22 August 2024
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COALITION GOVERNMENT OF AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
Since the new coalition government gained power in November 2023, we have witnessed a relentless assault on Māori institutions, culture, Te Tiriti o Waitangi rights, aspirations for sovereignty, co-governance arrangements, and people. As an organisation representing academics and students in Anthropology in Aotearoa New Zealand, we cannot remain silent while this attack on Indigenous peoples continues. ASAA/NZ unequivocally: 1) condemns the reactionary approach to Māori people adopted by the current coalition government; 2) affirms its support for the right of academics, students, and other citizens to oppose this regression; and 3) calls for the government to urgently halt its threat to Tangata Whenua and marginalised communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.
ASAA/NZ notes with apprehension the current coalition government’s appeals to populism – an international reactionary politics focused on blaming migrants and marginalised communities for policy failures. In Aotearoa, this trend is most explicit in attacks on Māori, attempts to undermine the Waitangi Tribunal, and criticisms of the competency and functioning of the judiciary. It is also apparent in cabinet ministers’ pronouncements that “we are all Kiwis,” a standardisation that denies cultural diversity and the violence of colonial histories. We note that the Waitangi Tribunal has international recognition, and that its work over the last half century is strongly implicated in Aotearoa New Zealand’s reputation as progressive in its advancement of Indigenous reparations and rights. The current government’s turn towards populism damages this global standing by appealing to race-based politics and by repeating colonial patterns of discrimination.
ASAA/NZ is concerned with this government’s move to dismantle hard won aspects of social welfare provision, health initiatives, educational policies, and the revitalization of Māori language and culture. We are also concerned with the move to negate hard won environmental regulations, policies and protections in a misguided attempt to generate economic growth in an era of environmental demise. We note that these assaults are particularly devastating to Māori whose collective action over decades has afforded many of the progressive environmental and social policies New Zealanders enjoy.
As scholars and students of Anthropology, we know that governance regimes which target Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups in lieu of progressive policies, exacerbate lines of inequality, undermine democracy, and generate social unrest. While the voice of ASAA/NZ may be a small one, we raise our concerns here in the interests of upholding the ethos of equality, fairness and generosity that Aotearoa New Zealand, at its best, represents.
Signed,
The Executive Committee, on behalf of the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa New Zealand
