A video of a powerful speech delivered by a Member of Parliament in New Zealand has gone viral. Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is just 21 years old and New Zealand’s youngest MP in 170 years. She was elected to Parliament in October last year unseating incumbent Nanaia Mahuta, one of the country’s most senior and respected MPs, who had represented the Hauraki-Waikato seat since 2008. A Maori, Maipi-Clarke has been fighting for the rights of New Zealand’s native communities. Her grandfather, Taitimu Maipi, is a member of the Maori activist group Nga Tamatoa.
In the impassioned speech, Maipi-Clarke made a promise to her electorate in the speech delivered last month. “I will die for you … but I will also live for you,” she said, as per New Zealand Herald.
New Zealand natives’ speech in parliament pic.twitter.com/OkmYNm58Ke
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“To the tamariki Maori who have been sitting in the back of their classroom their whole life, whakama, waiting generations longing to learn their native tongue, to the tamariki who haven’t been to their pepeha yet, it is waiting for you with open arms,” she further said.
“Never fit in. You are perfect. You are the perfect fit.”
The 21-year-old is from Huntly, a small town between Auckland and Hamilton, where she runs a Maori community garden that educates children about gardening according to the community’s lunar calendar.
The Guardian said she doesn’t see herself as politician, but as a guardian of Maori language and believes the voice of the new generate of the Maori needs to be heard.
“I was given some advice before making it into Parliament, to not take anything personally … Well, I can’t help but take everything personally that has been said in this Chamber,” she said in her speech.
“In only a couple of weeks … this Government has attacked my whole world … Health, taiao (environment), wai (water), whenua (land), natural resources, Maori wards, reo (language), tamariki, and the right of me and you to be in this country under Te Tiriti,” Maipi-Clarke further said.
“To every person that is watching from home… this isn’t my moment, this is yours,” the MP said towards the end of her speech.
Maipi-Clarke has 20,000 followers on Instagram and another 18,500 on TikTok.
