01/03/2026
Kia ora. My name is Taryn. I am a graphic designer, photographer, and web designer. I am Māori Pākehā.
Growing up at Hongoeka Marae, my cousins teasingly called me a “palangi Māori”. White enough to be automatically accepted. Māori enough to carry the generational trauma of colonisation. Irish enough to be defiant. Māori enough to know my grandmother stood on our whenua, and her grandmother stood there before her.
Māori and Pākehā enough to understand the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and how this document enables human rights and environmental protections for everyone here.
Kiwi enough to know that our current government is screwing us, hiding behind its dog whistles that incite racism while pushing legislation that benefits mega corporations through Parliament.
Kiwi enough to know that we will all go toe-to-toe on the line, peacefully, to fight injustice.
Because that is what people do when they love this place.
This is not Māori versus Pākehā or Pākehā versus Māori.
This is us versus mega corporations and gas barons.
Us versus to***co companies and multinational food giants.
Us versus landlords of all nationalities who treat housing like a business but refuse to pay tax like one.
Us versus systems that quietly funnel wealth upward while everyday people struggle to survive.
Yes, we matter.
And what we do here ripples outward.
Aotearoa has led progress before, often long before it was comfortable or popular. From the peaceful resistance at Parihaka, to becoming the first country to grant women the right to vote, to standing against apartheid when it fractured the nation, we have repeatedly chosen people, justice, and long-term wellbeing over profit and power.
The systems we live under were built by people.
They can be rebuilt by people.
Major parties including the National Party, Labour Party, ACT Party, and New Zealand First have received declared donations from corporate entities, industry-linked trusts, or associated lobby groups connected to sectors such as property development, banking, energy, extractive industries, and to***co, as published by the Electoral Commission.
Together for Better on 7th November 2026
