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White feminism has left Māori women behind because many white feminists have no understanding of Te Ao Māori. White feminist believe that women doing exactly what men are doing is equality but indigenous people have different roles for women and men and value them equally. https://twitter.com/shaneellall/status/1357214305171636227
The real outrage should be caused by the fact that Māori women are paid significantly less than white women but instead, the media is focused on how a white woman who gets paid more than $200k wasn't allowed to speak once. Issues faced by Māori women are given no attention.
White women don't see the role of Māori women as valuable and naturally as not equal to what men do. White feminists need to stop evaluating the value of what Māori women do through colonial standards. Pre-colonial indigenous people were more "western," than white people are.
While women may not always speak in the whaikorero, they call the karanga which allows the manuhiri to enter by lifting the tapu of the entrance. Women can also truncate whaikorero through starting waiata. Essentially, the men are told to stop speaking. Now that's power.
There are pragmatic reasons for why Māori women sit behind men sometimes. Women are seen as whare tangata because they carry the baby and therefore seen as highly valuable. If a war were initiated, men were more dispensable and women needed to be safe.
Māori women are vital to upholding manaakitanga. If the manuhiri are not cared for, it brings great shame to the iwi. It is usually women who ensure that the guest are taken off through providing food and making the guest feel welcomed.
Women are leaders, warriors, Queens and Gods in Te Ao Māori. The literal earth we live on is seen as our mother. Futher, Māori refers to both men and women as ia. White people created the separation between genders and then told women they were less than men.
White people introduced religion in the Pacific and justify all forms of bigotry towards marginalised people as religious freedom. Don't forget, it was white people who created a state and did not give women the right to vote or bodily autonomy rights.
When white women don't understand tikanga, Māori don't need to update it to make them feel comfortable. Tikanga can only be changed and adapted internally by Māori not fragile racist white women throwing a tantrum. White feminism does not understand indigenous culture.
Colonial culture is the most barbaric culture towards women and yet white women have the audacity to call Tikanga Māori racist for giving women equal value as men. When white people say "westernise," what they mean is "indigenise" but don't give credit to indigenous people.
