I am tired of Waitangi Day. I’m tired because no matter how much Maori try, Pakeha in this country still don’t get the reason why many Maori protest at Waitangi Day. It’s like living in an abusive home where dad spends most of the year beating his children and then complains when no one wants to celebrate Christmas dinner.
In less than 1 century, Maori lost 95% of their land and their population was decimated to almost extinction levels. That reality of colonialism is at odds with the idea of a ‘treaty’ between two peoples and is the reason why Maori are over represented in every single negative social statistic. Rob a people of 95% of their economic base and then ignore that impact on their current position in society is adding insult to injury.
We should be thankful in this country that Maori have been so generous in their forgiveness of this atrocity. Watch the fury of pakeha having to mow their berms to appreciate how one sided our preciousness of ownership is in this country.
For me, I love the Treaty because of the relationship of responsibility it immediately sets up between the Crown and its people. I believe the Treaty needs to be expanded to all NZers and not just Maori because it sets out the obligations of the Crown to protect the rights of its people. We deserve as a nation to entrench the Treaty as the basis of our constitution so we can force Governments to protect our rights rather than strip us of them.
Pakeha want to gloss over the theft and confiscation of indigenous lands because it’s a shameful denial of the promise of a Treaty between two peoples and when you consider the paltry compensation that has been paid back to Maori via the Waitangi Tribunal, it’s a mere $1.4 Billion.
$1.2 Billion for confiscating the majority of NZ??? What is most egregious is that some Pakeha have the audacity to claim that pathetic reparation is a ‘gravy train’.
It’s not the Treaty of Waitangi – it’s the Cheaty of Waitangi and until Maori get their fair share it’s a national day of embarrassment, not celebration and Maori have every right to use the day to voice their anger at being cheated.
If Pakeha want to turn Waitangi Day into a national celebration then we should honour the treaty and work to reverse the negative legacy of colonialisms impact on Maori, while empowering ourselves by reinforcing the Crowns obligation to us as New Zealanders to protect all our rights rather than erode them.
It’s as simple as that.
I honestly believe most of this comes from Pakeha having really no bloody idea what the experience of colonialism has caused to Maori. We need to listen more to those angry voices on Waitangi Day, because they’ve got a point.
When you consider that one shareholder bailout for SCF cost taxpayers more than the entire treaty claims payout thus far, you start to realise just how pathetic this ‘gravy train’ is…
“I believe the Treaty needs to be expanded to all NZers and not just Maori because it sets out the obligations of the Crown to protect the rights of its people.”
No. What that does is dilute the Treaty and takes it away from Maori. And that is wrong. It’s just another form of cultural appropriation.
The Bill of Rights Act needs to be entrenched to protect the rights of all NZers. The Treaty of Waitangi needs to be respected for Maori. Not trying to make it something that can benefit all of New Zealand.
Ia m not a NZer so I don’t give a stuff about your treaty or your sad, pathetic inconsequential socialist rock in the south pacific
Have a nice day
Why bother commenting then?
By the way, you’ve severely got it twisted if you think that New Zealand is ‘socialist.’
Well, all the socialist policies that Helen Clark put in place, like WFF, are still here.
Have a nice day
‘your treaty or your sad, pathetic inconsequential socialist rock in the south pacific’?
‘the socialist policies that Helen Clark put in place, like WFF, are still “here”‘?
Are you here or not? If yes then the treaty affects you as much as anyone whether you like it or not. If not, then sweet as, don’t worry about it, we don’t give a stuff about you either.
Am I here or not?
A great question, if a man posts on a blog, is he here?
It is great that you don’t give a stuff about me either. I love meeting other sociopaths on this day of united racist bigotry.
You revel in your bigotry, don’t you?
Andy we have some socialist policies and some capitalist policies, we have a sort of a balance which is a whole lot better than being entirely one thing or the other. A bit like Norway, but not quite enough like it
Why bother commenting then?
By the way, you’ve severely got it twisted if you think that New Zealand is ‘socialist.’
No doubt people will pull the racist card for my comment below, it is not intended to be racist, just a dash of reality.
When the treaty was signed the crown thought maori were natives, yet in reality they were immigrants to this land just like everybody else.
I say scrap the treaty and all that taxpayer money be used to benefit everyone, not just one race of people who happened to come here first.
Oops I upthumbed instead of down.
You can’t just dump the treaty because now you don’t want to stick to it.
