DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER:CULTURAL RESPECT

DAY THIRTEEN:
Thursday 2 September 2010
It is 14 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 37 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

I had a wonderful experience this evening celebrating Janmashtami at the Bharatiya Mandir Indian Temple in Balmoral. For those of us that don’t know it’s Krishna’s birthday. It was a lovely celebration of waiata/song, kanikani/dance and of course kai. Some of our C&R colleagues are Hindi, Ram Rai, Ella Kumar and Rakesh Nauhira. Rakesh’s Father is the Rangatira of the Bharatiya Mandir Temple.

Approximately 18% of Auckland’s population is of Asian descent – statisticians classify Chinese and Indians together in the Asian category. It won’t be long before those two peoples demand to be identified separately. In six years time however, come 2016 the Asian population is expected to grow to 34% with European/Pakeha 51%, Pasifika 13% and Māori 8%. This city currently has over 170 ethnicities – so we can justifiably say we are the cultural capital of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

When people talk about diversity they generally mean different cultures, religions, languages, food, dress, ideologies. C&R support diversity amongst its candidates – the Party champions diversity of ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation. This is how it should be we are reflective of the make up that is Auckland.

It was a privilege to be able to celebrate this occasion with the Indian Community, to be able to participate in their tikanga/custom - something that was tapu/sacred to them.

Being Māori I understand, appreciate and respect people’s beliefs especially if they are rooted in spirituality. Of course we may not know what those beliefs are until we’re told or they’re pointed out to us. For instance, Māori believe their Heads are tapu/sacred. This is because the Head contains the brain and the hinengaro/the mind. Māori would not intentionally touch someone’s Head even if invited. When we go to the hairdresser some of us take our hair home with us to dispose of in a manner we think is appropriate. I’m only talking about this because someone keeps vandalising our hoardings. It’s not your usual tagging done by way-ward hoons. Someone is going around the C&R hoardings and cutting out our faces. Now I know – no Māori or Pasifika person would do something like this – I know they would not cut out the faces. That would be akin to removing a Head. So the person or people doing this has no idea what type of cultural crime they are committing and if they do know and don’t care then they are indeed sad human-beings. Leave the hoardings alone.
Happy Birthday Krishna.