Justice by tikanga? Not for Kapa-Kingi, she prefers the colonial courts
It is pretty funny to watch Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, the ousted Te Pāti Māori MP, trot off to the courts to challenge her expulsion from the party. The very courts she now seeks help from are the colonial structures that most Māori politicians today seem to despise. We are constantly told that Māori want to settle matters through tikanga, that uniquely Māori approach to justice, that we should deal with things in a way that reflects our values and customs.
So where is that approach here? Nowhere.
This is the same MP who, not so long ago, told white politicians that they “were lucky to live here at all.” However, when the tables turn, when it is her position on the line, suddenly she is running straight to the very system she presumably scorns. It’S a whākn’ joke.
Kapa-Kingi’s public statements make it clear she believes the expulsion was unjust, that party processes were flawed, and that leadership failures need correcting. All fair points. But if she truly believed in a Māori way of doing things, she would have gone down the tikanga path. Now it’s expensive lawyers and colonial legal wrangling.
.It is difficult not to see the irony. A politician who thrives on rebuking Pākehā structures now finds herself shackled to them. For all the talk of Māori sovereignty and self-determination in parliament, when push comes to shove, the default solution is the system built by the very people she lectures…