I remember listening to Deborah Coddington one day telling of a time when land being acquired for public works was paid for if it was European land, simply confiscated if it were Maori, and there are still plenty of people alive TODAY when that was still happening!!
Deborah Coddington was an ACT MP at one stage, she has seen the light
Really Mark? Dump the Treaty?
Maybe we should ignoree the Ten Commandments (or at least the bits relating to false witness, murder, theft, etc)?
Should the British also dump the Magna Carta?
What about the United States dumping it’s Constitution?
So really, you want to dump the Treaty because it doesn’t suit your prejudiced view of “history”?
It might actually benefit you to read a bit of our history instead of starting from a position of repudiating something just ‘cos you don’t like it.
In the meantime, I’d like to scrap your property title to you home and take it over as my own. Why not? Your ownership rights can be scrapped at will, it seems…
Although I agree with your main points, perhaps we could dump the first five of the Ten Commandments…
1) I am the LORD thy God
2)Thou shalt have no other gods
3)No graven images or likenesses
4)Not take the LORD’s name in vain
5)Remember the sabbath day
It doesnt help, of course, that the ToW was put together in 3 days by a merchant, a 3rd rate junior naval officer and a preacher, neither of whom had any legal training and translated into Maori litterally overnight.
It cannot be suprising that this has all resulted in the shambles we have today.
This is all the usual “I want something for nothing” socialist garbage, dressed up in the guise of historical conflict between two cultures. Just pathetic. “Stealing 95% of the economic base”… what economic base existed???? The economic base we have in NZ today rests on the application of hard work and intelligent use of the natural base, not the base itself. So are you talking about 95% of the 1840 base, or 95% of the 2014 base?
The Treaty industry needs the limitless budget of the “Crown” to pay for their generation-spanning insatiable demands. The Crown is a fiction, because the Crown is actually the entire taxpaying base of New Zealand. I think people should just be honest and say where the wealth transfer is coming from – all of us collectively. How ironic.
“what economic base existed????”
What else? Their land. Don’t tell me you haven’t realised that!
Whilst it is true there was economic activity prior to European settlement at quite a substantial level you are wrong to claim land ownership provides an economic base. ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe believes basically in the same concept. They had an election slogan that stated “The land is the economy and the economy is the land” which was based on the principle that giving land to Black Africans would benefit the economy. Of course what happened is many of them failed due to two things leftist economic thinking generally discounts. That is capital and expertise. It is a similar problem with much of Maori owned land now. The land gas less productivity than it could have due to difficulties in accessing capital to develop it.
“… you are wrong to claim land ownership provides an economic base. ”
WTF?!
Did you just write that??? Did you just undermine the entire capitalist system?
Well, Comrade, if that’s correct, you have no objection to the State nationalising all land in this country. After all, if land doesn’t provide an ecoinomic basis…
And in which case why are offshore investors so keen to buy our farmland??
Honestly Gosman, that was a remarkably stupid comment and you really need to wise up on the role that land played in the colonisation of NZ history.
I refer you to Chris Trotter’s excellent piece here: http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/a-precise-moment-in-history-pondering.html
Jeezus H. Dumber and dumber… *shakes head*
I note you didn’t address the point I made about how in Zimbabwe they followed your own logic and redistributed land and it led to greater impoverishment not greater wealth for the majority. Land on it’s own is useless unless it is utilised. It cannot be utilised effectively without the application of sufficient know how and capital. To give you an example, if I owned the Moon it would mean nothing in an economic sense unless I can exploit any resources from it. To do that I would need a shed load of capital investment.
So you are telling us that “Black Africans” are too stupid to toll the land economically. It doesn’t occur to you that the World Bank, IMF, and various corporations could have a vested interest in seeing them fail by cutting loans, aid and other economic measures.
Your Moon analogy is ridiculous, ever thought about why Antarctica wasn’t colonised?
