Press Release
For immediate use
Feb 6 2001

Waitangi Day celebration of indigenous survival

Waitangi Day is a day of mourning for Maori. Our only celebration is the celebration of our survival. Feburary 6th 1840 was the day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.So on this day we remember the begining of broken promises by those colonisers of old and the continuation of these broken promises by the current Government of New Zealand. These erupted into land wars and we have been at odds with them ever since.

We immediately recognised the new colonisers, those multi-national companies and corporates who, like the colonisers of the past will again wreak havoc upon our society for imperialist profit. Maori have a long and proud tradition of struggle and resistance against colonisation.The struggle against colonisation is the struggle for Tino Rangatiratanga.

We remember the blood of the ancestors that stains the land and from that we take our resolve from the whakataukii - ka whawhai tonu matou ake ake ake! [We will fight on forever and ever!].

A part of resisting against colonisation is linking, networking and working with others who are also fighting the global expansion of corporate capital. Our resistance is as global as their capital!

For us the struggle against colonisation and neo-colonisation is the struggle for Tino Rangatiratanga. There are many different meanings for Tino Rangatiratanga and the concept itself is part of a rich and ongoing debate in Maori society. The word 'tino' is an intensifier and the word 'rangatiratanga' broadly speaking relates to the exercise of 'chieftainship'. Its closest English translation is self-determination -although many also refer to it as 'absolute sovereignty' or Maori independence. Such a concept embraces the spiritual link Maori have with 'Papatuanuku' (Earthmother) and is a part of the international drive by indigenous people for self determination.

This year the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark won't be visiting Waitangi.We wouldn't either if we had been part of a 'Labour' party that spawned the likes of 'Mad Mike Moore' current head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Far Right Wing Party- ACT. The privatisation agenda initiated by the 'Labour Party' shows that the 'Labour Party' is neither pro-indigenous nor pro-Labour.

They were lying in 1840 and they are lying now.

Mauri ora ki te whenua. TINO RANGATIRATANGA!

noho ora mai Aotearoa Educators

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