Christian witness in the Māori Wards Referendums
What: Webinar on the Christian witness in referendums on indigenous issues. Learnings from Australia's Voice Referendum and past efforts to establish Māori Wards in New Zealand.
When: Thursday 15 May, 12:15-1:30 pm
Where: online - RSVP here and you'll receive the webinar link.
Why: In less than 6 months, 43 local areas across Aotearoa will hold referenda about whether to keep Māori wards in their council structures. This is will be a major barometer of where Aotearoa's social cohesion and reconciliation journey is at.
To ready ourselves and our churches, Common Grace Aotearoa invites you along to a webinar to learn and reflect on how the upcoming Māori Ward referendums intersect with our Christian faith and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Common Grace Aotearoa is excited to be hosting awesome Christian leaders from Aotearoa and Australia to speak to how we can be a gracious and prophetic witness in referendums on indigenous rights, and explore questions such as:
What might our Christian faith have to say about the majority of the population voting to determine the rights of the indigenous minority?
What does it look like to listen deeply and be led by Tangata Whenua about past and present calls for honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to consider how the Church should engage with these referendums?
How do we wisely and prayerfully help our communities educate themselves and address anxieties or misinformation during the referendum process?
We will learn from the experience of our sister organisation Common Grace in Australia as they amplified the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders during Australia’s 2023 referendum on whether to enshrine an indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia’s Constitution.
We will also hear about the story of how a Māori ward in Ngāmotu / New Plymouth was introduced, from the district’s first Māori ward Councillor, Te Waka Macleod.
Register today at bit.ly/maoriwardswebinar
