Mengzhu Fu, Serena Lal, and Kirsty Fong

Guest writer

Dr. Mengzhu Fu, Serena Lal, and Kirsty Fong are long-standing members and co-founders of Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga, each bringing distinct yet complementary perspectives to cross-cultural solidarity in Aotearoa. Dr. Fu, a 1.5-generation Chinese migrant, completed a PhD examining diasporic Chinese solidarity with Indigenous movements in Aotearoa and so-called Canada. Lal, a liberation-led innovator and Fijian Indian girmitya descendant raised in Tāmaki Makaurau and now based in Pōneke, works across cross-cultural partnerships, mental health, governance, and community-led innovation, and leads Kites Trust, a peer-led Tāngata Whaiora organisation grounded in lived experience. Fong, a Te Tiriti o Waitangi facilitator with Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People, focuses on engaging Asian communities in the journey toward constitutional transformation, as envisioned in Matike Mai.

Members of Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga with the late Moana Jackson (fourth from left). (Photo: Supplied, additional design The Spinoff)

Opinion

‘We refused to be weaponised’: The rise of Asians backing tino rangatiratanga

A decade after a single Waitangi banner, Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga has become a national movement – and a challenge to how te Tiriti is framed in Aotearoa.

By Mengzhu Fu, Serena Lal, and Kirsty Fong | 13th April, 2026

Guest writer

Mengzhu Fu, Serena Lal, and Kirsty Fong

‘We refused to be weaponised’: The rise of Asians backing tino rangatiratanga

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