Hone Harawira | Ae Marika! 25 Apr 2012
Posted on April 26, 2012 by admin in Ae Marika
17 years ago my mokopuna crawled under a hedge and onto somebody else’s driveway and got run over. It was an accident, but he almost died. He broke both his legs, his ribs, both his arms and cracked his skull. They thought his lungs might be crushed as well so he got rushed to Intensive Care to help him keep breathing. When he eventually came out he was in a full body cast from his feet all the way up his body and along his arms right out to his hands, with just a little gap so somebody could change his bum.
So I brought him back home so I could give him my full attention, and along with my wife and my daughters (who were over the moon to have a little “brother” to spoil), we fed him, changed him, cleaned him, played with him, sang to him, laughed with him, cried with him and loved him back to health.
His mum was a bit upset when I wouldn’t give him back but she knew he was in good hands. She came up with a box full of medicines and a couple of asthma pumps and a page full of instructions about when he should have this and that. When she left, I chucked it all in the rubbish and made a pledge to get my “boy” out of his cast and over all of his health problems. He had to go to hospital a few times when he was a baby, so I moved in to care for him myself rather than let him go back on the medicines, and he got better.
I remember walking him to Rangaunu Kohanga Reo every day where he was privileged to have Nana Mere as his kaiako, and taking him to his rugby and his basketball and his waka ama and his swimming and his athletics and his kapa haka, as he grew up to be a healthy young man at Te Rangi Aniwaniwa.
Well … on Saturday my moko turned 18, and on Sunday we farewelled him and his girlfriend as they flew out to Brisbane for the next stage of their lives. He’s had a good upbringing, he’s got a lot of people who love him and he’s going to over to live with his mum in Brisbane, so it’s all good, but I’ll miss my boy …
Not so good though is what he’s leaving behind.
Government is allowing our farms to be sold to foreigners, they’re selling off assets built by generations of Kiwis, our schools are being privatised, the poor are being evicted from their homes so the land can be sold to the rich, our prisons are being turned over to overseas contractors, Maori health providers are getting the chop, tobacco companies are being allowed to sue us for trying to stop them from killing us, the PM has done a deal to let Sky City get more pokies to rob the poor, and the rich are still getting tax breaks while the poor get benefit cuts.
And that’s why the AOTEAROA IS NOT FOR SALE march is so important … for everyone, because unless we stand together against what this government doing, your mokopuna’s likely to do what my boy’s just done – jump the ditch.
So join where you can and when you can. This is our country, and if we don’t defend it, we’ll lose it forever.
Discussion · No Comments
There are no responses to “Hone Harawira | Ae Marika! 25 Apr 2012”.No one has posted a comment on this post yet. Start the discussion!
Leave a Comment