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- [Andrew] We haven't moved on since the arrival of Cook.
We're still colonising.
We're still not partners.
We still don't include.
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I'm not proud to say I'm a recovering racist.
'Course I'm not.
I have to live with that for the rest of my life,
but it's the truth.
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I'd opened a new business, an optometry practise.
We'd won a Top Shop award for retail.
A very exciting night.
The then the mayor came up to me at the end
and said congratulations,
and I want you to put your name in the hat
for the next election,
'cause one day I think you could be our mayor.
Wow, yeah, I mean, it ticked all the ego boxes.
I'd never considered politics ever in my life.
So it worked, and I applied to be on a council.
Turns out that he says that to everybody.
My campaign slogan was,
"Let's bring honesty back to local politics."
I never thought those words would come to me
in a way that I couldn't have predicted
in terms of what actually ultimately unfolded.
My first official engagement within the Māori world,
as such, as the mayor was to visit
Ōwae Marae in Waitara for Sir Māui Pōmare day.
I was so anxious I couldn't sleep the night before.
I was learning a bit of a pepeha to do,
because I had to speak.
The thing is, I didn't know how to go on a marae.
Where do I look, what do I do?
I haven't hongi-ed anyone in the past
Am I, well how do I do that?
Do I do that? What does that mean?
What am I gonna eat, what is for lunch?
What do they eat? I mean it's ridiculous.
The thing is, it was lovely.
What was I scared of?
Now, I was asking myself some deep probing
inner questions around my ignorance.
Why have I never been in this world?
Why have I never looked? The nagging thought in
my mind and heart was "Well you're racist, Andrew"
and of course I default to "No, I'm not."
Well how do you know you're not?
Cause New Zealand is Pākehā,
we don't really talk about it.
I started reading some back stories of my own province,
and it was like reading two parallel universes.
All the horrendous statistics that Māori are in,
in health, education, poverty, homelessness,
the disproportionate incarceration rates.
And I thought, you know what, that's through policies.
That European have created.
So those outcomes for Māori,
are actually at the hand of us.
We're the problem.
In New Zealand, all councils, every six years,
have what's known as a Representation Review.
And the essence of that is a council should
reflect fair representation of it's people.
In this process, the first question a council
must ask is should it decide to vote to
establish a seat for Māori?
Just as we can have rural seats,
we understand those, and urban city seats.
And we think, well that's fair enough,
the farming people have their own world challenges,
their own lifestyle and culture.
They need to be there otherwise the townees
would dictate the outcomes.
We all get that.
The same applies for Māori.
Because Māori deserve to have their voice
at the table.
But here's the kicker.
Only that seat has the legal ability to
be petitioned and removed by way of polling
and public referendum.
Not the rural seat, not the general seat,
or the city seats.
Only the Māori seat.
- (council members) Aye.
- So, our council voted to establish
the Māori ward in it's Representation Review.
It was so divisive.
There was an outcry in the community
to form a petition, to enforce a referendum
that binds that council to that outcome
for the next six year period.
They got it in record time.
Businesses advertising where the place
to sign the petition,
a counsellor saying, "Come to my place
to sign the petition."
The petition was presented to me at council.
When the result from the polling came
to the office, I could tell by the look
on their faces what the answer was.
I can't even remember the numbers,
other than just hearing, "we're sorry."
I found myself driving and ending up
here at Lucy's Gully.
I just needed to find some space,
find some way to just absorb what
my community had said.
What I witnessing was the tokenism around it all,
because there was 15 people on my council
There was one seat for Māori.
I have had a petition to Parliament,
been sitting with them for a year and a half,
saying, "Surely, the fairest way is that
any seat a council establishes should follow
the same process.
Either they can all be petitioned,
or none.
Or be honest enough to say,
you don't actually want Māori
there in a real way.
In my time in the office,
I was inundated with hate mail and things.
It was an event that I put on for JP's.
I did a small karakia welcome.
Five of them came up to me at the end and goes,
"Aren't you the right little Māori boy?"
His mate says, "That's right, son.
Don't think we've not been following you.
What's all this Māori stuff around the table?
You're not coming back."
But you represent the Justice System.
This is horrible stuff.
I'd just never seen it.
So, what I was experiencing
is nothing for what Māori have to live with!
Some people might think, "Well, I'm not racist.
I've done a Te Reo course, I sympathise."
'Cause people have said that to me.
So, I've said, "That's great.
Did you agree we should have a
Māori seat at the table?"
Yeah no, they should have a seat at the table.
There's fifteen councillors.
Should it be seven each?
Seven each? That's getting a bit carried away.
Why not, it's a partnership.
No, no that's just ridiculous.
Is that racism?
We have to challenge each other.
Help break down those barriers,
and those systems that have done all this.
Lobby your MP to remove legislation that allows
us to petition Māori.
Lobby your MP to have a better justice system,
health and education system.
Support the return of what was taken.
We're all in this.
You don't have to be elected to
make a difference.
You've got to stand up to racism.
You just do.