Kaipara mayor asks Māori ward councillor: 'How Māori are you?'

Friday, 2 December 2022

The banning of karakia at a Northland council is like “going right back to the Stone Age”, its Māori ward councillor says.

On Wednesday, Kaipara District Council’s new mayor, Craig Jepson, announced karakia would no longer be said at the open and close of meetings, ending a 25-year tradition that started with the council’s first mayor, Graeme Ramsey.

Jepson’s reasoning was that councils should be secular, multicultural and respect everyone, which meant karakia were not appropriate.

Despite Jepson’s decision, Kaipara’s first Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora (Te Roroa, Ngāti Whātua) used her maiden speech to say a secular karakia then performed a waiata.

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Those who voted Paniora in stood behind her in the gallery, singing with her in support.

During the break, Paniora and fellow councillor Eryn Wilson-Colins approached Jepson, attempting to come to a compromise in good faith, but he kept moving the goalpost, Paniora said.

“He said, ‘We’ve got non-Māori, we’ve got someone with Nordic ancestry,’ and I said, ‘But Māori are the indigenous people of this country, and we have a treaty.’

“He said, ‘Well I feel very indigenous – how Māori are you?’”

Jepson told Paniora and Wilson-Colins he would reconsider his position but, after multiple pats on the back from his supporters, he returned to his original stance, she said.

“It’s crazy that, here we are thinking that we’re actually getting a Māori seat, and I’m just thinking, here go all my plans because I’m going right back to the Stone Age and trying to hold on to what we’ve fought for – the inclusion of our culture.”

Stuff reached out to the nine councillors to see if they supported the mayor’s decision to ban karakia from meetings.

Of the three who responded, two said it wasn’t their decision to make.

OnlyWilson-Colins – who is Pākehā – said the mayor’s decision was wrong.

“I believe that opening and closing our meetings with karakia allows us to open up the correct kind of space to work together for the day and then close that space off to leave behind any energy that might have been created for us to travel home safely,” Wilson-Colins said.

“It does seem to be a bit of a shame that there was no consultation.

“I think he has a challenge ahead of him to differentiate between his personal views that he has already expressed and his role as the leaders of our district.”

It’s Wilson-Colins’ second term on the council, and she felt the connection between mana whenua and the council was strong, especially due to the agreements to uphold partnership principles.

However, those connections will be strained now, Paniora said.

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“He talks about wanting to get all of these developments over the line, we’ll guess what? Guess who you need to have right there with you? Mana whenua.

“He’s royally burned all the bridges with iwi and hapū,” Paniora said.

“At the end of the day, he wants to rid the council of every facet of Māori culture, Māori language. The pattern or the outcome is always to stamp out that Māori voice.”

An email has been sent to the mayor and a lawyer has been brought in to fight against the ban, and to rally the support of locals who disagree with Jepson’s decision.

Jepson did not respond to requests for comment.