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“Winston Peters' Red Beret Rage: When Dog Whistles Sound Like Air Raid Sirens” - 27 August 2025

The Deputy Prime Minister's latest attempt to weaponize cultural symbols against Māori political participation

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

27 Aug 2025 — 9 min read

Kia ora e hoa ma - greetings friends.

Winston Peters has never met a Māori symbol he couldn't turn into a scandal. His latest Facebook outburst demanding explanations for Oriini Kaipara's red beret and South African flag at the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection debate reveals the tired playbook of a politician whose career depends on stoking racial anxiety. This manufactured controversy exposes how far-right tactics weaponize cultural ignorance to undermine Māori political participation while positioning Peters as the arbiter of acceptable Māori expression.

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Background: Symbols of Liberation in Global Context

The red beret carries profound historical significance across liberation movements worldwide. Dr Bobby Luke Campbell from Auckland University of Technology explains that berets were first associated with freedom during the French Revolution, later adopted by the Black Panthers in 1970s America as powerful iconography of resistance. In Aotearoa, the Polynesian Panthers popularised the beret as a freedom symbol during the mid-1970s protests against the Dawn Raids.

For Māori, the red beret connects to both international solidarity with oppressed peoples and local resistance traditions. As teenage activist Te Koha O Te Moana Shortland notes, "For Māori, red is a highly important colour as it usually represents blood or bloodline, loss, history". The colour mirrors the tino rangatiratanga flag and honours the 28th Māori Battalion who wore berets during World War II.

The Manufactured Scandal: Peters' Tactical Ignorance

Peters' feigned confusion about Kaipara's symbolic choices represents classic concern trolling - manufacturing outrage while claiming innocent curiosity. His demand that "mainstream media" interrogate a Māori candidate about her cultural and political symbols reveals several problematic assumptions.

First, Peters positions himself as the cultural gatekeeper determining which Māori expressions require explanation to Pākehā audiences. This colonial mentality treats Māori political participation as inherently suspicious, requiring constant justification and interpretation for the "mainstream" - code for Pākehā New Zealand.

Second, the timing of this attack during the crucial Tāmaki Makaurau campaign serves Peters' broader agenda of undermining Te Pāti Māori's growing influence. As Peters stated to party faithful in October 2024, "normal people are endangered" while promising to "take our country back." This language mirrors white replacement theory rhetoric, positioning Māori political advancement as threatening "normal" New Zealand.

The South African flag reference particularly exposes Peters' bad faith. Rather than acknowledging obvious connections to anti-apartheid solidarity - a natural alliance given both countries' experiences with settler colonialism - Peters weaponizes this symbol to suggest foreign influence or inappropriate allegiances. This tactic mirrors far-right strategies globally that paint Indigenous solidarity movements as un-patriotic or foreign-controlled.

The Double Standard: White Symbols Never Questioned

Peters' selective outrage reveals telling double standards. When did mainstream media last demand explanations for politicians wearing poppies, Union Jacks, or other Pākehā cultural symbols? Oriini Kaipara herself notes the significance of head adornments in Māori culture, where "the head is considered the most sacred part of the body" and "head adornments have long been worn by Māori as a sign of honour, power, and pride".

Yet Peters demands no explanations when politicians sport rugby jerseys, wear military medals, or display other symbols of Pākehā identity and values. The message is clear: Pākehā symbols are neutral and default, while Māori symbols are political provocations requiring justification.

This double standard extends to Peters' own symbolic choices. His party's "taking our country back" slogan directly echoes white nationalist rhetoric used globally, yet receives no media scrutiny about its meaning or implications. Peters wraps himself in New Zealand flags and military imagery without explanation, while demanding Māori politicians justify their cultural expressions.

Undermining Māori Political Legitimacy

Peters' attack on Kaipara fits broader patterns of delegitimizing Māori political participation. By focusing on symbols rather than policies, he diverts attention from substantive political debate while positioning Māori candidates as exotic or extremist.

Kaipara brings significant credentials to the race - she was the first person with moko kauae to present mainstream television news and later host prime-time national news. Her achievements in broadcasting, including cultural leadership roles with the New Zealand Olympic Committee, demonstrate deep commitment to both Māori advancement and national representation.

