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.

Then you have Ethiopia—the only African nation to never be colonised, famously defeating a European power at the Battle of Adwa. For us, Ethiopia became a "Universal Explainer" for indigenous resistance. It proved that you could hold the keys to your own sacred traditions, like the Ethiopian monks at Deir Es-Sultan in Jerusalem, even when the tides of empire are trying to wash you away.

This spiritual current found its rhythm in the 70s when Rastafari philosophy landed in Aotearoa. It wasn't just a vibe; it was a homecoming. When Bob Marley visited in '79, he wasn't just a pop star; he was a catalyst. He spoke to that same "Semitic Trajectory" our ancestors had been tracking for a century.

It's the lineage of Tigilau Ness and his son Che Fu. Tigilau took that Rastafari fire and used it to fuel the Polynesian Panthers and the fight for our rights here. He understood that "Zion" isn't a place in the clouds—it’s the restored community where the spiritual and the material are reunited right here on our whenua.

The fix for the "spiritual poverty" we see in the North isn't more colonial dogma. It’s reclaiming this deep whakapapa. It’s moving from the "Babylonian" model of extraction and isolation to a "Zionist" model of Ekonomia—where we manage our household for the wellbeing of everyone, grounded in the covenants our chiefs signed.

We need to start seeing ourselves not as a "deprived" region, but as a "Sovereign Pā" that’s part of a global, ancient, and future-focused family.

Take a moment today to look at the flags at the next hui. Don't just see the colours; see the connection. Read up on the history of the Ethiopian nexus and ask yourself: How do we live like a "Chosen People" today?

Straight up: Our connection to Zion isn't a borrowed culture; it’s an activated whakapapa that proves we were never meant to be subjects of Babylon.