IF NEW ZEALAND’S educational curriculum was dedicated to condemning capitalism and uplifting the working class, would that signal a revolution? If working-class culture was elevated above the cultural achievements of the upper and middle classes, would that signal a revolution? If representatives of the trade unions exercised a decisive influence over the editorial direction of the news media and the content of university courses, would that signal a revolution?
Of course it would.
Nearly forty years ago, as the newly-elected Fourth Labour Government was pursuing its nuclear-free agenda, organising women’s forums, and preparing to destroy the achievements of the First, Second and Third Labour Governments, a handful of young trade unionists – Labour Party members all – lobbied the then Minister of Labour, Stan Rodger, for a daily bulletin of trade union news on Radio New Zealand.
Way back in 1984, New Zealanders could keep abreast of what was happening on New Zealand’s farms by tuning-in to “Rural News” Or, keep up with the machinations of industry and finance by listening to “Business News”. There was even a weekly programme called “Focus on Politics”. But, the only time New Zealanders ever got to hear about what was happening in the country’s factories, warehouses, offices and shops was when workers went out on strike.
“So, how about it, Stan, why not a daily, or weekly, round-up of news about the issues confronting working-class New Zealanders?” Now, to give Stan Rodger his due, he gave us a fair hearing. Indeed, I think he was personally quite excited by the idea, because, eventually, a short series of programmes entitled “Working Life” did make it to air. But a daily round-up of news from the perspective of those working on the factory floor, or driving a truck, or standing at the check-out counter? Not a chance.
Such a programme would have indicated a significant shift in social and economic power in the direction of working people. But, as we all know now, the people running the Fourth Labour Government (not all of whom were democratically-elected politicians) were committed to shifting social and economic power in precisely the opposite direction – towards the bankers and the bosses. That’s why there was a vast expansion in the coverage of business affairs on Radio New Zealand – and right across the news media. That’s why, in just a few years, the ideology of neoliberalism permeated the whole of New Zealand society. There had definitely been a revolution – but not by the workers.
New Zealand is currently living through another top-down revolution. Though far from complete, it has already captured control of the commanding heights of the public service, the schools and universities, the funding mechanisms of cultural production, and big chunks of the mainstream news media.
The ideology driving this revolution is not neoliberalism, it’s ethnonationalism. A potent amalgam of indigenous mysticism and neo-tribal capitalism has captured the imagination of the professional and managerial class, and is relying on the latter’s administrative power and influence to drive through a revolutionary transformation of New Zealand society under the battle-flags of “indigenisation” and “decolonisation”. The glue which holds this alliance of Māori and Non-Māori elites together is Pakeha guilt.
The origins of the present ethnonationalist revolution may be traced back to the early 1980s – specifically the 1981 Springbok Tour. A very large and well-organised anti-racist movement against the Apartheid system in South Africa took to the streets to protest the presence in New Zealand of the Springbok rugby team. There they encountered not only the brutal forces of the state, but a vast number of New Zealanders who were not in the least bit shamed or shifted by the charges of racism hurled at them by the protesters. The Springbok Tour thus revealed a deep divide in New Zealand society, leaving many of the protesters feeling like strangers in their own land.
The Māori nationalist movement, which had taken form during the 1970s, was quick to draw a large number of these alienated liberal New Zealanders into its orbit. Using tactics developed by radical social reformers in the United States, Māori activists accused the Springbok Tour protesters of caring more about Apartheid in South Africa than they did about the racism in their own country. Learn your own history! Read about the violence done to Māori and the confiscation of their lands! Stop going on about racism in the abstract and pay heed to those who understand it from bitter personal experience! Surrender your privilege!
It worked. The nationalist activists had created a movement towards “Māori Sovereignty” in which revolutionary Māori would lead, and guilty Pakeha would follow. Not that these guilty Pakeha represented anything like a majority of Non-Māori New Zealanders, far from it, but they did constitute a significant percentage of the well-educated and credentialed members of the Professional-Managerial Class – and that would be enough. The Guilty Pakeha’s “long march through the institutions” had begun.
And what a very long march it has been, but, 40 years after it began, the champions and fellow-travellers of the Māori nationalist movement can look back upon some stunning successes.
Fearing that the nationalists were about to unleash a mass movement of the most marginalised Māori against the “Settler State” – fears stoked by reports of Māori nationalists being feted in revolutionary Libya and Cuba – the Crown initiated the Treaty Settlement Process with Iwi Māori. Informed by President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, Robin Cooke’s, landmark 1987 reinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi’s meaning and purpose, this process brought into being the Iwi-based corporations that gave birth to the phenomenon Elizabeth Rata calls “neo-tribal capitalism”. The sons and daughters of the original Māori nationalists now had the resources they needed to carry their parents’ dream to fruition.
