Weaving a Social Fabric

Written By Sigrid Berge

By Sigrid Berge 

In 2007, the UN resolved to observe the 15th of September as the International Day of Democracy, with the purpose of promoting the upholding of democratic principles. In line with this invitation, this blog focuses on the first principle of democracy, political participation in action in Aotearoa. 

I want to reflect on political participation through a metaphor of craft. This metaphor was inspired by the following evocation of rangatira, ‘The meaning of rangatira, comes from raranga (to weave) and tira (a group of people with purpose)’ (Hayward et al., 2021).  

“The meaning of rangatira, comes from raranga (to weave) and tira (a group of people with purpose)”
— Hayward et al., 2021

In the following metaphor, political systems are the loom, the basic purpose which is to lay the foundations and facilitate the choreography of fibres. People, community, and our environment are the fibres, we are the physical and spiritual substance that come together to resource our design. Political participation is the act of weaving, designing our aspirations, making connections and linking one another to transform those fibres into a complete material. Society is the resulting social fabric that when strong connects us and supports our aspirations.

Does Aotearoa’s political systems sufficiently support us to weave a strong social fabric? What does political participation look like in these systems and are there better alternatives?

The Loom

Political systems are important in providing the framework for our political actions. They are there to guide, informing norm’s, behaviours and practices. In Aotearoa there are two political looms, Rangatiratanga and Kāwanatanga (Crown). The fabric these looms create is connected through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the agreement which forms the blueprint of Māori and Crown relations. However, the structural values or perhaps the weft of these looms are substantially different. 

Rangatiratanga is grounded in tikanga Māori, values such as, whanaungatanga (relationships through whakapapa and interdependence) , utu (balance and reciprocity), mātauranga (knowledge and ways of seeing), mana (spiritual authority and power), and tapu (the sacred aspects of the world) lay the foundations for political behaviour and norms (Mutu, 2022). 

Efforts to connect the two have in recent decades led to some improvements in our social fabric, including increasing sustainability-based policy and laws, increasing provision of kaitiaki rights, increasing diverse government structures, and growing concern and Tiriti awareness among Tauiwi (Me Tū ā-Uru, 2023). 

However, the dominant Kāwanatanga systems are still those of oppression, introduced by the colonial regime in Aotearoa: white supremacy, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism. Some of the resulting norms, behaviours, and practices include: hyperfocus on measurable outcomes and growth, overemphasis on the role of the individual, and the valuing of capital over people. In this model, communities, health, and sustainability become secondary, perpetuating imbalances and inequalities that harm human and environmental relationships.

Weaving the fibres

Vromen (2003) describes political participation as the ‘interplay in individual’s lives between activism, paid work, and private life.’ In Aotearoa, this describes the reality for many Māori, who typically navigate their politics through multiple political sites. Beginning at the marae and hapū level, extending out to include iwi and tribal organisations, such as Post Settlement Rūnanga, and Māori Land Trusts, as well as movements such as Kīngitanga and pan-Māori urban authorities.  

Maria Bargh notes that,  

“In any one regional area there are often at least three Māori political organisations holding some form of mandate to represent the region’s tribal people.” (Bargh, 2013, p.448.).  

Much of this political engagement is mahi aroha (volunteering), particularly at the marae, hapū and tribal organisation level.  

For Tauiwi and Māori together in Aotearoa, sites of political participation are additionally numerous, from more organised efforts such as: volunteering, community led initiatives, charity work, campaigning, religious institutions, engaging with and making submissions to select committees, signing petitions, and joining protests or hīkoi. There are also more personal efforts such as caring for elderly relatives, navigating complicated welfare systems, planting a native tree, joining a club or a community Facebook page, building and connecting community, and questioning the status quo.

The nature and political origins of these initiatives can be different but all of them help to weave the social fabric that catches people when they fall through the institutional gaps. They support our most vulnerable and build and sustain the natural and engineered environments necessary for them. 

