Launch of the Maori Nursing Programme in Whakatane

Earlier this week, a young Maori woman from Ngati Maniapoto attending one of our hui in Wellington, was moved to rise to her feet.
The strength of her message touched the crowd. She said.
“I speak to your tupuna. Every day I think how grateful I am to be Maori.
We have a long term plan. We must break away from the apron strings of people who think they know best.
Our time is NOW”.
There have been many, many moments which have moved me this week, but hearing the korero of this young woman crystallises a message that I am proud to endorse.
We have a long term plan.
Those words remind me of:
Nelson Mandela who walked that long road to freedom;
Dr Martin Luther King who has been to the mountain-top;
the victory speech of the first African-American President-elect of America; Barack Obama.

Apparently, as the news started filtering through just two days ago, texts were spreading like wildfire with the simple message:
"Rosa Parks sat; so Martin Luther King could walk; so Barack Obama could run and our children could fly".
There is a long and proud history of plans for change.
Today, here in Whakatane, we are launching another long-term plan; a plan which is motivated by the vision of having a positive influence on the lives of tangata whenua, the first peoples of this land.
The plan to establish Te Ohanga Mataora Paetahi Bachelor of Health Science Maori nursing programme is another step forward in the journey to that vision.
I am delighted to be here, right at this moment in time, poised at the dawn of our own new era in Aotearoa.
Tomorrow, we have our time to step forward, to make the change necessary to achieve our dreams and aspirations.
All of you here, have already walked that pathway by the decision you made to come here to Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi.
You too, have woken up every day, grateful to be Maori, determined to live up to the vision of this programme – kia puawai te waiora o te iwi.
You and your whanau have made a commitment which is about exercising the right of tino rangatiratanga.
You have taken the action to protect our values and our beliefs; our growth and wellness as tangata whenua.
You have stood up and said, we are proud of our cultural identity; we respect our own worldviews, the kaupapa, the tikanga that make us unique.
And so I come here today to celebrate with you the revitalisation of our mauri, the absolute passion you have shown for kia waerea te ara ki te ora; the journey towards total wellbeing.
We must take this vision further.
All of you here have defied the statistics, denied yourselves the gloom and doom of a disease-driven pathology.
Instead you are standing up for the goal of ‘Rau kotahi’ – the optimum health and wellbeing achieved across the realms of tinana, whanau, wairua and hinengaro.
You are prepared to be bold, to break away from a focus on the deprivation which is a legacy of colonisation.
You have chosen instead, a highway signposted with the strength of our tupuna-given gifts – te reo Maori, tikanga, atua, whenua, moana, te ao Turoa.
And I want to mihi to you all for daring to believe in yourselves.
I want to congratulate you for throwing off the shackles of doubt or despair and instead moving forward.
We do not have to be told what is best for us; what is right for us. We are not for sale.
We are proud of who we are and we can determine our own destiny.
We wake up every day, knowing that our mana matters. We know that manaakitanga is important, that kaitiakitanga is vital to the preservation of this land for our children after us.
Successive governments from day one, have offered feeble promises in an attempt to fulfil the obligations of Article three.
And yet still, in 2008, if we were to measure Pakeha health and wellbeing as the benchmark for proper citizenship, the outcomes for Maori in health, education, housing, employment, income, justice and every other aspect of the social sector are miserable.
But that is, of course, if we choose to measure ourselves only in relation to others.
We can measure our progress on the basis of our own aspirations and standards.
There is much to be done.
Of course we must urgently address the unequal citizenship that continues to scar this nation.
But healing the nation also requires due and proper attention to Article Two, to ensure our own cultural values and practices are respected, protected and revived.
We must encourage the active expression of pukengatanga – growing new knowledge to strengthen kaupapa Maori.
We must be committed to kotahitanga – to achieve the critical mass that serves to strengthen our outcomes and our people.
We must nurture our souls, feed our spirits through the opportunity that wairuatanga offers us all.
We must continue to give life to our beliefs in whakapapa, the recognition that ukaipotanga is important as a source of sustenance for all of our people.
These kaupapa, these tikanga whakaaro, are vital to our journey of self-determination.
Whether we are members of the Maori Party, or tauira seeking the challenge of Te Ohanga Mataora Paetahi, our greatest strength is in each other.
As we move forward in our pursuit of justice, of freedom, of hope, we must remember the blessing that each of us receives from the support of whanau.
Our greatest goal in the Maori Party is to be kaimahi ma te iwi he ringa raupa – to be the workers that can listen to the people, that can walk and talk with our whanau, and then carry their hopes and dreams with us every new step of our journey forward.
Your journey is our journey. The pursuit of tino rangatiratanga quite rightly belongs to hapu and iwi. But as our television advertisements have said, you speak, we listen.
We listen to your call to uphold the respect of mana whenua.
We listen to your heartfelt desire to continue to act as guardians of Aotearoa, protecting and preserving the people and the land.
The opportunity that all of you have elected to take up, to invest in the long term health and wellbeing of Maori is much more than a career path, the ambition to graduate with the Bachelor of Health Sciences in Maori Nursing – as important as that is.
The nursing knowledge and skills; the evidence of the practice you will complete; alongside te reo me ona tikanga, will literally change your lives and the lives of the people you care for.
For you have not only taken on the challenge of becoming a health practitioner, an advocate for hauora.
You have also picked up the rakau to say, I want to be part of a long term plan.
I want to be part of a vision for change, which is about believing in ourselves. Part of that plan is about taking that vote of confidence in ourselves. As we have been saying – all it takes for the Maori Party to have influence, is just two ticks!
You have made a decision, that every day, you are grateful to be Maori.
Tomorrow, we can all make a decision, to take action to take a leap of faith, and believe that we can and will do what is right for this land.