For almost 50 years, Wikitoria Makiha has been a driving force behind some of New Zealand’s most pivotal protest movements so the Hīkoi for Te Tiriti is no different.
Her activism is centred on protecting and advocating tino rangatiratanga, a passion she says has been reignited.
“Āe ka tino mīharo, ki te wairua, ki te taetae mai o ngā tāngata. Mīharo katoa au ki ngā kākahu Māori, he iwi Māori katoa.”
“It is truly amazing, the spirit, the arrival of these people. I am amazed by the Māori garments and the Māori people.”
There were young and old and even the four-legged at Monday’s hīkoi in Kaitaia, where Makiha has been seen throughout reciting karanga. Makiha is one of the original hīkoi protestors in attendance, those included her Harawira whānau, who are now leading the next generation.
“Ko te mea pai ki a au ko te kaha o te tautoko. Nā te mea i aua tāima rā i tō mātou hīkoitanga, e hiahia ana te tangata ki te kōhuru ki a mātou. Kei te whakamataku mātou korekau rātou e rata pai ki te ‘the Treaty is a fraud’. Engari i tēnei wā ka rata pai ngā iwi ki ngā kōrero, mai i tērā o ngā mahi ki te ako haere ki te iwi, ki tō tātou whānau.”
“The best thing for me is the strength of the support because back in the day, when we used to protest, people wanted to put an end to us, so we were afraid. And they didn’t like ‘the Treaty is a fraud.’ But now the people are more open to the discussions, and from then it’s been about learning together with the people, with our whānau.”
Makiha’s activism began in 1975 when she joined Dame Whina Cooper and hundreds of others on the Māori Land March. This hīkoi, which covered the length of the North Island, demanded an end to the loss of Māori land and called for government recognition of land ownership rights for Māori.
“I taua wā tonu ko au he tauira ki tōku kura. Kīhai au ki te kōrero ki taku kura. Engari ko au tērā i kohikohi wētahi o ngā tauira i te kura, ka haere ki tētahi o ngā pekanga o Herne Bay, te motorway me tētahi haina, ‘send support to heist the march’. I nearly got the sack for that.”
“That time I was a student at school, I won’t say which school. But I was that person who rallied up the students at school and went to that part of Herne Bay, at the motorway with a sign, ‘send support to heist the march’. I nearly got the sack for that.
And nearly three decades later, Makiha was once again on the front lines during the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed March, when the then Labour government extinguished any Māori claims to ownership of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed.
“Tua atu i ngā mea o Te Kawariki, ko ērā ngā hīkoi mai i Te Rerenga Wairua ki Waitangi, ko te Takutai Moana e rua tekau tau i mua i ērā. Me tēnei, I’m still bloody marching.”
“After Te Kawariki (Far North Activist group), that’s the march from Cape Reinga to Waitangi, and then there was the Foreshore and Seabed March twenty years after. And this one, I’m still bloody marching.”
Makiha is leading the way in protest to ensure the rights of Māori are upheld.
“Me hono tātou he iwi Māori nē, pai ki ahau ki te tū ā-hapū, te tū ā-whānau ki tērā, engari i te mutunga iho o wēnei momo kaupapa, me tū Māori mana motuhake.”
“Uniting Māori people, that’s what it’s about. And I prefer standing as a hapū, standing as a whānau in that way, but in the end, for these types of causes we must stand as Māori and for self-sovereignty.”
That’s keeping true to her cause which is the Treaty, Honour the Treaty.