What colour are you?
I’m not a big TV watcher, well that’s not entirely true, I watch On Demand TV so I can avoid adverts and the News. I do know though, that ACC run an ad campaign that says, ‘have a hmmm’. The hmmm is the pause that stops you from doing something that could cause an injury.
This week I had a couple of hmmmm moments, no I was not about to jump out of a plane again nor have another attempt at surfing, but I heard some words that made me stop and pause and think hmmmmmmm…….
I was visiting a centre for the first time this week and was greeted warmly by the centre manager. Looking at me then thinking about my last name Rupe her first question after the mandatory weather conversations was, “do you have a Māori husband?'“
In an earlier moment this week I was supporting a centre with a policy review regarding equity. The policy had the normal ‘we will not discriminate against age, ethnicity, martital status etc’ and they also had ‘colour’.
Can you see where I might be going with my hmmmmm?
My blonde-haired, brown eyed Māori mokopuna Paisley will possibly be faced with the same questions if the people she meets look at her and make an assumption based on the colour of her skin. (yes that was a reference to Corrella’s song Blue Eyed Māori)
Assumptions are so dangerous. My concern for my blonde haired blue, green or brown eyed mokopuna is that they are assumed to be pakeha by the colour of their skin. Does this matter? Do they just have to explain themselves to people they don’t know? What does this do to their sense of identity?
The question to me, ‘do you have a Māori husband’ was tricky, the question is how did you get your Māori last name because to look at you there is no possibility of you being Māori. The question was complex, short answer yes, long answer yes but we are no longer husband and wife, too much information for a first meeting, so my reply was ‘yes’.
I don’t have answers, I do have questions and wonder what your thoughts might be. In explaining my hmmm moments to my son, Paisley’s dad, his first thoughts were for Paisley and considered what the impact of this conversation might have had on her if she was standing where I stood. Should she have to explain herself, justify why or how she might have a Māori name?
How do we do better? How do we ensure that the wolrd in which our tamariki live in see them for all that they bring? How do we move from preconceived ideas that lead us to catagorise people by what we see on the surface rather than hearing the rich story that they come with? How do we ensure we are understanding the complexity of living in a changing Aotearoa, where there are blonde-haired blue eyed Māori? Corrella’s song is a small acknowledgement of diversity, my mokopuna Paisley loves the song, she says, ‘that is me, I just need blue eyes’. Paisley is proud of her rich cultural background, proud to be Māori, proud becuase she knows the stories of her tīpuna that have shaped who she is today.
In a world that does not SEE Paisley we can support her by building resilience through connecting her to her culture, to know the stories of her tīpuna and by having a big view of what is means to be Māori.
How do we do better…… we have a hmmmm, we stop and reflect on the biases and preconceived ideas that we have, ideas that lead to assumptions, assumptions that could cause injury not to the body but to the mana of our mokopuna.