Yet Peters ignores these qualifications, instead manufacturing controversy over her cultural expressions. This strategy serves dual purposes: deflecting from his own party's lack of substantive policy alternatives while reinforcing narratives that Māori politicians are divisive or un-mainstream.

The tactic also reveals Peters' understanding of coded racial appeals. By avoiding explicit racist language while demanding explanations for Māori symbols, he maintains plausible deniability while sending clear signals to audiences uncomfortable with Māori political prominence.

Media Complicity and Colonial Conditioning

Peters' expectation that media should interrogate Kaipara's symbols reveals how colonial assumptions persist in New Zealand's political coverage. The idea that Māori cultural expressions require mainstream interpretation while Pākehā symbols remain unquestioned demonstrates deep-seated colonial conditioning.

Recent coverage of the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti showed how red berets became widespread symbols of Māori resistance, with young Māori women particularly embracing their liberation symbolism. Rather than celebrating this cultural confidence, Peters treats it as threatening or illegitimate.

This response reflects broader colonial anxieties about Māori political assertiveness. When Māori embrace symbols of resistance and liberation, colonial structures respond with demands for explanation, justification, and ultimately containment.

Economic Fear-mongering and Racial Scapegoating

Peters' attack also serves his broader economic messaging. By positioning Māori political symbols as foreign or extreme, he reinforces narratives that Māori advancement threatens economic prosperity or social cohesion. This classic neoliberal propaganda technique scapegoats Māori for broader economic problems while deflecting attention from structural inequalities.

Peters has consistently promoted "need, not race" rhetoric while claiming to support Māori through "practical common-sense assistance" rather than meaningful self-determination. This paternalistic approach treats Māori as deserving help only when they conform to Pākehā expectations and avoid asserting cultural or political autonomy.

Broader Implications: The Colonial Gaze Persists

Peters' manufactured outrage over Kaipara's symbols reveals how colonial structures adapt to maintain control. Rather than explicit racism, contemporary colonialism operates through selective scrutiny, double standards, and demands for cultural translation that position Māori expression as inherently political while treating Pākehā culture as neutral.

This dynamic extends beyond individual politicians to broader media and political systems that continue privileging Pākehā perspectives while treating Māori viewpoints as niche or extreme. The assumption that Māori symbols require explanation while Pākehā symbols remain transparent demonstrates how deeply colonial thinking persists.

For Māori communities, these attacks represent ongoing attempts to police cultural expression and political participation. The message is clear: you can participate in politics, but only on terms acceptable to Pākehā gatekeepers who determine which expressions of Māori identity are legitimate.

The Māori Green Lantern fighting misinformation and disinformation from the far right

Reclaiming Symbol and Substance

Winston Peters' attack on Oriini Kaipara's red beret and South African flag reveals more about his own insecurities than any supposed controversy. His manufactured outrage exposes tired tactics of weaponizing cultural ignorance to undermine Māori political participation while positioning himself as the defender of "normal" New Zealand.

The red beret carries proud traditions of liberation struggle that Māori rightfully claim as part of global Indigenous resistance. Peters' demand for explanations reveals colonial assumptions that Māori cultural expressions require Pākehā approval while white symbols remain unquestioned.

Rather than engaging with Kaipara's substantial qualifications and policy positions, Peters diverts attention to manufactured cultural controversies. This strategy serves his broader agenda of delegitimizing Māori political advancement while reinforcing narratives that position Māori assertiveness as threatening or foreign.

The solution lies in rejecting colonial gatekeeping and embracing Māori political participation on our own terms. When politicians like Peters demand explanations for our symbols, we respond by wearing them prouder and advancing our political agendas stronger.

Oriini Kaipara's red beret represents everything Peters fears: confident Māori political participation that refuses colonial conditioning and embraces international solidarity with liberation movements. That's exactly why she deserves our support.

E hoa ma, if you find value in this analysis, please consider supporting this kaupapa with a koha to HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. I understand these are tough economic times for whānau, so please only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Ivor Jones - The Māori Green Lantern

https://twitter.com/winstonpeters/status/1587173491664908289

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