A new poem by Tusiata Avia.
Government Powhiri: Te Whare Runanga, Waitangi Treaty grounds 2024
There we are watching
Down the tunnel of time
Down the funnel of Youtube live
There we are burning
In the fast twitch fibre of the muscles
Of the youngest warrior on the marae atea
There we are swimming
In the blood of him
Steering Takitimu
Tainui
Te Arawa
Mataatua
Kurahaupo
Tokomaru
Aotea
From Hawaiki across Moana Nui a Kiwa
The same way his ancestors cut
Those wa’a through our moana to va’a and vaka
And finally waka
You landed here
Brought the whole Pacific with you
So, now you are my son, and I am your māmā
Go my boy! I shout through my tears
From my kitchen table in Ōtautahi
Yes, show them your arse!
Yes, my boy, show it!
Because we shit them out
Those governors
Those sons of massacrists
Those sons of murderers
Those law twisters, those treaty breakers
Because we eat them every day
Swallow their filth
Digest their poison till we puke
Watch the one who spits on his whakapapa
With every step
Who squats over the wero like shitting on the marae
And leaving it there
(Did no one tell him how to kneel?)
Watch the old man who rails and rails and rails
His own crap, his own crap, his own crap
Watch the one who half bends with forked tongue
– unity and destruction –
Empty and squalid as a scalp
Here we are watching you
Watching and watching you
Stand and talk and talk and talk and talk
E noho we tell you, E noho we shout
Toitū te Tiriti
Toitū te Tiriti.
Notes
One of the young warriors performed whakapohane during the wero.
7 waka from Hawaiki to Aotearoa.
Wa’a, va’a, vaka, waka: Polynesian words for canoe.
David Seymour did an odd squat to pick up the rakau whakawaha (baton that clears the way) during the wero (challenge) rather than kneeling.
Winston in his speech said ‘ Stop the crap’.
Annette Sykes in her speech referred to those who speak with ‘forked tongue’.
E noho: during his speech, crowd called for Winston to ‘Sit down’.
Toitū te tititi: honour the treaty.
The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are now being accepted until 21 April 2024. Please send up to three poems in a PDF or Word document to chris@christse.co.nz