Get back to me when you understand the word exponential…
YogiBare says: January 24, 2014 at 12:04 pm Talking about ideological failures, Gosman, I’m still waiting for you to explain how your capitalist, economical growth model will continue to work in a world of finite resources. To maintain a growth rate of 3.5 percent would require doubling the amount of resources used every twenty years. I would argue that this model cannot be sustained indefinitely. VA:D [1.9.22_1171]Rating: +8 (from 8 votes) Reply Gosman says: January 27, 2014 at 7:23 am The amount of resources we use are infinitesimal compared to the amount of resources available to be used. All it requires is sufficient technological development to enable them to be unlocked for use. Luckily capitalism provides the incentive for this development. VA:D [1.9.22_1171]Rating: -2 (from 2 votes) Reply YogiBare says: January 27, 2014 at 3:18 pm It would seem you don’t understand the concept of an exponential growth rate. A famous example being the monarch who was asked to repay a favour by simply starting with one grain of rice on a 64 square chess board and doubling the amount of grains on each square…1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096,8192,16384,32768,65536,131072,etc.,etc., to an impossibly high number. – See more at: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/22/the-problem-for-the-rich-how-to-keep-your-wealth-without-losing-your-head/#sthash.JdaH5gZ4.dpuf
YogiBare says: February 3, 2014 at 5:50 pm Gosman is incapable of informing himself of anything that may run counter to his ideology. He can’t even grasp the implications of a exponential, economical growth model, no matter how many times it’s explained to him. Maybe I should have tried an even simpler example for him…namely…if a lily growing in the middle of a pond doubles in size every day, it will be some time before the pond is half covered but only one day for the pond to go from half to fully covered. VA:D [1.9.22_1171]Rating: +2 (from 2 votes) – See more at: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/30/billions-of-dollars-stolen-from-the-unemployed/#sthash.GltdUGoX.dpuf
@Mike. Food for thought.
The economic genesis of the NZ colonial govt was a result of Māori land appropriation by the crown, in which a huge amount of this was raupatu (‘confiscation’) from either not being able to pay stupid fines (that didn’t apply to other British subjects) or the wars of the 1860s. Land = economic base, especially for indigenous people groups. Why else were the colonial govt so adamant on confiscating Waikato land? Let’s not forget Hobson’s philosophical annexation of the South Island too.
By acquiring land from Māori and making a HUGE profit from settlers, the NZ govt wasn’t only able to survive financially but was also able to justify the means of land acquisition.
To say that land doesn’t equal an economic base is highly illogical if not culturally narrow minded.
Peace
Excellent blog Martyn. Spot on.
@ Mark Champion – “immigrate = come (as a permanent resident) into a foreign country.(foreign = belonging to someone else).
It’s absurd & incorrect to state that Maori were immigrants. They were the only ones here when the Europeans came, and that’s all that counts. They were invaded actually.
In the 1850’s-1860’s Maori communities controlled and produced most of the economic activity here in NZ. They produced most of the country’s wheat and vegetable production, and controlled most of the coastal shipping including shipping to Australia. If that is not economic activity I don’t know what is.
Actually, no they didn’t control it at all. Where on earth do you get your facts from? All agricultural production relied on European farming technology and expertise and was set up for Maori mainly through the efforts of the missionaries who provided the capital necessary to buy things like oxen, ploughs, farming implements and then taught Maori how to be productive farmers instead of subsistence ones. Trans-Tasman trade was initiated by Pakeha traders who had the necessary shipbuilding know-how and trade links. Maori assisted but couldn’t go it alone, they always needed help from Whitey. That’s not control, it’s hanging on to Pakeha coat-tails. They couldn’t even develop a written language without our help.
And as for losing 95% of their land base! I’d like to know the factual basis for this. Even in the Waikato less than 5% of the total tribal lands was confiscated (1.2 million acres) of which one third was given back almost immediately after the wars ended. The Sim Commission in 1926 awarded Waikato Tainui today’s equivalent of $1million a year in perpetuity, plus another million a year until the late 1980’s plus a further top-up of $1/4 million every year. So why is Ngaruawahia still such a dump? Been bypassed now, thank God. Perhaps it’s because Maori always expect and need that helping hand whereas the rest of us just have to get on with it.
By the way, my family were Irish and lost 100% of their land and were transported to Australia as convicts. 5 generations later we are doing alright thanks to hard work and a fierce desire to give the next generation a better chance. No handouts needed.
What a load of absolute rubbish. The Treaty should be abolished and the settlement gravy train immediately ended. The government needs to say ‘enough is enough’ or this nonsense and entitlement complex will continue indefinitely. Do we see the governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States being extorted out of billions of dollars on the absurd premise of archaic injustices?
@MJ Funny you should mention Australia, Canada, and USA,
I wonder what it is about an indigenous culture being subjected to wholesale slaughter, kicked off their land, and treated like dirt for generations by those who displaced them that they never seem to bounce back.. Any thoughts?
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