Maranga Mai!
Politicians and those who oppose indigenous rights
and Te Tiriti reconciliation, and justice
are adept at racialising tangata whenua as
receiving unwarranted and illegitimate special
rights and treatment at the cost of the general
population. They ignore or legitimise the
usurpation of power, taking of land and resources,
violence and the harm perpetrated against
tangata whenua, while invalidating any actions
to address justice and honouring Te Tiriti and
indigenous rights (Taonui, 2021).
These tactics of white supremacy include distorting
how marginalised groups are represented, especially
in the media. Narratives of Māori as ‘violent, lazy,
dole-bludgers’; Pacific peoples as ‘overstayers’ (see
Anae, 2012); and Muslim communities as ‘terrorists’,
come from an assumption of white superiority and
the inferiority of Indigenous peoples and peoples of
colour. When politicians or the media actively circulate
these stereotypes, Indigenous Peoples and other
marginalised groups can internalise prejudice against
each other and thereby lose sight of the overarching
white racism that subjugates them collectively. This is
an environment of multiple injustices, replete with acts
of physical and psychological violence, with the victims
of common racism lashing out at each other (Reid,
Rout, Tau & Smith, 2017, p. 66).
40