Pauline Tangiora: Interview with an Aotearoa peacebuilder

Annie Boanas, age 23

Pauline Tangiora Q.S.O., Q.S.M. is a Māori elder from the Rongomaiwahine tribe on the East Coast of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. She has affiliations with many other tribes. She is a Justice of the Peace, a former President and currently Vice President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Aotearoa), the former Regional Women’s Representative for the World Council for indigenous peoples, an Earth Charter Commissioner and a member of the Earth Council. She is a life member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and a Patron of the Peace Foundation. She has represented Aotearoa at many international fora and was a Consultant to the International Steering Committee of the World Court Project, a legal challenge to nuclear weapons.
She has also been recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

How do you define peace?

I don’t think there is a definite definition of peace. Peace is something that comes from deep within. You can have peace around you; which is by the beauty of what you see, or the feeling you get up in the morning with the birds and the bird calls, you can find peace in the middle of a group of children laughing, you can also find peace in the middle of war, when you see somebody when they are first struck down can still pick themselves up and they have such a tranquility that it is also peaceful.

How do you believe peace can exist in the world?

I am hoping that with respect for one another and allowing other people to see the boundaries that they need to be in or outside of, that we may not agree with that person but that we can respect that that is where they are at.

I feel as a young woman beginning on a journey of peace work that although there are many things to feel positive about I can feel overwhelmed at times with the state of the earth and I find myself getting cynical and depressed.

Don’t lose hope, Annie! That is what being young is all about. Youth is about knowing that there must be peace around the corner. It is not defined what moment peace will come into the world, but you know that by being alive you can participate in that peace work. Hope is something that is a part of that spirit of yours - and young people must always believe it is a spirit. Hope is not something you can see or touch, it is something that comes from deep within; and holding onto that is actually the important issue. Otherwise life would become very depressing. With 40 odd wars going on as we are talking, we have to believe in peace. Otherwise I don’t want to live.

You have done much work with indigenous peoples (especially women) internationally; do you think we have a lot of work to do here with the indigenous Māori in Aotearoa?

I believe we do have a lot of work to do. It must come with the unification of Māori working together as Māori because we are a greater force if we go under our Māori nationality rather than as separate tribes. In Aotearoa we have so much, but we expect so much more. Sometimes we are not prepared to move on and to take what is there and use it for better things. I believe that is what colonisation has done to many of our peoples in this country, and they do not call out as easily.

You visited Iraqi communities to be alongside the women, children and families living with the fear of looming war by the United States. How did you and those you were supporting cope with that fear and find the strength to keep on living?

My observation was that they knew there were other people in life that also had hope and that there is another day to be lived. They had a knowing that there were other people who really cared. Each group inspired each other because if you look to the left or to the right there is always somebody holding onto something. This would help the next person along to think, “Well they are not throwing it in, so I’ll hang in there”.

In your prayer for world peace (“Ceremony for the inter-religious prayer for world peace”) one line reads, “peace comes not from contemplation but action!”. In your experience what actions have been valuable in terms of creating peace?

To go to places where there is a lot of fear. When people can actually see that fear doesn’t stop one from trying to bring a peaceful resolution for something.

Annie Boanas has recently started working at the Peace Foundation in the Wellington office. Annie has known Pauline Tangiora since she was a child and is one of the many mokopuna’ that Pauline or Nanny Pauline’ has throughout Aotearoa. Pauline has answered these questions personally, and not on behalf of any organisation. For more by Pauline Tangiora, visit the Disarmament and Security Centre website.