Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who could become New Zealand's youngest MP in 170 years after October's election, said she wants to become a kaitiaki (guardian) rather than what most would consider a "politician".
The 21-year-old - who has links to Waikato-Tainui, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Te Atiawa, and Ngāi Tahu - was announced as Te Pāti Māori's fourth-ranked candidate last week. She is running in Hauraki-Waikato, challenging Labour incumbent Nanaia Mahuta.
"I don't think I want to be a politician. I want to be a kaitiaki. A kaitiaki for our reo, a kaitiaki for our whenua, a kaitiaki for our mātauranga that's been handed down," Maipi-Clarke told Q+A.
"I know that, unfortunately, some politicians don't have the capability to protect what I know I can protect."
Maipi-Clarke, an author and Maramataka (Māori lunar calendar) expert, said she wanted to enter Parliament because she realised some barriers "could only come from the top down".
"I got so far within my [Maramataka resource and workshop] business, within Maahina, that I realised the rest of the barriers could only come from the top down. Sometimes you have to be in it to win it."
Maipi-Clarke is the grand-niece of Hana Te Hemara, one of the founding members of Ngā Tamatoa. Hemara was among the group who led the Māori language petition to Parliament.
She is the granddaughter of Taitimu Maipi of Ngā Tamatoa, who in 2018 defaced the Captain John Hamilton statue in Hamilton in protest of his colonial legacy, and the daughter of Māori broadcaster Potaka Maipi.
"I've been brought up around a lot of activists," Maipi-Clarke said.
"But I've recently heard this beautiful whakataukī that came from [director Kimiora] Kaire-Melbourne's film… and it said: 'We are not activists. We are just kaitiaki of the things we have to protect.'
"So I've just been surrounded by all these kaitiaki."
She said she had benefited from the mahi of those who had gone before her.
"I truly feel like, after seven generations of struggle and suppression towards Māori people [and] to indigenous peoples, I don't know if I've actually ever truly experienced colonisation.
"I live on my whenua. I'm able to grow food that came straight from Hawaiki. I'm able to learn mātauranga and create books. I go to my kura. I also am financially stable and we're truly living in both worlds.
"I've always seen that as a privilege, but I realised — my grandmother, actually, told me — that’s not a privilege. That's actually your right."
Maipi-Clarke, having only turned 21 a few months ago, agreed people her age were probably too young to enter politics.
"But for me, I've always challenged the status quo. I think that our generation is actually probably a lot more politically aware than we realise, through social media," she added.
The latest 1News Verian poll, saw Te Pāti Māori sitting at 3% of the party vote. Assuming party co-leader Rawiri Waititi retains the Waiariki seat, Te Pāti Māori would have four seats in Parliament.
Chris Hipkins has also seen his preferred PM rating dip in the latest 1News Verian poll. (Source: 1News)
Maipi-Clarke, at number four on Te Pāti Māori's list, would enter Parliament should her party's poll fortunes continue on October 14.
If so, she would be New Zealand's youngest MP since 1853, which saw James Fredrick Stewart-Wortley elected aged 20 years and seven months.
Q+A with Jack Tame is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air
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