Performative gestures and permissiveness are derailing Tiriti justice
Tina Ngata has been reflecting on recent developments that threaten to derail our progress towards Tiriti justice — and in this piece, originally published on her blog, she focuses on performative gestures by the Crown, and the permissiveness of te ao Māori that allows it.
If the New Zealand government really punches above its weight at anything, it’s performativity.
Over recent decades, the Crown has refined, to a fine art, the practice of performative gestures that don’t really amount to anything transformative for Māori.
This includes reforms which take place in sector silos. These are often under-resourced, and while they use terminology like “mana motuhake”, they always leave ultimate power in the hands of the Crown.
And because they take place in silos, even the most promising reforms inevitably butt up against other sectors which are far from ready to take the same steps. For instance, the health sector reforms will struggle to achieve wellbeing for Māori while Māori are still being disproportionately incarcerated, and dispossessed of our own children, through institutionalised racism within the Ministry of Justice and Oranga Tamariki.
Link to article: Tina Ngata: Performative gestures and permissiveness are derailing Tiriti justice - E-Tangata
