Beyond telling relatable stories, it's prescient. Ihumatao is a case of reality mimicking fiction. Aroha Bridge is being mimicked by the events happening at Ihumatau.

In Aroha Bridge's season three finale, Kamo Kamo Corporation constructs a wall separating Aroha Bridge from the rest of world.

"The residents of Aroha Bridge - the angry dads, the people monopolising the cause, those disillusioned and those trying to be wakened - are divided in where they stand politically," writes Lana Lopesi in her review.

"That is until everyone starts to be impacted personally, whether it be through the inability to get burritos or the relentless corporate control of the suburb."

In the same way that Jacinda Ardern has to eventually take a stance on Ihumatao, Tokouso, the overly idealistic mayor of Aroha Bridge, always thought he could please everyone until he finds that he too has to eventually take a stance.

"An uncanny coincidence? Or a premonition manifested by the series' writer?" asks Lopesi.

"Like that friend who asks you if you really want to do that, and then tells you I told you so, Aroha Bridge, acts as a shady pop-up window asking us if we really want to repeat history again."

Aroha Bridge began life as a comic-strip and later developed into a short, online animated series. Now a full-length season made with the support of NZ on Air.

It is a cartoon snapshot of a multicultural melting pot that is New Zealand.

The series focuses on urban Maori characters, delving "into the racial politics and millennial Maori anxieties that manifest in the animated hubbub suburb of 'Aroha Bridge'."

Click here to watch season three of Aroha Bridge

Source

• noted.co.nz
• thespinoff
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: thespinoff

Given that all major parties involved, Fletcher Construction, the kaumatua who negotiated a deal with Fletchers, and the "protectors of the land" led by Pania Newton, are all acting legally and are all making reasonable claims concerning their interest in the land, there isn't an easy solution in view.

The history of the land is clear enough.

Before the arrival of European settlers it was part of the tribal land of Te Akitai Waiohua.

In the late 1850s Te Akitai Waiohua became a part of the Kingitanga movement which aimed to unite Maori, resist the forced acquisition of Maori land, protect Maori interests, and present a united front in negotiations with the Crown.

In 1863, the Chief of Te Akitai Waiohua, Ihaka Takanini, who had been a land assessor for the Crown and keeper of the Maori hostels at Onehunga and Mechanics Bay was stripped of these roles and accused of being a Kingitanga sympathiser and rebel.

Land at Mangere and Ihumatao was confiscated by the Crown, and Takanini, along with 22 members of his family, including children, were consigned without charge to a military camp in Otahuhu. The land was subsequently sold into private ownership.

Those gathered at Ihumatao today appeal to this history in demanding that the land be returned.

The land was taken without any compensation from those who were in legal possession of it; therefore it should be returned.

The scales of justice should be balanced.

That is a fair and reasonable argument.

The notion that justice involves a balancing of the scales is an ancient and venerable one.

The image of Lady Justice holding the scales dates back to the Egyptian goddess Maat, and was replicated later in the Greek goddess Themis, and in Iustitia the Roman goddess of Justice.

It is the image still used to represent the aspirations of Western judicial systems.

The principle of the balanced scales is also found in the Bible. The lex talionis represented in the precept, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" instructs Israel to seek a punishment or redress that fits the crime, and reins in our human tendency to excessive retaliation in the face of wrongdoing.

But there are other notions of justice to be found in the Bible.

The Hebrew word tsedekah and the Greek dikaiosune, both inadequately translated into English as righteousness or justification, are directed towards the re-establishment of right relationship.

The mere balancing of scales may or may not restore right relationship between the parties in conflict. But in the alternative biblical view, right relationship is the true end of justice.

Perhaps something like that was in view when the kaumatua at Ihumatao, acting on behalf of some but not all those who whakapapa to Waiohua, decided to do business with Fletcher Construction, to accept the return of eight hectares of land and the provision of 40 homes for families of the iwi involved.

I don't know that for sure, and there are certainly others who say that the kaumatua accepted the deal only because they had lost the larger battle for real justice.

What I am more sure of however, is that the notion of justice eventually settled upon in the New Testament, and represented both in Jesus' teaching and in his example, involves the repair of broken relationships.

Typically, such justice involves no mere balancing of scales but the giving of vastly more to those who have been wronged.

Consider for example, the fraudulent tax-collector Zacchaeus who, following the grace shown to him by Jesus, determined to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times the amount he had fraudulently acquired.

We might not be capable of that as a nation in respect of the injustices inflicted upon Maori but we could certainly aim for a justice that seeks, among other goods, to restore right relationship.

Telling the truth about our past and repentance are key components of such restoration.

So, too, is the liberation of those sinned against from their bondage to injustice and the opportunity to flourish as a people once again. A Maori word for justice, manatika, to make right or restore mana, is apposite here.

There are some who argue that we must move on; let bygones be bygones.

It wasn't "us" after all, who took the land, and it wasn't present generations of Maori who were evicted, or who were wrongfully imprisoned or killed during the era of land confiscations.

That sentiment ignores the fact that present generations of Maori continue to suffer the deprivation, and successive private owners continue to enjoy the benefit brought about by the injustices of the past.

And so, needing Solomon-like wisdom, but perhaps more simply, compassion, humility, and a willingness to tell the truth about our past, present generations of New Zealanders have much work to do yet in seeking right relationship with the first inhabitants of the land.

• Murray Rae is a professor of theology at the University of Otago. He trained first as an architect, then studied theology and philosophy at Otago. He completed his PhD at King's College, London, on the incarnation in the thought of Søren Kierkegaard.
• First published in ODT. Reproduced with permission.

A friend made that prediction as we drove through South Auckland, having seen thousands of people rally at this festival-like protest for indigenous rights.

Like the Springbok Tour of 1981, or Vietnam War protests the decade before, many believe this event will define the current decade.

At Ihumatao, musician Stan Walker declared this was the "revolution of our generation".

Perhaps only climate change has garnered the sort of momentum which is now fuelling protests to "save Ihumatao".

What seemed like a minor dispute is national news, drawing thousands of people to a slice of land Auckland Council and the government have tried to ignore.

But the questions this little slice of New Zealand raise will have an impact on us all.

It's not about a new subdivision, or who owns what, it's about justice and botched government process.

The many thousands of Kiwis who have made their way to Ihumatao are pulling the curtain off the Government's failed Treaty Claims Settlement process, and they've caught Jacinda Ardern off guard.

Now, the leader glorified as a progressive force for change appears to be scrambling for some sort of resolution.

She'll find that hard to achieve.

Instead of front-footing this major issue, the prime minister has faced stinging accusations of absenteeism.

Movement leader Pania Newton directly challenged Ardern for not meeting with the Save Our Unique Landscape activists. She also promised there would be no de-escalation.

One reason Ardern hasn't met with the activists is because she spent the weekend in Tokelau.

Suddenly, her history-making Pacific island trip faced criticism from all sides of the House, with Simon Bridges calling her a "part-time prime minister".

Had Ardern joined her MPs Willie Jackson and Peeni Henare at Ihumatao, she would have faced an even more serious dilemma than name calling. What will she do about it?

Make no mistake about why Henare travelled to Mangere for the protest. He's there begging to keep his job.

This is his electorate.

This is an issue which should have been front and centre in his mind.

In 2016, Labour published a statement headlined: "Ihumatao needs action not sympathy".

The party's had three years to come up with a solution, and yet in 2019 all Ardern has done is temporarily halt the construction work after saying: "We have heard the strong voice of young people, rangatahi".

To me, that sounds like sympathy rather than action. Continue reading

• Glenn McConnell is a journalist and student.
• Image: Stuff