THE ANCESTRAL MIND #036 - THE LEGACY OF SUPPRESSION: CLEARING THE COLONIAL STATIC FROM OUR MINDS

The colonial machine

When we talk about the challenges facing our whānau in Taitokerau, we often look at lost land or broken promises. But there is another side to colonisation that we rarely discuss, the deliberate attempt to standardise the way our minds work. We can call this heavy, corporate setup "Babylon." It’s an outdated operating system that treats our world like a cold machine made of separate parts. It insists that every single person must be squeezed into the same mold to be considered useful. For people with unique minds that thrive on varying rhythms and deep connections, this machine has been completely hostile for over a century.

Silencing our seers

The historical proof of this hostility is very clear. In 1907, the colonial government passed a specific law called the Tohunga Suppression Act. This was a targeted strike against the unique leadership and traditional knowledge systems of the Māori world. What our ancestors recognised as a beautiful spiritual gift guided by Wairua Tapu, the colonial state re-labelled as madness, bad practice, or insanity. By outlawing the practices of our traditional experts, specifically the matakite, or seers, and traditional healers, the Crown effectively criminalised a highly visionary way of thinking. They cut at the roots of our leadership to ensure the community lost its guidance.