Poetry: Wake Up, Tangata Tiriti

wake up, tangata tiriti

you have been asleep too long

you have forgotten the day you made a promise

to all the rangatira

to be a friend, a partner, a whanaunga

words blown away by a musket barrel,

a surveyor’s toolkit

and the gavel of a judge

wake up, tangata tiriti

you have been asleep too long

you have forgotten the day you reached the goldfields

looking to replace the price you paid to immigrate

with minerals from someone else’s whenua

someone else who knew the devastation of the white man as did you

and just because you’re not them

doesn’t mean you’re not complicit too

wake up, tangata tiriti

you have been asleep too long

you have forgotten the day you sent the men and dogs

to the homes and schools of your Pacific siblings

tangata tiriti just like you

as if you had the standing to evict them from a land 

that didn’t belong to you

wake up, tangata tiriti

you have been asleep too long

you have forgotten the day you saw the protestors

marching up to your front door

demanding land back, reo strong, tamariki free

I see it in your protestations, saying “everything is fine now”,

“we’re all equal”, “let’s move on”.

wake up, tangata tiriti.

you have been asleep too long.

haere mai, tangata tiriti

you have journeyed far to be here

know that while your standing here is up to neither me nor you

from one guest to another

let me warmly welcome you.

haere mai, tangata tiriti

learn the tikanga of this marae

and to your host

be a whanaunga, partner, friend

that we would all of us honour

as we live together

the promise made under 

the Waitangi sky

haere mai, tangata tiriti

haere mai 

~

Etienne Wain is currently teaching within the faculty of law at at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. He is of English, Scottish, and Malaysian-Chinese descent.