It's an interesting advertisement that's been sponsored by Te Whānau o Waipareira which is an organisation that looks after the needs of Māori in particular, although they do support others in need of help. Whereby the organisation gets government assistance to reach out to the Maori community out in West Auckland.
One of the reasons that this advertisement has been viewed in many spaces is that there is a low uptake of Maori getting vaccinations as compared with many other ethnic groups including Pacific peoples.
The government is well aware of this and it was been stated on many media platforms as well about the low numbers of Maori getting vaccinated with the concern that this particular Delta variant of the COVID 19 virus could potential be very harmful to any of the un-vaccinated population but will especially affect the most vulnerable.
Hence this advertisement and with many more in conversations to come. Historically, there has been a distrust in the Crown or past governments who have harmed Maori in many ways by taking their lands under "legislated" laws in the past and that have discredited Maori culture with only recently allowing Maori schools to be funded and Maori tertiary organisations like the one that I am currently working in.
Many New Zealanders do not know the true history of New Zealand during the early colonization period where Maori had on first point of contact 100% Maori ownership but which has now dwindled down to only approximately 5% of all lands in NZ (2021 stats).
The NZ land wars during that time also saw the widespread slaughter of Maori whilst taking their lands. A sad history in many respects that is largely unknown in NZ and has not been taught well in schools in the past. However, that is set to change with the revised History curriculum that comes into affect next year with the requirement to teach local histories as well.
So that is why there is a huge mistrust of government declarations that have been detrimental to Maori even to the fact that at one time one philanthropic Auckland leader had a monument built on what was once called "One tree hill" in Auckland which was to be a memorial or commemoration regarding Maori in thinking that they may be wiped out.
That did not happen as Maori people are very resilient (similar to Pacific peoples) and have been working hard to keep their culture and language strong with many independent Maori schools teaching te reo (Maori language) from Early childhood centres now to tertiary institutions...
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