A video of a powerful speech by a New Zealand MP 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 seat of Hauraki-Waikato since 2008. Maipi-Clarke, a Maori, has fought for the rights of the New Zealand people. indigenous 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 voters in the speech she gave last month. “I will die for you… but I will also live for you,” she said New Zealand herald.
Speech by New Zealand natives in Parliament pic.twitter.com/OkmYNm58Ke
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“To the tamariki Maori who have spent their entire lives sitting in the back of their classroom, whakama, waiting generations longing to learn their mother tongue, to the tamariki who have not yet been to their pepeha, it is waiting for you with open arms,” said them further.
“Never fit in. You are perfect. You fit in perfectly.”
The 21-year-old is from Huntly, a small town between Auckland and Hamilton, where she runs a Maori community garden that teaches children about gardening according to the community's lunar calendar.
The guard said she does not see herself as a politician, but as a guardian of the Maori language and believes the voice of the new generation of Maori must be heard.
“Before I came to Parliament, I was given some advice not to take anything personally… Well, I can't help but take everything that has been said in this House personally,” she said in her speech.
“In just a few weeks… this government has attacked my entire world… Health, taiao (environment), wai (water), whenua (land), natural resources, Maori neighborhoods, reo (language), tamariki, and the right of me and yours to be in this land under Te Tiriti,” Maipi-Clarke further said.
“To everyone watching from home… this is not 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.