Only one more strategic victory was required to complete the Māori nationalist revolution: Pakeha pride in their past and in their culture had to be undermined. The men and women once celebrated as nation-builders had to be recast as colonial oppressors. The country famed for being “the social laboratory of the world” had to be re-presented as just another sordid collection of white supremacist, treaty-breaking, killers and thieves.
Māori, too, were in need of a complete makeover: from slave-owning warrior-cannibals, to peace-loving caretakers of Te Ao Māori – a world to which they were bound by deep and mystical bonds. Inheritors of a culture that sanctioned genocidal conquest and environmental destruction, how could the Pakeha hope to lead Aotearoa towards a just future? As in the 1980s, the Twenty-First Century journey required revolutionary Māori to lead, and guilty Pakeha to follow. And those guilty Pakeha in a position to make it happen were only too happy to oblige.
Which is why, in March 2023, New Zealand has an educational curriculum dedicated to condemning colonisation and uplifting Iwi Māori and Mana Whenua; Māori cultural traditions and ways of knowing elevated above the achievements of Western culture and science; and representatives of local iwi and hapu wielding decisive influence over private and public development plans, as well as the credo and content of media reporting and university courses.
The Māori nationalist revolution is not yet complete – but it has, most certainly, begun.
How did this column get past Martyn’s guard?
It’s just a style.
I think it’s called free speech. Trotter long ago extinguished by politically born-again woke Stuff newspapers.
Great article and time for the Counter-Revolution to begin.
Just as Maori were justified in their objection to their kids being culturally indoctrinated in schools so too should NZ European parents.
Why wouldn’t employers want more maori and woman in higher paying jobs when they can pay them less while at the same time charging more for rent.
A huge part of uni degrees are now coming from the humanities and they ain’t building nothing. And a large portion of graduates aren’t even employed in there chosen field of studies. While still saddened with huge unpayable debts.
I think universities are going extinct.
Excellent article Chris.
Thank you.
Stop reminding me that I’m gonna have to pay for private education when I get school aged kids 🙁
A great article Chris. Well done! This is just part of the wider trend in the West though – the US and UK are going through basically the same guilt-ridden process.
And Sam is also correct – universities are slowly going extinct. The only things keeping a lot of US universities afloat are their massive trust funds. Some of the worst offending US liberal arts colleges have seen the endowment taps turned off by their alumni but they have such a vast trust funds they basically cannot be stopped. NZ universities don’t have that level of financial backing so will go bust much quicker. I cannot image what an Asian student studying engineering is going to make of the mandatory ‘Mātauranga Māori’ module! I suspect it will prompt many to go elsewhere. If I was part of an incoming National/ACT government I would start trimming their funding and put it into trade apprenticeships instead.
I volunteer at a primary school and have to listen to their various karakia worshipping the ‘Sky Father’ and the ‘Earth Mother’. FFS.
” If I was part of an incoming National/ACT government I would start trimming their funding and put it into trade apprenticeships instead.”
For real ? And you work in schools…?
We couldn’t possibly have any non- white students aspiring to be much needed doctors or environmental engineers now could we… just plumbers instead of consultants to fix Natz ” Just put another bung in the leaky boat ” policies.
Just the opposite! We are fortunate to have lots of Asian doctors who keep our health system going.
What I would do is:
1. Shut down all the degree courses whose titles end with ‘studies’. As in gender studies, fat studies etc. LOL
2. Half the funding to the arts.
3. Remove all racist courses.
4. Shut down two of the four law faculties in this country – there’s no work for them.
5. Scrap NCEA and bring back the old bursary system.
6. Introduce an education voucher system for schools like Sweden has and pay the schools on the basis of how many vouchers they receive.
7. Remove all religion from schools, including the ‘vitalism’ myth included in the karakia I mentioned.
8. Put more money into the STEM (except social science)
and into apprentice training.
The voucher system sounds unsustainable. But I agree with most of your other points, and can add a couple more:
– Axe the Tertiary Education Commission (totally consumed by Critical Race Theory)
– Defund the NZ Arts Council – they’re more interested in activism than art.
– Re-nationalize the universities (and probably close a couple of them), axe tuition fees but raise academic entry and retention requirements (fail 3 papers and you’re out). Universities should be about quality of education, not quantity. Currently our universities compete to enroll as many students as possible, because that’s how they get a lot of their funding. If they were proper state universities with block annual funding, they wouldn’t need marketing departments, wouldn’t have to waste money on advertising, and they could get rid of some of their managerial staff.
The voucher system works well in Sweden and the product (educated children) is far better. It incentivizes effort by the teachers because in order to get vouchers, they have to attract students. By comparison our system is just sheltered employment for union members.
Regardless, our education system is failing and something must be done.
Define “works well” for us Andrew. The problem with our schools isn’t the teachers – it’s the curriculum and the whole culture of education. Our school teachers work their asses off under very difficult conditions.
