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 Mihi - Acknowledgements

To the local area, the mana whenua, the people gathered for the occasion greetings.

Mihi - to the Kaupapa of Women's Refuge

The kaupapa of Women's refuge has long told the nation that `violence is not OK'.

It is currently screening as a major campaign, with high visibility in public media, including national TV. 

But you championed that message at times when people didn't want to know.

You created programmes which showed that violence is prevalent throughout all sectors of society - across economic, ethnic and social classifications as recent exposes have shown. 

Violence and abuse provide social indicators that give us measures of how just, how equitable, how functioning our society is. 

Your work helped reveal to New Zealand a side of itself which was hidden, kept secret. 

A side New Zealand did not want exposed. 

A side which showed that far from an idyllic South Pacific paradise, violence towards women and children in New Zealand were major issues.

Just as women come to know that moment of terror when a man crosses the line towards the violent act, so do children of abusive households. 

In that moment children also face the myriad of emotions including terror, debilitating fear, anger, rage and helplessness. 

Sometimes children face the moment of choice which sees them present themselves to their fathers for abuse in an effort to save their mothers. 

I have stood in that space for my mother. 

Sometimes women do the same, for the sake of their children.

My mother often stood in that space for me. 

To the women who founded Women's refuge, through the courage of their convictions, and with the compassion of true healers, I take this moment to honour the vision, the purpose and the discipline of your efforts.

Your work has changed the lives, indeed, saved the lives of so many women AND children. 

Courage, honesty, and determination were critical factors in the story of Women's Refuge.

 Mihi  - to the Organisational Structure of Women's Refuge

As an organisation Women's Refuge is one of the early organisations to pioneer parallel development: creating separate structures within the organisation for Maori and Non-Maori representation.

This in itself is a major contribution to organisational theory and practice internationally, as much as nationally. 

Your organisational structure provides a framework which gives practical expression to the support of all women and children so that:

• their voices can be heard without interpretation;
• their whanau can be able to speak for them through the organisational structure;
• their representatives are given a place of respect and power, as of right.

At the organisational level, this structure gives expression and meaning to the Treaty of Waitangi. 

Would that so many other national organisations had developed in this way.

For years Women's Refuge have been exemplars of leadership in the field of organisational theory and practice.

He wahine, he whenua, e ngaro ai te tangata

Whakatauaki, proverbial sayings, offer insights into how people see and understand the world.

I have chosen a well known proverb to create a traditional frame through which to view the topic of my comments tonight, `The Role and Status of Maori Women in the Maori Renaissance': 

He wahine, he whenua, e ngaro ai te tangata.

(By women and land are men lost.)

This saying is often invoked to articulate the profound significance of women within the Maori worldview.

It is translated to mean `by women and land are men lost'. `By women and land are men lost'. 

Valuing traditional knowledge, such as that promoted in the proverb I have quoted tonight is one of the features of the Maori Renaissance. 

It is to that period of our recent social history that I now wish to turn to consider the role and status of Maori women. 

Role and Status of Maori Women in the Maori Renaissance

Maori in Aotearoa have been engaged in what has been termed a `renaissance' for over three decades now.

Since perhaps 1975 when Dame Whina Cooper lead the hikoi, the Land March, from Te Hapua in the north to Parliament, highlighting the impact of the alienation of Maori land from iwi Maori, Maori have been on the move, challenging existing orthodoxies, and drawing from traditional knowledge to innovate and create.

Key features of the new initiatives were expressed in the programmes which resulted from the reform of the Department of Maori Affairs in the late nineteen seventies.

Known as the `Tu Tangata' programmes, the approach inspired Maori to stand tall.

The aims of Tu Tangata were to: improve educational attainment; to provide opportunities for self-fulfilment within the community; to raise the socio-economic status of the Maori people; and kokiri, `to advance'.

The Tu Tangata programmes were designed to enable Maori `to stand tall' again, by reclaiming Maori knowledge as the cultural framework which informed them and by adopting te reo Maori, tikanga Maori and the rituals and protocols of the marae as the means of operationalising them.

One of the major success stories of the Tu Tangata philosophy was the kohanga reo movement: programmes of immersion in te reo me ona tikanga offered during the early childhood years.

Within a short period of time kohanga reo inspired, mobilised and empowered whanau in numbers never before seen in the history of this country. 

Maori women were at the forefront of these developments advocating change and transformation through traditional concepts and knowledge.

The contribution of Maori women to these programmes of Maori Development has been assessed in the following way by the Ministry of Women's Affairs: 

"Maori women were consulted extensively in the formulation of Maatua Whangai, Tu Tangata and Kohanga Reo programmes. They also participated on a voluntary basis in their implementation. Indeed, were it not for the unpaid effort of the women none of these programmes would have got off the ground ".

Maori women have played major leadership roles in the historically significant period of New Zealand history known as the Maori Renaissance.

He wahine, he whenua, e ngaro ai te tangata, (By women and land are men lost.)

Some of you may find the meaning of this saying to be a little at odds with the reality you work with on a daily basis. 

Whilst some 15% of the population identify as Maori 42 % of the women and 51% of the children using Refuge in 2006 identified as Maori.

I am no mathematician, but these numbers paint a very strong picture.

And that picture does not equate with the equally strong picture of leadership, strength and courage that Maori women have shown in most fields of social and economic activity in recent years. 

It would be tragic if the rise in violence towards Maori women (and children) was identified as a consequence of the leadership and effectiveness Maori women have shown throughout the Maori Renaissance.  

Treaty and Social Settlements

There are structural factors that need to be accounted for in any analysis of statistics setting out disparities of Maori experiences, including devastating historical factors.

Raupatu in this country led to formal, official apologies that have been delivered from the highest sources of Government for our past. 

Beyond the structural and historical factors there are also factors that lie more in the contemporary social realm than they do in our past: factors that individuals can take personal responsibility for.

Iwi have been working with the Crown for decades now over historical grievances and entering into Treaty settlement processes which are pioneering ways to communicate through pain, injustice and grievance.

This is as it should be. Those negotiations have required successive contemporary governments to deal with the legacy of their predecessors. 

One wonders what lessons from the Treaty settlement processes are applicable to this kaupapa we address tonight. 

Who will lead the way in the creation of settlements, of a social kind, that invest in people and whanau.

What will the social equivalent of `Sealords' or the `Treelords' deals be? 

Where will the leadership come from in this critical area of social development? 

Which iwi will step up and take this lead I wonder? Please note, I am not suggesting that iwi alone could or should take this role. What I am interested in is the kind of iwi leadership that remains in communities and on marae when officials and Crown strategies return to their offices?

Without the requisite `social settlements', will the economic gains of the last twenty years come to be viewed as socially sterile?

The Way Ahead

`The big picture' we now face may well be one in which major historical Treaty claims have been settled. 

That is cause for celebration.

What we need now are settlements of a fundamentally different kind.

We need settlements which focus on `the little picture'.

That little picture is the `whanau' unit which forms the basis of Maori social structure - whanau - hapu - iwi. 

When that `little picture' is a place of respect, safety and unconditional love. 

When that `little picture' is `violence free' then the future of this country takes on a whole new set of possibilities. 

That future is one that must be ours, all of ours.

Kia tau te rangimarie.

 

 

 

 

 

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