did you see te pati maori declared independence??
I DID NOT! Holy shit! Thanks for the news!
Okay, now reporting back from one research deep-dive, the recent context as I understand it is this:
Last November, a conservative right-wing Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, assumed office. He's got a lot of less than stellar right-wing policies, and that includes making cuts to the Ministry of Social Development and opposing co-governance with the Waitangi Tribunal and other Māori leadership organisations over the administering of public services such as education, health, and infrastructure. He's been openly critical of Māori seats in Parliament, though he hasn't (yet) opposed them. Over the course of his administration, there's been an initiative to omit or cut mentions of the Treaty of Waitangi, the foundational document of New Zealand that forms the basis of arguments for Māori protections, from official language.
Which brings us to yesterday, May 30th. Budget Day. The day the new administration would announce their first budget and a day of mass action for supporters of te Pāti Māori protesting the treatment of Māori under the new government. I don't have any concrete numbers, but RNZ reports thousands of protestors, while the NZ Herald estimates "tens of thousands" turning out nation-wide, and a walking protest that delayed rush-hour traffic in Auckland for hours.
You may have already guessed that the budget was Bad. As I understand it, the budget effectively cut any kind of targeted funding for Māori health or education, and decreased funding for Māori cultural festivals and celebrations. And again, I cannot stress enough how much I am not an expert on this topic, so there's probably a lot more in there I don't know about.
In response to the new budget, Māori Party MP Rawiri Waititi issued a Declaration of Independence to the New Zealand Parliament, (video of his speech in link) with the support of his fellow te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
There doesn't seem to be any concrete plan in place yet for the organisation of the new Māori parliament, but MPs Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer met with protestors to collect signatures for the Declaration, which they plan to bring to a hui taumata (meeting of congress) today, Friday, May 31st. The text of the Declaration can be found on te Pāti Māori website, in the form of a petition. You do not have to be Māori to sign, but I believe you do have to be kiwi.
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For context, me and a few of my fellow crows on Phil’s Discord had this idea of “What if there were Minecraft crows that were specialized and adapted to live in different realms/biomes?”
And now we have End Crows 💜
Transcript & closeups below:
END CROWS
A guide by Philza Minecraft
PHYSICAL ADAPTATIONS:
Largest of all crow variants
Thinner with longer legs (LANKY)
Wings & feathers adapted for silent flight
Sharp serrated beak for eating chorus fruit
BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS:
Social! Seem to flock in large groups
Allergic to water (like an enderman)
Enjoy taking dust baths!
Hoarders of shiny things (have a weird obsession with spoons for some reason?)
Prefer dark environments
Nest in End cities/trees
OTHER NOTES:
Purple glowing eyes
Feathers have an iridescent purple tint
Surrounded by particles
DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!
Tattered fringe feathers
Longer legs
Velvety down feathers on legs & wings absorb sound frequencies!
Serrated beak!
DIET: omnivorous
Chorus Fruit
Endermites
Etc.
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ACT 2
"You're... me?"
"That's right, stardust!"
You know I've been drawing Loop as their Siffrin form so much that it's got me thinking. I've read and seen so many fics and artworks of Loop eventually getting back to looking like their old self, but I don't think I've seen any so far of Loop already being a mirror copy of Siffrin. So uh, yoink?
ISAT AU where the game plays out the same way (plot-wise at least) but Loop looks like Siffrin the whole time and while Siffrin is extremely perplexed that there's another him, he's still gotta accept their help because how else are they supposed to escape the loops? Good ol' Loop is here to help, helpful friendly Loop!
Siffrin is going through it still but Differently.
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