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THREAD: Lots of people seem to be mad about Labour's decision to announce they support making Matariki a public holiday and tbh its one of the reasons I find party politics exhausting (and will never be a politician).
Matariki as a public holiday is a good thing. It will be our first ever Indigenous public holiday and as Tina Ngata recently said, in a country dominated by coloniser statues, street names, systems and ideas, we need to claim back every ounce of our culture that we can.
One of the reasons I launched a petition to make Matariki a holiday was because neither my Mum nor my Dad (who are both Māori) grew up knowing what Matariki was. That makes me sad & I want my kids, their grandkids, to grow up with Matariki as the norm. A holiday will help that.
Lots of the raru around the announcement is timing & who had the idea 1st. FWIW the Greens came out strong in support of a Matariki holiday in July, but Labour MP Paul Eagle had a members bill for one in 2018 and Māori Party MP Rahui Katene in 2009. Both got voted down by Nats.
Outside of Parliament it is people like Rangi Mātāmua, Rereata Makiha, Pauline Harris, Liliana Clarke, Mere Roberts, Qiane Matata-Sipu, Peter Heretini and Luisa Knight who have been doing the hard yards to make this happen over many, many years.
My petition launched in May that quickly gained 35,000 signatures by July would not have had as much growth or impact were it not for the mahi of these people, and so many others.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as hōha with Labour as anyone when it comes to their lacklustre treatment of Māori, but a Matariki public holiday is a good thing that lots of Māori have been working towards for a very long time. Don't let Labour take this victory away from them (or you).
