denied. Our voices and acts of struggle against oppression have, and continue to be actively targeted and suppressed in order to protect the interests of those who have benefited from such actions. All that we have now we have fought for. All that we have held within ourselves we have struggled for. For 200 years we have lived with other peoples definitions of who we are and what is our place on our own land. It is our time to take that space. It is our right to define ourselves, our struggles, our kaupapa, our frameworks. That does not mean we do not need or want allies, it means we do not want to be defined by others who do not know or feel what it means to live as Maori in Aotearoa. Those who work as allies in that struggle know that is the case and work to challenge the systems that continue to deny fundamental rights. It is no secret that many of those I am fortunate to work with advocate Kaupapa Maori is defined and controlled by Maori. That has been clearly articulated for many years. Until there is significant change in the power relationships in this country that way of being can not and should not change. 200 years of others theorising and researching ON us has brought little change in the colonial inequalities that exist. So why would we want that to continue? That’s a more critical question. The answer again is simple. We don’t.

Dr Leonie Pihama (Te Atiawa, Ngati Mahanga, Nga Mahanga a Tairi)

.the appointments of Commissioners to the Human Rights Commission
.Marriage Equality
.Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) seeking to extend it’s powers of spying

You an watch the 27 minute clip here.

Marama Davidson

Please go to the link below for my blog on the Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy failing to do her job in speaking out against the racism that visiting Dane MP incited with her racist comments towards Maori culture.

You can read the blog courtesy of TheDailyBlog – here.

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day (‘Bikini’ Day), 1 March, marks the anniversary of the US ‘Bravo’ nuclear bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll in 1954. The explosion gouged out a crater more than 200 feet deep and a mile across, melting huge quantities of coral which were sucked up into the atmosphere together with vast volumes of seawater. The resulting fallout caused widespread contamination in the Pacific.

The people in the Marshall Islands, and elsewhere in the Pacific, were used as human guinea pigs in an obscene racist experiment to ‘progress’ the insane pursuit of nuclear weapons supremacy.

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day is a day to remember that the arrogant colonialist mindset which allowed, indeed encouraged, the horror mentioned above continues today and that the Pacific remains neither nuclear free nor independent. Today we acknowledge and remember those who have suffered and died in the struggle for independence around the Pacific; those who have opposed colonisation in its many forms and paid for their opposition with their health and life; and those who have suffered and died as a result of the nuclear weapons states’ use of the Pacific for nuclear experimentation, uranium mining, nuclear weapons testing and nuclear waste dumping.

We remember  France  as a brutal coloniser of Te Ao Maohi (Tahiti) carried out a total of 193 nuclear tests  from 1966 to 1996. On  Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day we remember that the arrogant colonialist mindset which allowed and, indeed encouraged, the horror mentioned above . Today  the Pacific remains neither nuclear free nor independent.

Earlier this month the Pacific governments of Tuvalu, Nauru and the Solomon Islands supported moves to re-inscribe Maohi Nui into the United Nations’ decolonization list.This followed a resolution of the Melanesian Spearhead group in Nadi last year to support self-determination in the French territory.

France, Australia and New Zealand are opposed to the move.  Today we ask  the government of New Zealand why did they endorse the Declaration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples when they are opposed to the Self determination of the Indigenous peoples of Tahiti ? The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly states and affirms that Indigenous Peoples have the to self-determination, to  their lands and territories, to  their cultural identities, to self-representation and to their unique values and beliefs ‘

For too long Maohi Nui ( Tahiti)  has been fighting for her freedom and it’s time we, as a Pacific family, stand up with a united voice to offer our support.”It is critical that we see the connections so that we  as Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific  can continue to support each other across Te Moana nui a Kiwa, the Great Sea of Kiwa, and know that we are not alone in these struggles.

(Te Wharepora Hou wahine collective.)

Marama Davidson

Marama Davidson joins a Native Affairs panel with John Tamihere and Martyn Bradbury to debate the appointment of Susan Devoy to the role of Race Relations Commissioner.

You can view the Native Affairs video clip of the panel discussion here:

Marama Davidson

“Ideas this week talks to Marama Davidson, David Geary and Clayton Thomas-Muller about the Idle No More movement which deals with the rights and identity of First Nations people, starting in Canada with a predominantly female lead.”

Cree activist Clayton Thomas-Muller is first up in this interview with Chris Laidlaw.

David Geary playwright of Nga Mahanga descent is second up (around 22mins in) as a Vancouver based New Zealand playwright.

Marama Davidson of Te Wharepora Hou features as the final interviewee (around 40mins in).

You can listen to the interview here:

Marama Davidson

Please go to the link below for my post on Judith Collins calling Annette Sykes ‘a stupid person’ over the appointment of Susan Devoy to Race Relations Commissioner. Reblogged courtesy of TheDailyBlog.

You can read the blog here.