Crown without Consent
Te iwi e e karanga E te iwi e Kua eke mai nei Ki runga te marae e Mauria mai rā e ngā mate O te motu e Our tribe is calling To the people Who have just arrived On our meeting ground Bring with you memories of the dead Of this land Crown Without Consent A generational reckoning from beneath the velvet glove Inherited Reverence My nana bowed to a flag she never chose. My mum was caned for questioning it. And me? I watched televised weddings like rituals, Not in awe, but because there was no other channel. Loyalty as Indoctrination They called it heritage, we called it survival. Loyalty wasn’t chosen... it was demanded. Beaten into brown backs, cloaked in English hymns, Passed down like a script we couldn’t rewrite. The Benevolence Illusion *They said it was for our good. Education. ...