Ye-e-sssss!
The right-wing planning their takeover of the education system and refining their particular brand of fascist youth in Aotearoa. Scary…
9. Remove the automatic residency for foreign students after they finish privileges. I bought a dishwasher in a major appliance chain recently, the salesman told us he had a masters degree in digital marketing, how’s that for dumbing down our education system!
What a draconian education system you advocate Andrew.
Thank God your policies will never be enacted.
I certainly don’t agree with the Critical Race Theory history curriculum either.
If you throw out Arts courses you deny the scientists and engineers the chance to expand their thinking from mere nuts and bolts to lateral thinking.
Andrew, encourage you to watch ‘Way of the water’ James Cameron sequel to Avatar talks a lot about Sky-Father & Earth mother, I wonder how & where they came up with that idea? Be interesting to know?
Cultural appropriation? Be careful what you share, least it be stolen from you & commercialised by others, while you stand bereft, with empty pockets.
Again.
LOL
I remember a critic describing the original Avatar as ‘Dances with Wolves in Space’ because it’s the same tired on Hollywood plot based on the ‘Noble Savage’ plot.
I miss going to the movies, but they’re producing such dross these days, it’s not worth it.
Sorry to burst your bubble Stephen but a lot of cultures have seen the earth as a ‘mother figure’ . . the Quechua in Bolivia for one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachamama
Ancient Greeks actually. Gia the earth goddess and Uranus the sky God
It is probably a fairly common myth amongst primitive cultures to explain things they don’t understand.
Ah, but does the revolution mean that Māori tenants in the big cities are going to be freed from the yoke of the Pākehā landlord, descendant of those who drove out the original inhabitants of the local pā and kainga, and then allowed their descendants to return from the hills of exile as tenants some one hundred years later? When it comes to “revolution,” this is where the rubber will hit the road, Great South Road to be precise.
Our Parliament has often been likened to a committee of landlords, and history shows that it is most unwise for committees of landlords to unleash revolutionary forces even if the revolution initially takes a mostly cultural and symbolic form to begin with, as a way of pre-empting something more radical. In the words of a certain Parisian of the 1790s, “those who make half a revolution only dig their own graves.” At least in political terms (and of course rather more literally so in those days, as the Girondins gave way to the Jacobins, etc.)
For, how long can the urban Māori masses who are now being told that they are the joint masters of the country but who live in garages in practice (as opposed to rural tribal elites who don’t) be satisfied with the shadow of sovereignty and not the substance, to borrow Nōpera Pana-kareao’s famous line? (https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/signatory/1-168).
Personally, I think the next stage of the revolution, which has indeed been unleashed but, in fact, like most historical revolutions, actually from the top to begin with and perhaps, indeed, as a way of preventing something even more radical from below, will in, fact almost inevitably pivot toward this “from below” direction, in the following manner, for which we already have a precedent.
Just as the labour abuses of the 1880s, exposed by the Reverend Waddell and the Sweating Commission and various other now-unfashionable Pakeha worthies led to the rise of a powerful trade union movement in the 1890s, the ICA Act and the Red Feds, several spectacular labour disputes and compulsory unionism, so the present abuses of the present housing market will lead to a renters’ movement focused on South Auckland above all, and the reclamation of South Auckland, parts of which are actually confiscated land as is all of Hamilton/Kirikiriroa, for its largely indigenous population, a movement that will of necessity extend to Pasifika (since how could it not?) and then to all the renters as well, somewhat like James Connolly’s vision of an Irish nationalism that included the Protestants and was mostly focused on bread-and-butter issues of getting away from being a large farm for England that actually starved its own inhabitants, as opposed to the swirling mists of Celtic romanticism with which would-be decolonisers were otherwise distracted.
Further fuel to an emerging nationalist and decolonising fire of the bread-and-butter sort in this country is the revelation that each Ao/NZer pays the Australian banks 2,000 dollars a year in profits, most of it excessive and winked at by our ruling committee of landlords.
For the historian Erik Olssen, the rise of a powerful labour movement in old-time Aotearoa New Zealand “might be considered the real question to be asked of New Zealand history.” Namely, “how was it that a country dominated by farmers and small towns ever came to have one of the world’s most powerful trade union movements and a Labour government—indeed, a radical Labour government at that?” (in Levine, ed, New Zealand as it Might Have Been)
In the light of that passage, the rise of an organised tenants’ movement commingled with something akin to bread-and-butter Irish nationalism among the renters of South Auckland and, from there, around the country –targeting the Australians as well as the local ex-colonial landowning ascendancy — is an even more probable scenario.
