Of traditions and acceptance

I saw a video of a New Zealand MP making a passionate speech. I was watching the video without sound at that time and even without audio, while at a casual glance, it was quite evident that whatever she was speaking about was something she truly believed, unless she was an excellent actress, of course!! (Look at the amount of disbelief and disclaimer that must be included with each opinion!! Social media ki jai!!)

When I read about her speech, it was quite a touching content! She is one of the ethnic representatives of her clan in the NZ parliament, having come from Māori background, I guess. She calls out on the government for having failed to protect the environment and natural resources as promised and addresses to her tribe people as to how it is natural to be different and being unique or distinct was nothing, they should be ashamed of but rather be proud about! She mentions how students from such communities end up on last benches in classrooms, become butt of ridicule and bullying, that continues well into their adult life as well, which forces them to align with the traditions of the majority people just for the sake of acceptance by the society. How their original traditions are mocked, disapproved, ridiculed, and rejected as superstitions to the extent that the very own natives of such tribes feel embarrassed about their own heritage and talk ill about the same, just for the sake of acceptance and possibly relief from all those persecutions. It was a very short clipping that I saw, and majority of the content was through the transcripts shared from her speech. But the impact it created was strong enough to result in this post!

It made me realize that whenever there is an article about Native Americans or Māori’s or Aborigines, we immediately begin to take offense against the white supremacists or colonists or conquerors and imperialism, slavery, and every other bad thing associated with that dark chapters of human history and heart rightly goes out for those who were made to undergo such terrible times. But when you take a step closer to home, how fairly are we treating our own indigenous tribes would resemble the black underbelly of the kettle calling out on the pot! Very often we see Kuravar tribe people being refused entry into malls and movie theaters. How unfairly they are treated even by supposedly representatives of public, who wouldn’t take a wink to align themselves with the tribes while canvassing for their votes but wouldn’t even offer them dignity as a fellow human once elected! In fact, how many of us will be comfortable when such a tribal person sits next to us on a bus or in train. How many of us can even strike a conversation with them as a fellow passenger, leave alone not vacating the seat the moment they come near or raise a cry asking them to sit elsewhere! How many of us trust those people when we see someone entering the premises of our building or look at them without suspicion! To an extent, the cautious approach wouldn’t just be to these people but considering the life and times we live in, it could be a more general skepticism. But as the person on the receiving end of such treatment, day in and day out, they may not see from that perspective!

Its not caste;its not language;its not culture; but somehow, somewhere in our psyche, across the world that, society is something that is a whitewashed representation of a single cult and culture. You either follow or be left behind and no wonder such ethnic tribes are losing the battle to retain their real self! I first read about Maori’s in my school book and this is possibly the second time I’ve come across an article about them that has made wonder about those people! So much for pointing out at the society when I personally haven’t lifted a finger against any of this or for them. May be next time when any of them set up a stall near the temple, during the car festival days, I will try to buy some of their products as Junior is very fond them. Junior is untainted at his age from all these inhibitions. I am not sure if he would turn out any different than the billion other folks around, but will try to see how long he can preserve his innocence.