While the Māori seats have ensured a minimum level of representation, it has been a hard road for Māori to be elected into general seats, especially for wāhine Māori.
Sandra Lee-Vercoe (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu), elected in 1993 to the Auckland Central seat, was only the third Māori woman to be elected in Aotearoa New Zealand and only the second Māori person elected to a general seat, so while it does happen, it is not common because parties do not routinely select wāhine Māori women for safe seats.
MMP has improved their representation but it’s still a question of whether parties prioritise Māori women high in their list rankings.
Te Pāti Māori did really well, unsurprisingly.
They now have four Māori MPs, doubling their representation with two women, Debbie Ngarewa Packer (Taranaki maunga) and Hana Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu) and two men, Rawiri Waititi (Whānau ā Apanui) and Takuta Harris (Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe).
To the Green’s ongoing credit, they have a very diverse caucus for their size. They have elected two Pasifika peoples, Fa’anānā Efeso Colins (Samoa, Tokelau) and Teanau Tuiono although Teanau swings both ways, so to speak, with whakapapa to both Aitu and Ngāpuhi.
There are four wāhine Māori in their caucus, Marama Davidson, (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) Hūhana Lyndon (Ngāti Wai), Darleen Tana (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) and Tamatha Paul (Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Awa).
With the special votes, a fifth, Kahurangi Carter (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui) may yet join.
This is close to 50% of the Green’s caucus with people of Māori and Pacific descent. If you want to broaden out to Asia-Pacific, then the number is over half with Lan Pham who is New Zealand’s first MP of Vietnamese descent.
New Zealand First has done well in a caucus of eight. They have four Māori MP’s, two men, Winston himself (Ngāti Wai) and Shane Jones (Te Aupōuri), and two woman, Jenny Marcroft and Casey Costello, both of Ngāpuhi.
Act New Zealand have also done OK with two Māori people nicely balanced by gender in their caucus, David Seymour and Nicole McKee, also both Ngāpuhi. Labour have eight elected Māori people and three are wāhine Māori, Arena Williams (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāi Tūhoe and Kāi Tahu), Willow-Jean Prime (Te Kapotai, Ngāti Hine) and Cushla Tangaere-Manue (Ngāti Porou).
The men include Willie Jackson (Ngāti Maniapoto), Rino Tirakatene (Kāi Tahu and Ngāti Hine), Peeni Henare (Ngāpuhi), Kelvin Davis (Ngāti Manu) and Adrian Rurawhe (Ngāti Apa).
National’s representation of Māori is dismal with just three Māori in a caucus of 50 members, Shane Reti (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine) and Tama Potaka (Ngāti Hauiti, NgātiToa) and newly elected James Meager (Kāi Tahu).
There are no wāhine Māori in their caucus at this point.
By my reckoning, based on publicly available information, there are 12 Māori women in the new Parliament.
I have named them because they will not get the press they deserve for the hard work they will do over their parliamentary careers.
I have named them too, in the hope that they see themselves as part of a collective of wāhine Māori.
They carry the individual responsibility of their privileged role in the Parliament to represent their constituencies.
But they also belong to an exceptional whānau of Māori women MPs that has persisted since Iriaka Matiu Ratana of Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi first took her seat for Western Māori in 1949.
They have different political views but they are a whānau, like it or not and they will need to support each other over the coming three years. Whatever their differences, they will have similar experiences of growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand under the pressure of racism and its hardships.
They will each be subject to even more racism while in Parliament. Some have already been so just in the campaign. The experienced MPs such as Marama Davidson, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Arena Williams and Willow-Jean Prime have all spoken about the racist abuse they have been subjected to in public meetings and online.
It is terrifying. It is impossible to know how serious the online threats are and how far the person will go to act on their hatred.
And it is getting worse as those with extreme views are emboldened by a right-wing government.
It’s hard to work across the political aisles. Finding common ground and making time to wānanga is tricky when your parties are at constant loggerheads and shouting at each other in the chamber.
But they are going to have to be smart about this because the 54th Parliament could be one of the worst for wāhine Māori MPs. Those who supported them need to make sure we have their backs.
Kia kaha wāhine mā.
■Metiria Stanton Turei is a law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.