Indeed, it is a fact that there was a powerful renters’ movement in this country in the 1970s, one of several stroppy 1970s protest movements. However, that earlier renters’ movement was defused by Labour with its 1986 Residential Tenancies Act: few, perhaps, anticipating at the time that more radical medicine would one day be needed.
who owns the freehold of leasehold titles in downtown Auckland ex-railways land. Could easily have been made into iwi housing instead of pakeha housing.. just saying.
oooooohhh that’s a bit racist drug addled..
are pensioners of any ethnic group less cold and wet when homeless than maori?
If Ngati Whatua had done that, they would have been accused of racism, and of “ghettoization” of Aucklands CBD.
Just sayin’, dumbass..
Iwi members can buy those leases just like anyone else. Though why would you buy such property. Everytime Auckland leasehold land is in a rent review cycle there’s a Herald front page story of leaseholders walking away with complete loss of capital (their life savings).
Chris needs to expand his knowledge base, this Earth has a finite life & its creator is coming back. The price was paid 2000 years ago & while the initial church started well it was soon taken over by subversive forces & fell into disrepute. All that Chris writes about is contributing to the disruption we have been warned to expect at the end times.
utter fantasy and delusion – a bit like Trotters article. It’s like he’s taken the last 200 years and somehow put it into a fantasimical reverse reality machine.
Religion is the antithesis of Reason.
As Bonnie well demonstrates.
Oh dear! You really are pushing the boat out Chris! 🙂 Those elite mowrees are gunna hate on you!
gonna carve him up and eat his liver – lol – it’s an effing joke.
Every time Trotter writes on this subject , it comes from a place of ignorance.
It may be woke politicians enabling the guilt trip but it’s articles like this that are stirring up the tribalism.
Maori better stay in their place eh!
No billd. Virtue mowrees dont do that shit. They just post memes and have public tantrums like the pakeha wokeratti.
I am no guilty pākehā–I support Māori struggles from a conscious class left position–unity of Māori and non Māori working class people is what the employing class has always feared the most in Aotearoa NZ. Post colonial fall out haunts this nation still, with hundreds of thousands in denial about sitting on stolen or dubiously acquired Māori land.
Years back when unions were stronger and we had many strikes and actions it always intrigued me that Māori workers who few payed much attention to, always seemed to be the ones that in a tight spot were the first to turn up with tents, caravans, BBQs, and fresh food galore. A different collective culture to individualist pākehā.
Māori through urban shift were almost assimilated into white NZ through the 40s, 50s, 60s and early 70s, but not quite. Rogernomics ironically helped fracture assimilation through the mass sackings in Forestry, Works, Manufacturing, Telecom etc. and local body amalgamation and subsequent contracting out. Thousands of gainfully employed Māori were cut loose, never retrained, to form the now permanent NZ underclass.
So Chris fear may be real to him, but many younger people do not give one and welcome the younger browner impetus in our society.
Agree with your sentiments, Tiger Mountain. Chris has made a decent contribution to the left over the years, but he is beginning to sound a bit like a broken record in his paranoia about the native people of this land who are merely trying to claw back a little self respect. Maori average incomes are still far below that of Pakeha, and Maori are not the ones who are pushing low income people further into the poverty trap. That is still the (mainly white) capitalists. and Capitalists have always distracted the white poor by blaming minorities (although now with social media they have added many more tricks to the playbook).
That’s the reason I began the post with questions about the status of the working class in New Zealand.
Urban Maori – they’re the ones at the sharp end of the housing crisis, inadequate health care services, poor education – and neo-tribal capitalism offers them nothing. If you believe they will benefit from the Maori Nationalist Revolution, then I suspect you’re destined for severe disappointment.
Totally agree Chris.
Most of this is just distraction; divide & conquer. The young may not fear this push, but they’ll find there is little real effort to uplift the lives of poor, urban Maori. We live in a country that can not managed to train & retain bus drivers, and so must import this skill. The future does not look bright, especially if you are poor & unskilled.
Precisely why my children are home schooled. The public system isn’t the least bit concerned about education.
FromHe Puapua report
ensuring all aspects of New Zealand citizenship recognise and reflects te Tiriti, tikanga and
Māori systems of belonging;
A bit like Iran where citizenship reflects the Quran as interpreted by the supreme leader and enforced by the police
This pathway we are on will only lead to civil conflict and more racism.
I wish this wasnt the case.
Far to simplistic to split New Zealand racial demographics into two factions when in fact there are a larger number of demographic races.
Significantly;
1- the Asian/Indian combined demographic is larger than the Maori one.
2- Pacific Island people are becoming more than a bit tetchy in being lumped in with Maori. They are a stand alone demographic entity.
The link is for 2018 figures so not fully up to date but there are trends developing. One can foresee a huge cultural clash in the future between Auckland and the New Zealand regions (has already started?).
https://berl.co.nz/economic-insights/new-zealands-ethnic-diversity-will-continue-increase
By 2043 the Asian demographic will be larger than the Maori one, the Pacific Island demographic around 50% of the Maori demographic. European demographic will continue to decline.
