Monday, November 29, 2010

The Politics of the Brown Table - Annette Sykes

Below is a link to the speech that sparked the Te Whaainga Wāhine convergence The Politics of the Brown Table - Annette Sykes


It is a critique of a disturbing process that is currently sweeping through te ao Maori, the use of an un-mandated, non-transparent body of government selected iwi "leaders" to fulfill decisions of the highest accord.


Annette's speech resonated among many, particularly a group of women from Hauraki who were present that day.  Upon returning to Hauraki, these women called others together to address the silencing of Māori women from decision making processes.


We thank Annette for her permission to share this speech.  If you would like a copy of this speech please contact us whaaingawahine@gmail.com.


The Political Studies Department and the Bruce Jesson Foundation Lecture 2010



Annette Sykes 
Ngāti Pikiao, 
Lawyer and Activist



The Politics of the Brown Table

A self-annointed Iwi Leaders Group, a Māori Party that supports a National/ACT government, and a group of Crown mandated intermediaries drawn from retired politicians and bureaucrats are today’s agents for the manufacturing of consent and the management of discontent amongst Māori. The commercial deals on Treelords, the Emissions Trading Scheme, geothermal resources, national parks, private prisons, mining, whānau ora are all harnessing Māori to a global capitalism that impoverishes the mass of working class Māori and making them dependent on its survival. Most whānau and hapū are excluded from decision-making and denied the rights over their resources just as they always have been. Bruce Jesson foresaw these trends back in the 1980s. This lecture challenges this agenda and identifies the basic principles for a politics that genuinely empowers the people. 

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1011/Annette_Sykes_Lecture_2010.pdf


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