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11 November 2022

LETTERS: ‘Respect must be earned’

Tuesday 5 July 2022 | Written by Supplied | Published in Opinion

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LETTERS: ‘Respect must be earned’

Dear Editor, we should still respect our arikis but I am just amazed at how we humans seem to be more concerned about our own laws than God’s.

If there’s anyone who really deserves honour, respect and our obedience, it is Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things. He set aside the only “Ariki Day” of the world from Creation — the seventh day of the week which He later called the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11).

Listen, He commanded that no work of any kind (except “to do good on the sabbath”), including sports, should ever be done on His day. Now, how many of the world are obeying this command? How respectful are we of our Creator, Saviour and King? Or, do we love Him enough to obey Him.

Hosea Hosea

(Facebook)


The Ui Ariki haven’t done much for the reintegration of our indigenous knowledge or practices, they have just upheld the same set of rules and knowledge our ancestors created but only with their own agenda. Ui Ariki day is literally another gospel day, there’s no traditional sports, it isn’t a day to learn or share space or knowledge around our indigenous practices. They cannot garner the respect of our people if they have not served the people in the ways of our ancestors and that starts with sharing indigenous knowledge.

Elsie Hosking

(Facebook)


Ui Ariki Day started in 2013 which was chosen as a part of commemorating the first time the House of Ariki met in 1966.

Since then there isn’t much that has been done to not only commemorate our ancestors but also the structures of leadership they implemented.

We live in a society that has put religion on a pedestal, this makes it hard for us to celebrate many facets of our culture.

Ui Ariki Day which should be a day to celebrate traditional indigenous knowledge but has become another gospel day. This is because many Vaka, tribes, and Matakeinanga celebrate by doing church-related activities.

Our Ariki were men and women who sought to serve the people, to create safe spaces to harbour our knowledge. In current years this ideology has been flipped, with many people now only wanting a title just to have it. There is no service, there is no cross-communication there is no continuation.

The trickle-down effect of this is desecrated Marae, descendants who don’t know what their Ngatis are and people who do not respect our culture.

The fundamentals of being an Ariki come down to what you are willing to do for the people, without the people we wouldn’t have Ariki.

The current House of Ariki cannot garner the respect of our people without doing the necessary work it takes to be Ariki.

Our ancestors left behind a plethora of knowledge for us to learn, but we keep shunning it for the sake of our religion.

We hope for the continuation of our indigenous knowledge that we as a people can decipher how to practice religion and culture separately.

Ui Ariki Day should be about bringing together our community for the continuation of our culture.

Let’s make Ui Ariki Day what it should be, a day to celebrate our ancestors.

Happy Ariki day.

(Name and address supplied)