pn755. Koha and the Mongrel Mob: looking for solutions, not further conflict and alienation

Prof. Paul Hunt, Chief Human
Rights  Commissoner

Vying for leadership of the political right, both Judith Collins and David Seymour have criticized Human Rights Commissioner Professor Paul Hunt for making a $200 koha while attending a hui in May organized by a Mongrel Mob chapter.  

They say their objection is not about race, but association with criminals, and both call for Hunt's resignation. Seymour went further calling for the Commission's abolition. 

Don't be fooled. Party games apart, the issue is very definitely about race, culture and human rights.

AUT associate professor Ella Henry (Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rārawa) told 1 NEWS on Monday Collins should be looking into her own party's history.

"Need I remind the National Party," she asked (See Judith Collins link, above),  "that Muldoon used to regularly visit gangs for the same reason — that is easier to intervene from the inside than the outside, where we spend billions on jails, courts and police to seemingly no avail." She said it was "short-sighted politically" to criticise the commission's action, given it could have some positive outcomes in the long-term or lead to a "better relationship" with the gang. 

Henry also explained koha is bound up in the notion of reciprocity.

"So as two parties meet, the idea of gift-giving shows mana to both parties. If you do not give a gift, then you are depleting their mana. "If you do not receive a gift, then they are depleting yours."

A friend wrote to the DominionPost along the same lines:

Dear Editor,
   I appreciated your paper's apology to Maori earlier this year. If the wish is to engage and find a common thread with another group, party or race, then as you argued, respect for that other needs to be shown.
   So surely the Human Rights Commissioner's action in giving a koha at a Mongrel Mob meeting is totally understandable and in line with that idea.
   Your editorial today seems to want a bob each way. Yes, we can all condemn the Mongrel mob, but how does that get us anywhere?
   Surely we can commend an action that chooses a path to reconciliation instead of resorting to the age-old tactics of criticism and alienation.

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