“This growth in the Asian population will occur in most regions of New Zealand, but it will be particularly prominent in the Auckland region. The Asian population in Auckland is projected to account for 44 percent of the regional population in 2043, up from 29 percent in 2018. Similar, but not as significant, will be growth in Wellington, where the Asian population is projected to grow from 13 percent in 2018, to 23 percent in 2043. ”
Maori; demographically will move towards the regions:
“Given the very young age structure of the Māori population, with 32 percent of Māori under 15 years of age in 2018, Stats New Zealand states there is “greater built in momentum for future growth” compared to the European and Other ethnic group. The Māori population in New Zealand is expected to grow from 17 percent in 2018, to 21 percent in 2043.
The largest regional Māori population will be in Gisborne, and the region is projected to have 69 percent of its population identifying as Māori by 2043. Similarly, Taranaki, Manawatū-Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, and Northland will also experience notable increases in the proportion of Māori in their regional populations.”
You shouldn’t use racial demographics like this to predict homogenous ethnic groups as you can select more than one ethnicity in NZ. It’s also imo really fucking racist to do so.
Go look at Stats NZ and it will tell you what the projected population in raw numbers will be and not as a percent.
Badge of honour achieved
Being called a racist for pointing out racial demographics in New Zealand, I’ll wear that badge with pride, you calling it racist does not alter the facts. I don’t know where you live Mikesee but here in South Auckland The racial lines are defined and demographically set. Auckland will be an Asian/Indian city by 2043. Maori will bhe in the ascendancy in the regions.
Long live the multicultural society, we here, in South Auckland enjoy.
No, i am calling you a dumb dumb for trying to force a mixed group of peoples into a single racial category. If you bothered to look at the raw numbers instead you will realise that your percentages are greater than 100% because people can select more than one ethnicity.
If you don’t like that people can be of more than one ethnicity then yes you are a racist and will be amazed that the population of New Zealand who select European ethnicity will keep growing past four million by 2040.
Time for some white pride?
I for one am proud to be white with an English / Welsh ancestry.
Does that mean that I am a white supremacist – No.
Will woke muppets label me instantly as a white supremacist – Of course they will.
Do I have any issue with anyone else being proud of being brown or black – Not in the slightest.
If you are English, you have a lot of history / culture to be proud of. Be proud. You should never feel guilty about things you didn’t do (unless they were things you were supposed to do).
Not sure a traditional May pole or Morris dance national festival is commercially viable here in NZ.
Ever watched Shakespeare or a BBC production? Remind me also who our head of state is? And whose political system is our Government based on? Which language do we speak if we wish to be understood?
my ‘whiteness’ doesn’t bother me either way however I am inordanantly proud of my northern working class roots…having a skin colour is way to nebulous to engender pride in me
Would luv to see it. Probably be classed as racist.
no, education and governance must be secular so that white, green, brown, Maori Jew Catholics, Hindu……… etc can coexist freely. Also, past grievances are not a recipe for going forward.
Fuck I hate being defined by my skin colour or my ethnicity and I guess that’s what Trotter is railing against in his own clumsy way.
The 1981 springbok tour….How’s it all working out in South Africa now….???
I laugh when I hear Pakeha people talk as being victim of Maori aspiration and Chris Trotter never disappoints. Maori Nationalism didn’t just begun with the Springbok tour of 1981, Maori nationalism existed in the early 19th century with Te Rauparaha in the 1840, Hone Heke in the mid 1843, or Te whiti o Rongomai 1860s or Kingitanga 1860s, or Te Kooti a Rikirangi 1870s, or Rua Kenana 1920s etc…
Also Eldon Best nor James Cowan weren’t exemplary historians as their depiction of Maori cannibal savagery against European grace & exceptionalism was the NZ history taught in NZ schools even into the mid 20th century. The Moriori were here first before Maori were writings from these pakeha historian (Maori aren’t indigenous) even claiming that ‘Tanui’ started the land wars so deserved their lands being confiscated when actual evidence into pakeha writings and maori oral proves that to be a lie.
If Chris Trotter is moaning about correcting NZ history than that has been happening with the array of modern technology and peer-reviewed by scholar internationally. Pakeha guilt??? Who brought them this guilt? Why do they feel guilty? Is Maori to blame for this guilt??? And this fetish that CT has with ‘Maori elitism’? How dare Maori become wealthy is what I get from this constant barrage of discourse. And property rights doesn’t get mentions when explaining Maori participation in the ‘elite Maori examples’.
The Elizabeth Rata claiming Maori ethno blah blah is rubbish. She’s a regular contributor to the Muriel Newman NZCPR a far-right Maori hating org that specifically targets Maori aspirations and Treaty of Waitangi issues. European colonization didn’t just happen in NZ!! The effects and evidence negatively impacted Indigenous populations globally isn’t disputed.