“The nature and political origins of these initiatives can be different but all of them help to weave the social fabric that catches people when they fall through the institutional gaps”

However, it seems that these institutional gaps are getting larger and our opportunities to weave are getting smaller. This can be seen in increasing threats to Māori rights (see here and here), entrenched health inequities, the reforming of environmental protection mechanisms, rising cost of living, wage inequality, social service cuts and defunding of the arts.  

The dominant systems in New Zealand, contribute towards a society that is materially and socially deprived of resources to engage in our political activities. Particularly Māori as tangata whenua, who have been systematically disenfranchised and had traditional political structures dismantled through colonisation.

As a result we substantially operate in a system where we have increasingly less time outside of ‘being productive’ and what time we do have we are socialised to spend on ourselves over our community. And yet, there are little kāwanatanga initiatives aiming to resolve these issues, and so our social fabric is straining. 

Alternatives

I’m going to split changemaking into three levels: structural; cultural; and personal, and highlight some of the initiatives engaging in changemaking in these areas.

Structural:

Structural change occurs at a systemic level. In Aotearoa initiatives with the most potential are Te Tiriti based. In 2016 the Matike Mai Aotearoa report was released, it presents six constitutional transformation models based on te Tiriti, as options to enable a ’spheres of influence’ model’. The model describes three interacting spheres of authority; a rangatiratanga sphere; a kāwanatanga sphere; and an overlapping joint sphere. This idea of intersection is explored further in He Puapua, a roadmap report for realising the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand. The projected ‘2040 vision’ imagines key issues in Aotearoa benefitting from a strong rangatiratanga sphere, equal in influence and capability to kāwanatanga.

The document ‘Me Tū ā-Uru’, is another more recent rendition that identifies a pathway to achieve change ‘for a flourishing and abundant Aotearoa.’

Cultural:

Cultural change involves community based efforts to address the outcomes of our current structures towards alternatives including, reorienting emphasis towards te Tiriti based relationships, sustainability and caring for te taiao, recentering the role of community, and prioritising people and environment over capital.

Cultural change doesn’t occur ‘top-down.’ Our systems can help facilitate change but it is people and the community who take charge and design the change. There are increasing community based initiatives advocating for and providing pathways to achieve this change notably, those that are aiding increased political participation in Aotearoa. I would like to highlight some of those initiatives, including:

These initiatives aim to improve political participation in Aotearoa. Albeit we’ve strayed from a ‘traditional western democratic structure’ as I imagine was intended by the UN’s democracy day initiative, but this is positive! Aotearoa is unique, the relationship between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti allows for more avenues and options for political participation allowing for a more diverse and distinctive approach with potentially a greater impact for our communities.

Personal:

FInally, a note on the personal journey necessary for change. The document Me Tū ā-Uru describes the role of tangata Tiriti (people of the Treaty) as essential to achieve the comprehensive and sustained changes necessary. The challenge here is for more Tauiwi (non-Māori in Aotearoa) to comprehend their role as tangata Tiriti, support tangata whenua in their role as kin and kaitiaki of te taiao and call on the Crown as their representative under te Tiriti to wholly and actively uphold their responsibilities to Māori.  On a personal level, this looks like, learning more about ourselves, our identities as settlers, and the environments in which we live; acknowledging past harms and addressing structural imbalances in decision-making; learn more about the pre-existing relationships between mana whenua and te taiao that need to be restored and protected and beginning to view human environmental relationships in relational and intergenerational terms.

Rebuilding community and relational muscle and recognizing individualism as a burden and obstruction to change is essential for tangata Tiriti.



References:

Bargh, M. (2013). Multiple sites of Māori political participation. Australian Journal of Political Science, 48(4), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2013.841123 

Mutu, M. (2022). Environmental Ideas in Aotearoa. In MacArthur, J. L., & Bargh, M. (Eds.). Environmental politics and policy in Aotearoa, New Zealand. pp. 51-66. Auckland University Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vuw/reader.action?docID=6906538&ppg=1 

Vromen, A. (2003). Recent research Politicizing community: The private sphere and political participation. Contemporary Politics, 9(4), 371-395. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356977032000172872 

Hayward, J., Greaves, L., & Timperley, C. (2021). Government and politics in aotearoa new zealand. Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand.  



















Sigrid Berge
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