STRATEGIC PAPER #107 - FROM BABYLON SCARCITY TO TE ŌHANGA MAURI ABUNDANCE

Seeing The Truth

For a long time, people have called Taitokerau a "poor" or "deprived" place. But that is just a bad story we’ve been told. It is what I call a "Babylonian" way of seeing things, where people look at our land and our whānau and only see things to use or take. They see the North through the eyes of scarcity, as if there isn't enough to go around.

But when we listen to Wairua Tapu and the wisdom of our ancestors, we see a completely different reality. We aren't poor; we are just poorly organised. We have been running on an old, broken "software" that teaches us we are all separate. This way of thinking is what allows our wealth to be sucked out of the North, leaving us to deal with the mess.

The Leaky Bucket

Think of our economy like a bucket that is full of holes. Right now, most of our timber is shipped away as raw logs. That means all the sunlight, rain, and hard work that went into growing those trees is sent overseas before we can even use its energy. We get a little bit of money, but the big profits and the good jobs happen somewhere else. We are left with the broken roads and the slash in our rivers.

It isn't just wood. Our water is taken for free, and our sand is dug up to build apartments in Auckland. Even our money doesn’t stay here. Our young people, our most precious "problem-solvers," are leaving for Australia because they don’t see a future here. This is the "leak" that is keeping us down. It is time to plug the holes and keep our Mauri right here where it belongs.

Our Hidden Wealth

People say we don’t have any money, but that’s just more "political BS." My research shows that the people of Northland have about $3.8 billion sitting in KiwiSaver accounts. That is nearly four thousand million dollars! The problem is that 99% of that money is being managed by big banks in Australia or Auckland. They are using our savings to fund big overseas companies instead of building homes or businesses in Whangarei or Kaitaia.

We also have over 116,000 hectares of Māori land that is just waiting to be used. If we could put that land to work in a way that respects the environment, we could create hundreds of jobs and bring in millions of dollars. We have the energy too, from the sun, the steam in the ground, and even the "waste" from our forests. Everything we need to thrive is already in our hands.

Teaching of Ihu

"The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Ethiopian Orthodox Bible John 10:10

Ge'ez text: ሰራቂሰ ፡ ኢይመጽእ ፡ ዘእንበለ ፡ ከመ ፡ ይሰርቅ ፡ ወይጠባሕ ፡ ወያማስን ፡ አነሰ ፡ መጻእኩ ፡ ከመ ፡ ሕይወተ ፡ ይኩኑ ፡ ወከመ ፡ የትርፉ ፡ ይኩኑ ፡፡

Te Reo Māori translated directly from Ge'ez: "Ko te kaiahi, e kore ia e haere mai, mō te tahaetanga anake, mō te pātunga, mō te whakamōtinga hoki. Kua haere mai ia nei ahau (Yeshua's name in the Paipera Tapu), kia whai ora ai rātou, kia hua tonu ai hoki taua ora."

A Better Way

I am proposing something simple: let’s bring our money back home. If we can get just a small part of our KiwiSaver money, even just 10%, into a "Northland Fund," we would have $380 million to invest in ourselves. We could build our own social housing, set up solar farms, and support our own growers. This is the start of Te Ōhanga Mauri, an economy that focuses on life and order, not just piling up cash for someone else.

We wouldn't use the usual corporate rules that only care about profit. Instead, we use the Mauri Model. We ask: "Does this help the environment? Does it help the people? Does it protect our culture?" If the answer is yes, then it’s a good investment. This is how we build an "Economic Pā," a safe place where our wealth and our energy stay within the whānau.

Working Together

We don't have to wait for the government to fix this. We can start by being the "wise householders" Ihu spoke about. By protecting our own data and stories, like the great work being done by Te Hiku Media, we ensure that we are the ones in control of our future. We are reclaiming our "ancestral mind" and using it to solve modern problems.

Taitokerau is meant to be a "shining light." We can show the world that a community can be prosperous and peaceful when we look after each other and the land. Let’s stop being victims of a system that extracts and start being the creators of a system that restores. Abundance is not a dream; it is what happens when we stand together and value the Mauri that connects us all.