Israel is an example of European colonization in the 20th century it practices apartheid and uses european anti-Semitic experiences than projects that onto the Indigenous population the Palestinian. The modern Israelis don’t have a peaceful arrangement like Maori & Pakeha have in NZ today. The TOW Settlements even thou are only 3% of what was lost is better than war and to be honest NZ pakeha are experts in colonializing an Indigenous population they been longer at it than the European Jews.
Maori are indigenous to Africa, not NZ. Funny how we consider the Polynesian Rat Kiore to be introduced but not Maori. The early Maori and their rats decimated the indigenous species present and the forests they needed to survive in.
Name us the indigenous species that were wiped out by the Kiore introduce when maori arrived in NZ? than compare that with introduced species by Europeans (pakeha) like rabbit, deer, cow, horse, trout, possum, wallaby, stouts, wasp, the felling large numbers of native trees decimating native bird habitats, etc…
And how childish not acknowledging Maori as the indigenous peoples of NZ/Aotearoa.
Many native species DNA that are now extinct were found in Kiore coprolites. Ground based birds and other species had a little natural defence. Colonisation by Maori also resulted in the loss of around 40% of our indigenous forests. Indigenous tends to suggest in balance with nature. Humans – neither Maori nor Pakeha have ever been in balance but rather an invasive species. Pakeha are no more indigenous that the European ship rat and Maori no more indigenous than Kiore. We need to stop pretending some NZ’s are indigenous while others are introduced – it doesn’t make any sense.
Neil, ‘Colonisation by Maori also resulted in the loss of around 40% of our indigenous forests.’ Got proof???
“Indigenous tends to suggest in balance with nature. Humans – neither Maori nor Pakeha have ever been in balance but rather an invasive species.”
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
indigenous
/ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
1. originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.
“coriander is indigenous to southern Europe”
Similar:
native, endemic, local, domestic
Opposite: non-native, introduced, imported
2. (of people) inhabiting or existing in a land from the earliest times or from before the arrival of colonists.
Keep ranting Neil you’re showing real talent on how to put your foot in your mouth.
“coriander is indigenous to southern Europe” yes correct but if you bring it to NZ and it just happens to be the first coriander in the country it doesn’t make it indigenous.
The problem with the use of the word in practical terms is that it means people like you with a chip on their shoulder think they’re special and above all others. Maori are no more indigenous than coriander, unless they were on Zealandia when it broke away 80 million years ago…
Great points Neil . . I am sure the Maori Party will be more than open minded to considering this point of view.
Neil, your opinions are free however you don’t have the right to call them facts.
actual Polynesians originated from Taiwan and now china wants to take Taiwan. Sort that one out if you can.
But going back pre the treaty and the Maori tribes were killing and eating each other left right and center using muskets bought by trading slave heads. As CT said in his article a forgotten piece of Maori history.
Actually Rave dout, if you’ve talk to Maori? they get reminded that their ancestors were cannibals every-time NZ history is brought up so if as you say..
‘CT said in his article a forgotten piece of Maori history.’
if that what you believe than you and CT are dead wrong!! Concentrating on the lurid and exaggerating the extreme towards maori is common coming from Pakeha’s generally.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/europes-hypocritical-history-of-cannibalism-42642371/#:~:text=Europe%20boasts%20the%20oldest%20fossil,to%20extract%20marrow%20and%20brains.
I think the point being made is there is an attempt to demonize pakeha with colonization and create an image of Maori living in a picture-perfect world pre-European settlement to validate the actions of today whereas, in fact, life was pretty grim especially if one ends up as a slave
Jeez I wonder what it was like living as a slave in historic europe must have been a bundle of joy?? Couldn’t imagine IMAO
slaves as such weren’t really a thing in europe itself except as novelty items…now if you wanna talk the caribbean or america that’s a different kettle of fish
I think you may find that the Romans had a few slaves . .
well if your going to go as far back as that , the picts and celts practiced human sacrifice…but that isn’t what’s being suggested is it? it was cheap shot that failed.
No ‘cheap shot’ intended.
Yeah well, maybe, most of Europe didn’t abolish slave trade until early 19th century and I’m betting plenty of Europeans remained active in it directly or indirectly, in the period we’re discussing.
It was the British after abolishing their own, who abolished Maori slavery, let’s not forget that aspect of colonization.
thank you. guilt was never required!
There fear of a Maori Maori ethno nation exists only in the minds of racists.
Education is one of the apparatuses of the capitalist class state.
Every truth is mediated to serve the patriarchy and private property.
Every move the Labour Government makes is to shore up finance capital.
$1 TRILLION DOLLAR INCREASE TO LAND VALUES OVER COVID
What does that tell you?
ITS NOT ABOUT RACE ITS ABOUT MONEY.
