Why others have to buy into our vision too.
If our journey is a personal one, then not so much - it will inevitably affect people along the way but our belief, determination, hard work and results will attract people down the line, and they'll have no choice but to jump on the bandwagon (think any losing sports team who start to win towards the end of the season, or when they sign key new players, as a prime example).
However, if our vision is about a movement towards aspirational, positive change for a collective, the answer is yes; we must earn the collective's trust, their respect, their confidence that our kaupapa (mission, purpose) is good (valid, has integrity, relevant) and has value to them (that it will also benefit them and their needs). Before the great voyage from Hawaiki to Aotearoa (NZ), the chiefs would have met with families within the tribe to share their vision, which would have been accepted or rejected based on if they were convinced of the integrity and purpose of the vision. Bring it back in, and think of your own personal experiences, hey what about going to town, and mum or dad say 'I'll buy you a treat if you come and behave well.' They were selling you a vision! And what do you know.... there we were, well behaved, treats in hand, good doing business with ya. Amazing vision, let's do this again some time.
But what about when people believe our vision is true, it's good, they can see the benefits, all of that, but they just don't buy into it anymore?
What if they've lost confidence in our ability to fulfil it?
Take the NZ elections in the weekend for example. The Māori Party; a movement to unite te iwi Māori (Māori people) to provide a voice for Māori in parliament and on a political front, was voted out of parliament altogether. No electoral seats, no party seats. A government level voice for our people, gone.
And boy did the floodgates open.. the reasons why we lost out, how disappointed people are in Māori as a whole, how the world as we know it is going to implode.... Why?
Yes, we've lost our voice in parliament, which will have some effect I'm sure. And it's unfortunate that people I personally, as I'm sure many of us love, respect and admire and the party which was built on standing up for what's important to us as Māōri were casualties in the process. I believe that in the bigger picture it's a good thing; in terms of our growth as individuals and as a people, how will we take responsibility for our tino rangatiratanga, self-determination?
The results of this election have held up a mirror and I what we see looking back at us, isn't pretty. “We've got a party in parliament now, they'll fix all our problems.”° Then on the flip side, who will we blame for negative Māori statistics? Who will we point the finger at when homeless rates aren't improving? Who will we throw under the bus for things not turning out right? Nevermind all the great, positive and productive progress they've made.. who are we going to pass the blame and responsibility to?
Tino rangatiratanga, sovereignty and self-determination has been a movement to empower Māori and one way we exercised that was by forming the Māori party. Others have been Ngā Tamatoa, Te Aho Matua, Kīngitanga to name a few. We must remember that a kete (flax basket) is not made with one strand alone, but with many strands which when woven together, form a strong base. The empowerment and rangatiratanga of Māori was never solely dependent on a political party in government. It helped a lot, no doubt about it, and the position contributed to a lot of positive change in many areas, but that was just one of the strands from our kete of bringing awareness and making sure Māori rights and values are upheld.
Just one.
So when we think of our own vision, think about why it's important - as a start. Then go beyond that to develop the idea of why it will be important to others and why others should buy into it. How will others invest in this vision that will benefit us all?
Hei wānanga mā tātou, for us all to think about,
Hana.
*The timing of when people buy into something isn't what I'm targeting with this post. But their investment (in any capacity) at some stage
°Generalisation obviously, whānau. There are many great initiatives out there, I'm lucky enough to be part of some, but they're called the 'general elections' and this comment is based on the general results.