The sudden spasm of anti-Māori policy rammed through by the new Government has ignited the Māori King’s unprecedented call for a national hui while setting the stage for an explosive Waitangi Day as well as once again raising voices demanding an honest accounting of New Zealand history.
One such voice is Auckland lawyer and educator, Roimata Small, whose recent column in The Post demands more education of the treaty and the manner in which Colonisation caused intergenerational social damage that has never been healed or remedied.
She outlines the basic historical facts of what colonial Governments with no interest in living up to the promise of the Treaty have generated…
The Tohunga Suppression Act criminalised Māori healthcare and science. Education laws suppressed te reo Māori as children were hit for speaking it in schools. “Child Protection” laws facilitated the removal of Māori children from their homes, and crime laws empowered the police and courts to arrest and imprison Māori.
The Crown’s land acquisition practices of getting agreement from only some owners and paying Māori a fiftieth of the resale fuelled discontent. The Crown waged war against “rebel” Māori then confiscated vast areas as punishment, often including land of “loyal” Māori. The Crown used the Native Land Court to remove most Māori owners’ rights so it could easily buy up land from the others.
Māori lost 97% of nearly 66 million acres that had been owned at 1840. The Crown promised land sale profits would fund schools and hospitals. Māori land funded the infrastructure of Aotearoa, but often infrastructure didn’t reach Māori communities.
Fast-forward to recent decades, Treaty settlements returned a small amount of land and money. While positive, settlements do not address the laws affecting Māori lives. This is why Māori consistently push back against these laws, asserting tino rangatiratanga.
…this new Government’s intention to push for a redefinition of the Treaty Principles will be injury to insult and the enormous pushback on such an attack on the fundamental obligations of the State to uphold the promise of the Treaty will spark a level of protest unseen previously.
Protest becomes unquenchable when the issue is so righteous.
Allowing ACT, NZ First and National push such incendiary issues is a failure of political leadership by Christopher Luxon and his weakness will set back race relations in 2024.
Our history is being ignored to cement into place 19th Century White Settler Privilege and pretend Māori will simply accept that.
I don’t think Māori will accept that, and nor will any decent fellow New Zealander.
A Treaty is to be honoured, not settled and this fundamental difference in approach demands a political response far more engaged than implementing petty bigotry against Māori to appease the right wings’ reactionary vote.
It’s ridiculous to see just how much National, have lost the plot on this issue. This is the same party that ,not so long ago, was heading in the opposite direction under Key. Say what you like about Key, at least he wasn’t a race baiting arsehole. Luxon as the CEO of Air NZ was essentially the polar opposite on Māori and the environment, to the direction being taken now. Sure it’s a state owned enterprise, as opposed to a government, but how can his “values” have changed so much? Because he’s weak.
I wish I shared your optimism regarding correcting the Maori injustice in NZ. While I agree that they have been treated badly & deserve every dollar of compensation & more I still meet an overwhelming number of ‘nice’ people who have swallowed the ZB (not exclusive to them though) talkback lie that Maori are somehow privileged by allowing the state to defraud them. This new government is disgusting for the damage to race relations that they have achieved in a few weeks so I fear what things will be like in 3 years. The one bright spot in the ongoing disaster is that Maori have the resources, skill & muscle to effectively protest against what is happening & which should enable any fair-minded nice people to see the error of their ways.
Resources skill and muscle …. but it’s always the governments job to fix everything. If the government is the answer, you are asking the wrong question.
Give us a break Shona our people didn’t have western diseases they arrived by boat. And despite being so called savages we were clean and disease free.
They know their base. It’s not that much different from Donald Trump’s, apart from the lack of religiosity here. You only have to go do MSN and look at the comments there about Maori. Those that get by the censor anyway. If they spent as much time on productive activity as they did on bitching about Maori we would all be a lot better off.
They know their base. It’s not that much different from Donald Trump’s, apart from the lack of religiosity here. You only have to go do MSN and look at the comments there about Maori. Those that get by the censor anyway. If they spent as much time on productive activity as they did on bitching about Maori we would all be a lot better off.
What about the pakeha gravy train the one that has been going for 180 years im right is it about to be enhanced (more & again) but at whose expense?
I’m a generation one pakeha colonist, my children seven generations. None of them can return to being native British any more than Maori can return to Hawaiiki. We are all sundered, our turangawaewae is here.
As a consequence addressing our past is the key to our future. We will eventually be one people, joint blood, so we had better get this right for the benefit of all.
Two relevant factors of Māori History that are deliberately left out today :
Kaitangata and Utu
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