Hundreds of Māori turned out to support the Black Lives Matter hikoi on Monday in Auckland / Te Ao
As New Zealanders take to the streets in support of George Floyd, Māori are being encouraged to join the fight.
Hip hop pioneer, Darryl Thomson, also known as DLT, says supporting Black Lives Matter is a fight Māori must stand for.
“From a Māori perspective, we feel their pain. From a human perspective, we feel their pain and from a universal perspective, we feel their pain.”
The call comes after thousands united in central Auckland on Monday in solidarity at the Black Lives Matter hikoi. The peaceful protest received some criticism about whether or not the kaupapa is something New Zealanders should be standing up for.
Thomson, of Ngāti Kahungunu, says, “The more passionate we are about our own struggle, that’s as much passion we should stick into other people’s as well, because we can.”
Thomson was part of the pioneering hip hop group Upper Hutt Posse which produced New Zealand's first rap song E Tū in 1988.
At the time, the group was empowered by the Black American struggle to promote positive Māori voices.
“Hip hop came from their struggle, of them trying to get some sort of life out of slavery and we borrowed it, because we liked it, because it was sad. As a nation we are sad. We’re sad we can’t be ourselves. We’re sad we can’t speak our own tongue," he says.
However, Thomson acknowledges there are differences.
“It’s a 400-year-old problem for people of African descent living in America. It’s actually, without taking away the struggle of my own people, it’s actually way bigger than us. You’re talking million and millions of people’s lives being disrupted because of someone else’s point of view, he says.
“We in Aotearoa have a little version of it, our Māori struggle against our tauiwi whānau, so I believe that the civil rights union in America is a huge world take that we should all be involved in.”
Thousands turned out to the Black Lives Matter hikoi on Monday / Te Ao
The system needs to change
Thomson says there are still children being taught the wrong information by their family and the education system.
“This is what’s important about the George Floyd business is that the system needs to change. These people should be paid equal wages. These people should be compensated for the pain and suffering they’ve endured.”
He says there has been some development in awareness around racism in Aotearoa.
“But we’re not measuring it against anything. If we are measuring our lives against anything, it’s against Pākeha lives, and if you do that, we haven’t, we haven’t progressed. They’re still building all the flash houses up on our sacred hills and we still live in the dry riverbeds.”
How to support Black Lives Matter
Thomson says he’s been flooding his own social media with Black Lives Matter imagery in support of the cause.
"What we can do is we have to communicate. We have to use America as the model for our country to have dialogue. The best time to do it is now.”
People can also support Black Lives Matter by signing petitions, contributing to a bail fund, donating to minority-owned businesses or other charitable initiatives.