Manaaki is often interpreted as generosity. For example, it means making sure your guests have what they need to feel cherished and respected. It is why we feed them well, give them a warm place to sleep and make sure they have their needs met.
These are very basic activities of manaaki. Manaaki is also the practice of upholding the mana of others, not just physical needs, but being respected and valued.
Manaaki reflects on the giver too. In upholding the mana of others, your own mana is enhanced, respect and affection for you and the depth of your giving is noted and communicated.
Manaaki is not about altruism, it is about reciprocity. We care for others as we are cared for.
This is the background against which Sir Ian Taylor called for wealthier superannuitants to commit their superannuation payment to child poverty charities. (ODT 17.2.25).
Making a financial donation or donating your time to charities is an act of manaaki that makes you feel really good.
That labour alone is estimated at $4 billion per annum.
Philanthropy New Zealand estimates nearly $2b dollars is given in personal donations every year.
New Zealanders have a long history of charitable works, giving money, time and labour.
Sometimes manaaki also requires us to support others, speak out and stand up for others.
Sometimes manaaki requires a person, or a group, to put their own time and energy on the line for other people.
It is not just about giving what is easy to give.
The call for the wealthy to share more of their income with charity organisations is good.
Private contributions to the social good are an important part of our social licence as members of our communities.
They are not a replacement for the government’s obligation to provide for its citizens, they are an essential addition.
But I would suggest that manaaki requires more from those who have more.
Wealthy citizens have more than money to contribute. They also have political power and access to decision-makers.
One of the most powerful acts of manaaki this group of wealthy superannuitants could do as a group is to advocate for a universal child benefit, just as they receive a universal elders benefit.
Superannuation is the only universal benefit we have in Aotearoa and it is really important.
The policy decision that has rightly persisted in the community is that elders should be supported at a time when they are less able to generate an income for themselves.
We do not judge those elders. We do not consider their income or their assets. We do not judge them on what they do now, or what they did in the past.
We accept, however wealthy or poor, deserving or undeserving, that we all have an obligation to help care for them financially at this end part of their lives.
This is how we honour our elders.
We do none of that for children and their families.
We do not have a universal child benefit like we have a universal elders benefit.
Instead, we judge. We judge children’s parents, their incomes, education and employment. We judge them for their poor choices and for their constrained choices.
Even though families suffer the greatest financial pressures in housing, food, education, transport and underemployment, we offer them only scant support, of which every single cent must be asked for and justified.
We shame the families of poorer children, we do not honour them.
The most wealthy could really manaaki the children of Aotearoa New Zealand. They could use their power, access and influence to seek a universal child benefit, just the same as they receive their universal elders benefit.
This manaaki would take more personal effort than an automatic payment of some dollars each week.
It would require them to test their relationships and friendships.
It would mean using their financial knowledge, communication skills, contacts and connections to explain to the whole country why it is so important to support children and their families without judgement or shame.
I support Taylor’s intent and his call for donations to child poverty charities. It is a good step towards some collective action by the wealthy to their community, but it is less than what they could really do.
They have more to offer than their money.
This is an opportunity for them to reciprocate the honour we show them as our elders to the children who come after them.
■ Metiria Stanton Turei is a senior law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.
