May 11, 2020
COVID opens door to new era
The Māori Party’s Te Tai Tonga candidate says after coming through six weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, Māori won’t want to go back to the status quo when it goes to Level 2 on Thursday.
Takuta Doc Ferris says as an educationalist he has been heartened by the way people embraced online and distance learning, as it offers huge possibilities for Māori learning and advancement.
He says it’s part of thinking about a future that is different than the one we have just been ejected from.
“We have to believe that we as a country can produce something better here in Aotearoa. As the Māori Party we have to believe we can champion that cause in parliament and across the senior rungs in the country that manage and dispense the resources of the country, to enable our whānau to dream up the solutions, to devise them, design them, and to deliver them,” Mr Ferris says.
He was encouraged to seek the nomination by many senior kaumatua, and he was also inspired by the example of his parents, of elders like his uncle Piri Sciascia, and his teachers at Te Wānanga o Raukawa.
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