“The reality is that Māori have suffered through colonisation,” Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson said today in response to comments made over the weekend by National MP Paul Goldsmith around colonisation being good “on balance” for Māori.
Possibly the best response to Paul Goldsmith’s bewildering claim that on balance Colonisation has been good for Maori is Willie Jackson’s Facebook invitation for him to come to his Marae for a chat with his pupils…
National Party education spokesperson Paul Goldsmith told Newshub Nation on Saturday, that on balance, colonisation was good for Maori because European culture and technology provided wonderful things like literacy, freedom and democracy.
Oh Goldie!!
The Maori Party and Green Party have erupted calling Paul’s comments ‘dangerous’ and ‘disgusting’ which is their right but this moment is simply too important to allow our anger to eclipse a real learning moment here by simply cancelling Paul because many, many, many Pakeha do think that the technology and gifts of western democracy somehow make past grievances and injustices invisible and irrelevant:
That is why I am officially inviting Paul Goldsmith to come out to my Marae to speak with my people about the impact of colonization and whether or not plastic, chewing gum and washing machines replace a colonization experience that almost killed our entire people while removing them from 95% of their land in less than a century.
In 2017 I gave a speech at the same RSA as Don Brash’s infamous Orewa speech, this is how I ended it.
The myth of Maori separatism is created because people would prefer to think of righteous Maori grievance as something that requires separating so that the majority don’t have to see it, hear it or interact with it.
It is a dangerous myth that alleviates obligations to respond to our shared history of colonialism. Maori lost 95% of their land in less than a century and were almost wiped out as a race altogether at the turn of the 20th Century.
Generational poverty caused from the loss of our economic base is alive and well right now in every social statistic that shows Māori failing. Listening to, understanding and responding to those legitimate complaints and the reality that has created today doesn’t require separatism as the solution.
Maori don’t want to be separate from the country we live in. Maori want what every NZers wants, to be included and respected.
We need to all work together to make the promise of New Zealand one that is shared by us all.
Don Brash’s Orewa speech was a cynical manufactured racial smear calculated to twist the best egalitarian values of us as a people into a misdirected group with all the rationality of a lynch mob.
I’m here 13 years later to tell you that we are better than that manipulation by Don Brash and that Māori are still waiting to be partners.
It’s time you joined us.
Come and join us Paul, come to my Marae and listen to my team and young people tell you what colonisation did to us as a people.
They know those stories because we carry that legacy with us Paul, while we are grateful for electricity, smart phones and the combustion engine, our hearts and soul were branded by historic injustice that can’t simply be washed away by a sale at Briscoes.
We are always welcoming to help enlighten you from your very narrow view on Colonisation and hear first hand the hopes of the next generation who want to live free from the unconscious bias and long standing petty bigotries that gnaw all our lives.
You need this insight to be a whole New Zealander Paul. Stop playing games with Māori and spouting out nonsense it’s time you learnt some history from people at the coalface who have suffered from the effects of colonisation .
Come to my Marae and we will tell you the real story.
…’while we are grateful for electricity, smart phones and the combustion engine, our hearts and soul were branded by historic injustice that can’t simply be washed away by a sale at Briscoes’.
Best.
Burn.
Ever!
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Bam, that’s how you handle dinosaurs like Paul Goldsmith, top marks Willie!
Can they please live broadcast it?
Paora would actually gain a lot of respect if he took Willie up on this offer.
Prob need the entire National party to go though, and more importantly, the young nats as well.
The wheel, a written language…a treaty that stopped tribes killing each other and basically would have ended up as genocide on their own people if left to their own tribalism.
As in the movie The Life of Brian “what have the romans done for us?”
There has been unjustices, of that there is no doubt, but to blame ALL the ills that maori have on colonisation is just papering over some very large cracks. Maori leaders/elders/achademics would have us all believe that NZ was an idyll and a harmonious population before the evil white man appeared (mass tribal murder, slaves and cannabilism is ignored) If Maori wish to self govern themselves then they need to look at some ugly truths of modern day life, that maori are part of, that thus far they have willingly ignored and shut the lid on any discussions as ‘racist’ if brought up in any discussion… as its easier to just blame colonisation.
No, it wasn’t idyllic but far better than the consequence wrought by “progress” At the time it was widely accepted that Maori was about to die out. As in the doctrine of manifest destiny, i.e White people are born to rule over non-whites, When that is the pre-text, you can see how the rest of the story goes and that still resonates, especially in online discussion threads..and I believe you mean “injustice”
That is a very old view that’s regurgitated by all the old right wing redneck boomers who can’t bring themselves to think how much better Maori outcomes could be if equal opportunity and treatment were forthcoming. Why regurgitate the past? Shit happened back then, this is now, and the stats for Maori are alarming. Time for change, starting with attitudes.
What about the colonisers history – let’s start with teaching the truth about the Crusades…..
Colonialism seems to be as inevitable as death and taxes. I watched the interview again recently of a former US Secretary of State who said on balance that sanctioning (then invading) the Middle East resulting in the deaths of half a million children was ‘worth it’. Clubbing ‘democracy’ into sovereign countries on the pretence of liberation and freedom and saviour (actually it’s about money), bringing the savages up to the level of the great empire in their time of need, and then boasting about it, just fuck off.
The timing of this – out from nowhere – opinion from Paul Goldsmith was right in the middle of the latest sicko Nat MP meltdown, Jake Bezzant. A disturbed man who had more red flags than May Day in Red Square 1950 and yet Nationals wealthy bumbling Godfather/ President, Peter Goodfellow, missed everyone of them.
Right in the middle of an attempt to roll Goodfellow.
Actually right in the middle of Nick Smith being told by Judith there was a leak in respect of his issue with a staffer, when in fact there was no leak at all, seemingly bringing forward Smiths resignation by a couple of years.
Right in the middle of Judiths latest hit job to keep power and control.
So whilst National continue to self destruct in a display of horrific blood letting, Goldsmiths utterances must have been a timely tactical smokescreen to the faithful.
I don’t think it was much more than that.
“I don’t think it was much more than that.”
Ahhh just your assumption, your musing of things. Glad we got that sorted
True enough . You missed out slavery too.
Good politics Mr. Jackson, good politics.
“European culture and technology provided wonderful things like literacy, freedom and democracy.”
Is Paul Goldsmith delibrately ignoring the huge sacrifices made by Maori to defend ‘his’ freedom and democracy? and what about the on-going toil Maori contribute daily to build the infrastructure for us all to enjoy? Maybe if he provided the same ‘blood, sweat, and tears” we would all be better off.
Peter Kelly,
No idea what you are talking about?
John
Good heavens we are going back to The Crusades from 1092 to 1291?
Anyone who doesn’t believe colonisation didn’t bring benefit to Māori is being silly.
No need to elaborate.
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