We have a capitalist state run by settler capitalism in which the largely gentrified white class rules.
The threat of a new Maori ethnostate is a racist dog whistle.
The pakeha gentry have Maori truly diverted into the state machine for for beads and blankets.
Let’s focus on the here and now.
Let’s avoid getting suckered into race hatred to fight a nuclear war to defend the interests of 10%.
Lets organise the 90% of us who make the wealth fight the rise of fascism and make a real revolution to save humanity from extinction.
That is what democracy is supposed to do
Such fantastical verbage here to induce paranoia for the unhinged.
So an indigenous group are expressing themselves in their own language and culture, building successful enterprises, seeking equality and human rights… but holy shit it’s a REVOLUTION according to Trotter.
Perhaps the revolutionaries are all getting together in clandestine meetings at night in their little tin garages…… time for another police raid maybe Chris ?
Hope NZers or Trotter don’t travel abroad… fuck me but by this criteria there’s a treachorous plot going on many countries … ffs in France there’s a biggie , they speak French !
Is it trotters or rabbit paws the author has ?
Tuhoe raids and Tama Iti.
Also,
A lot of evidence was not permitted in court, and suppressed, because of the way Police collected it.
Schools should teach awareness of culture, not culture.
The first is empowering and the second is divisive.
Time to vote ACT to end this slide to chaos.
Yeah, why simply slide when you can pour on gasoline?
While couched in seemingly intelligent language and reasonable analysis the article is pure reactionary racism through and through. Tapping into and stirring up un-warranted and irrational fear in those who already hold anti-Maori views with the calm, re-assuring, “I know best” voice to justify deep seated existing antagonism towards progressive Maori policy.
Perhaps we should start banning certain books and courses on NZ history. Perhaps we should ensure that our white historical perspective is enforced across society by monitoring and penalizing teachers who stray from the purity of European culture. Maybe we need to purge our public service and media of voices that uplift Maori perspectives. Perhaps we should ensure Maori stay in their place in the hierarchy of supremacy the author is intractably attached to. This is a new low that I didn’t think was possible. What a truly repulsive read.
All the measures you allude to – mutatis mutandis – are fast becoming law in America’s “Red States”. Such is the consequence of people like yourself, Peter, imposing their beliefs on a society which does not share them.
Totally agree with Peter B. Chris’s claim that changes in the way we address our history, as if we’ve having the wool pulled over our eyes, is reactionary “Brash-ism”. And if we are “going through a revolutionary transformation of New Zealand society under the battle-flags of “indigenisation” and “decolonisation” and if the “the glue which holds this alliance of Māori and Non-Māori elites together is “Pakeha guilt”, then it’s not before time. From long before that warrior stood on the ramparts at Rangiuru to declare “We will fight you forever and ever!” through the times when Maori aspirations were suppressed by a string of Uncle Toms, Maori Nationalism has always been with us in one form or another, and the more strident iterations or recent times was overdue. And if Maori have taken a leaf from the books of other liberation handbooks, so what? What revolutionary hasn’t.
And if the Treaty process has produced “Neo-Tribal Capitalism”, again so what – that’s surely preferable to the Capitalist model that fails to deliver for the rest of us.
Ti hei mauriora
Wow Malcolm. So what is Brashism. Don Brash’s policies would not work because the simple deduction that we all have equal opportunity was way more complicated than saying we all can attend school and have equal opportunities. Don Brash believed in his policies so he certainly wasn’t racist. So what is Bashism to you. In the context of your comment. ?
hear hear Chris. Thanks for publishing this much needed perspective.
You mean a “democratic majority” may not want them. This is known as mob rule and is the antithesis of liberalism and tolerance which are the foundations of modern social order. Yes, it is very easy to rile up the majority and turn trivial cultural issues into ugly and deadly forces as is done in the US, Israel and India – all democracies that exploit division over seeking common ground.
There is a critique to be made of identity politics and it’s lack of class consciousness and economic equity but this article (and many others) is not it. It is extremely disappointing and frustrating that intelligent thinkers on the left fall into line with right wing political strategies rather the seeing them for what they are and offering a counter narrative. You are by no means the only one who does this.
Do you even know what mob rule means.
It means to be necklaced and set alight….
It means to be burned a the stake…..
Mob rule? So a referendum is mob rule? I’m sure the Swiss would not agree with you.
So you would choose the next government with tolerance and liberalism? What a ridiculous notion!
You are exhibiting the very wokeness that Chris has pinpointed.
thank you for stating my mind!
buhahahaha for sure PB
Yet, you stoop to doing exactly that what you object to.
Is that rational?
And that’s how we will end up with private schooling for all.
Private schooling for all…
those that want an education and a future in a world that is becoming increasingly harsh to those without wealth or the skills required to attain it.
Agreed
We should pursue scientific explanations not mysticism.
