{"product_id":"homeless-in-our-own-land","title":"Homeless in Our Own Land","description":"Homeless in Our Own Land\u003cp\u003eHow did we become homeless in our own land?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow did tangata whenua - the people of the land - become people sleeping in cars, garages, tents, emergency motels, overcrowded houses, prison cells, and streets named after ancestors whose descendants cannot afford to live there?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not just a story about homelessness. This is not just a story about poverty. This is not just a story about Māori who \"do not want to work,\" or Māori who are called lazy, drunk, drugged, gang-affiliated, broken, or useless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose words are part of the problem.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey are the labels placed on people after the system has already failed them. They are the easy insults used to stop deeper questions from being asked. They turn suffering into personal blame. They turn history into silence. They turn government failure into Māori shame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this issue is bigger than shame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is bigger than one person making bad choices. It is bigger than one family struggling. It is bigger than one street, one town, one gang patch, one prison sentence, one benefit payment, one addiction, one eviction, or one night spent sleeping cold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about a country that can find money for prisons faster than it can find homes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about a government that can spend millions managing the consequences of poverty, while refusing to properly repair the causes of poverty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about a justice system where Māori are imprisoned far beyond our share of the population.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about a housing system where tangata whenua can be priced out, pushed out, locked out, and then blamed for having nowhere to go.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about wages that do not meet the cost of living, rents that rise faster than incomes, and whānau being told to \"work harder\" in an economy that has already decided they will stay behind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is about racism - not only the loud racism of slurs and hate, but the quieter racism of policy, funding, policing, housing, education, health, and justice systems that keep producing the same unequal results generation after generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Māori are over-represented in homelessness, over-represented in prison, over-represented in poverty, and under-represented in ownership, safety, wealth, and decision-making, we have to stop pretending this is an accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe have to ask who benefits from the story that Māori are lazy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe have to ask why the country is more comfortable blaming the poor than questioning the powerful.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe have to ask why a person in prison can cost the taxpayer more in one year than many working people earn, yet the same society says there is not enough money to house people before they fall, support them before they offend, or heal them before they break.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe have to ask why homelessness is treated like a personal failure when it is clearly a political outcome.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is not written to excuse harm. It is not written to deny personal responsibility. It is not written to say every Māori person is innocent or every government worker is evil.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is written to say the truth is bigger than the stereotype.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is written to break the stigma.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is written for the father coming out of prison with nowhere to go. For the mother trying to keep her babies warm in a motel room. For the young fulla told he is a criminal before he has even had a chance. For the kuia watching her mokopuna grow up disconnected from whenua, language, safety, and hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is written for the people who are tired of being judged by those who have never had to survive what they survived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd it begins with one question: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow can Māori be homeless in our own land?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67664666984680,"sku":"9798183977820","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0810\/9539\/3512\/files\/imageloader_383d4bfc-a4b3-4e43-b59a-7f34bbd0d481.jpg?v=1790478159","url":"https:\/\/shop.kuumba.app\/products\/homeless-in-our-own-land","provider":"Kuumba","version":"1.0","type":"link"}