REFLECTIVE INSIGHT #005 - FROM ADWA TO WAITANGI - OUR ETHIOPIAN WHAKAPAPA

I was “passengering” to Mt Manaia with my bro and sis the other day listening to Unity Pacific’s “Thou We Are”, and it hit me how much of our story in Te Tai Tokerau is tied to a land thousands of miles away. Most people see the red, gold, and green flags at Waitangi and think it’s just about the music. But if you look deeper, those colours are signals of a shared "Quantum Entanglement" with a global struggle for sovereignty.

The connection isn't accidental. Back in the 19th century, our prophets like Te Kooti and Ratana saw something in the scriptures that the missionaries didn't want them to see. They looked at the story of Israel and didn't see a lost people needing British "salvation"—they saw themselves. They claimed that identity of a "Chosen People" with a direct covenant to Io, bypassing the spiritual authority of "Babylon" or the British Empire.