Not sure what some people dont understand about conquest. Whether by deceit, treaty or a bayonet its all the same. What do you think the superpower of the day would have done if the Maori didnt sign a treaty? It was all over rover the instant those white sails appeared over the horizon, the rest was just detail.
Not sure what some people dont understand about conquest. Whether by deceit, treaty or a bayonet its all the same. What do you think the superpower of the day would have done if the Maori didnt sign a treaty? It was all over rover the instant those white sails appeared over the horizon, the rest was just detail. And if anything has changed then its a vast underestimation of the anglo saxon.
buhahahaha keep the jokes coming lol
But it turns out that the Maori version of Te Tiriti doesn’t sign away sovereignty as the word rangatiratanga was replaced with kawanatanga, so it turns out the everything that happened since 1840 was just a misunderstanding and Maori are actually the rightful rulers of New Zealand. If you could just close the door on your way out, that would be great. Leave the lights on though, thanks.
Now we have the mainstream media deliberately misrepresenting Richard Dawkins’ recent statements about Matauranga Maori not being science. As with all authoritarians, they immediately attack him for daring to suggest that superstitious religious views like Mauri (life force) are not science. I mean, how dare he!
We now have a Dave Armstrong on Stuff saying he misunderstands Matauranga Maori when in fact Dave doesn’t understand science. Hey Dave, trial and error navigation is NOT science!
FFS – we’ve had the feral lunatic fringe in Wellington with zero grasp of science, let alone what the new racialised curriculum will do to our youth. Oh and did you all realise that Maths students cannot be good at maths unless they understand pacific and Maori perspectives? Yes, it’s in the curriculum. What rubbish.
Fortunately the future will not be science & technology based as we collapse into a new dark age, so stone age skills might be just what we need. Or not. I’ll stick with science & technology, backed with a practical bent.
Fuck, you’re an idiot, mate. Coherent enough?
Back in the 1990’s feminism entrenched itself into the education system. There were more female teachers and less male teachers. This is a trend that continues to this day. It still is difficult to find good male teachers, and female teachers still find it hard to get their pupils to focus, pay attention, turn up to class on time, etc.
It really is a pity as a 50/50 system while not strictly true and not official worked really well. Our education system was the best in the world. But then male teachers were made to feel inferior, as more female teachers joined the teaching profession and attained prominent roles.
Then in the 2000’s the switch from School Certificate to NCEA made it even harder for students who struggled to learn. This perpetuated the new model of more women being hired in the profession, and less men.
These days, it is beginning to get back on track. Not that we will have a return to a Patriarchal society, and no we shouldn’t, but I believe that there is now more of an understanding of the importance of men in teaching.
Very good article thank you. I learned a lot.
This is what happens to science classes when people who don’t understand Science, I mean literally cannot define it or its processes. Get to decide what gets taught. Madness.
ethnostate – pfft – what a sick joke. Maori don’t have to do much to live in some peoples heads – boo!
Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Is this the ‘Great Reset’ revolution you’re talking about or a different revolution? A ‘Colours Revolution?’
There are so many these days that it’s hard to keep track of them.
Is it a regime change maybe? Or is it an elitist group of maaaoris getting a head start on the pakeha for once and the pakeha just don’t like it?
How about pulling some names out of the hat and specific peeps who’re akshully doing this? Like Paul Majurey and all his gigs where he vets, selects, and gets his choice candidates elected to co governance boards in Auckland. The TMA, the IMSB the Hauraki Gulf Forum just to name a few co-governance setups.
It’s been happening for year’s!
It doesn’t matter in the larger picture — the species’ picture.
All these agreers. Led off the trail.
All three major ‘Left’ blogs in NZ need speechmarks.
When the rational cause is right. See Bob and Bernie on utube.
Sad to see the once erodite Chris Trotter going down the path of the Hobson’s Pledge nutters. There’s a crazy racist jumping up and down and all passionate like a Southern Baptist going around the country right now on his anti-co-governance tour. His name is Batchelor I think…The footage of this guy that has been posted to the internet is unbelievable, and truly saddening…He wears a little microphone on his head, wired to a PA system.
Trotter’s piece here would sit well with this guy at his rallies. I can hear him reading it out, jumping up and down, thrusting his arms in the air, fingers pointing, punching. It’s reaction on a par with the antivaxxers and the parliamentary protestors.
Frightening! This is not the country I know.
Thanks Chris for standing up and speaking your mind.
I found the article interesting, factual actually and with two primary school kids related to a lot written.
Another corker of an article.
Interesting comments too aye.
Part of the paradigm is
Ko Anaru Matiu ahoe
Ko Owairaka Maunga ahoe
Ko Oakley Creek Wai Te Mata ahoe
Ko Ngati Pakeha ahoe
Ko Tau Iwi ahoe
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