Jacinda Ardern has named her new cabinet members, as reported in the Washington Post: New Zealand’s Ardern names ‘incredibly diverse’ cabinet, including first Indigenous woman as top diplomat. The article focuses on the impact of the new cabinet on the Maori people of New Zealand.
Her cabinet, set to be sworn in Friday, will focus on helping the nation recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It is made up of 20 people, five of whom are Maori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand who make up more than 16 percent of the nation’s population. Eight cabinet members are women.
Among those named to the cabinet, Nanaia Mahuta will be Foreign Minister, New Zealand’s top diplomat.
Mahuta has already made history in New Zealand’s Parliament. Four years ago, she began wearing moko kauae, a traditional Maori chin tattoo, becoming the first woman to do so while serving as a lawmaker.
“Moko is a statement of identity, like a passport,” she told the Guardian in 2016. “I am at a time in my life where I am ready to make a clear statement that this is who I am, and this is my position in New Zealand.”
New Zealand is not perfect, of course. The Maori people, like indigenous people around the globe, have dealt with decades centuries of oppression — which has directly impacted poverty, poor health outcomes, drug and alcohol use, lack of quality education, etc. But at least the New Zealand government has made efforts to address these issues, and will certainly do so under the Labour administration.
My personal take on this is based on my interactions over about 10 years with the Maori members of my son-in-law’s family. In discussions with them at family gatherings, most have been frank about the prejudice they have encountered. Still, they remain optimistic — hopefully for good reason.
Not perfect, but something to strive for.