Rihi Vercoe

I reply to the D Dawson’s letter (Beacon, November 20), “the highest court in the land”.  

I question Mr Dawson’s knowledge of the origins of the British Parliamentary system born of the 1215 Magna Carter.  

Interestingly, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is sometimes referred to as The Māori Magna Carter, or, the New Zealand Magna Carter, which, I find so insulting.  

The Magna Carter existed for 650 years in 1835, when signing of the Declaration of Independence (He Whakaputunga) took place, and, for 655 years when Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840.  

Written completely in Latin, The Magna Carter is still the life-force of the British-United Kingdom rule of Government. Its first intent was to control the abuse of powers of the royal family and the ruling upper class – lords, barons, religious orders’ men of the cloth, and others – all high-ranking men of the snobbish upper-crust of society to consolidate their Eurocentric attitudes.

Then the 1493 Doctrine of Discovery was issued, which incentivised the African and other “coloured” peoples trans-Atlantic slave trade that lasted 400 years. So viciously cruel.

The moral of my exposing this progression of Eurocentric racist and prejudicial attitudes is to illustrate that the spectacular protest haka performed by Te Pāti Māori MP Hana Te Rāwhiti Maipi Clarke at Parliament was applauded by thousands of indigenous tangata whenua o Aotearoa who have been grossly disadvantaged by this imported home invader.

Parliament as we know it is not the highest court of the land. It selectively fails to honour the 1835 Te Whakaputanga and the 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  

It has ruthlessly committed countless crimes of cultural genocide, including, a grand-scale home invasion it called land confiscations, the foundations of the misery industry created by Parliament.

I encourage Māori people to:

1. Stop calling the 1860s large- scale land confiscations – The New      Zealand Wars. The appropriate name is – The Ruthless Destructive Home Invasions.
2. Stop wearing black clothes to funerals – Queen Victoria, of       England, who never honoured 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi started that trend, which is not tikanga Māori-friendly.
3. Expose all manner of racism in Government circles.
4. Give both candidate and party votes to Te Pāti Māori at the next    2026 elections.
5. Stop our tikanga Māori from being bastardised by Parliament and the misinformed “Hobsons Pledge”.

In the words of our famous freedom fighter, Te Kooti Arikirangi – “Ma te Ture anō Te Ture e Aki  – Fight the Law with the Law.”  Stop devaluing our Tikanga Māori lore.

Kia rewa ki runga, Hana Rāwhiti Te Maipi Clarke. Puritia e koe ngā Tikanga Tuku iho a wa Tātau Mātua Tīpuna Tāngata Whenua Māori – e te   Wahine Toa, Wahine Pūrotu. Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora.