The first time I experienced racism that I can remember of any description was at primary school – from the teacher. It was clear from her reaction that identifying oneself as Maori was going to be a problem for her somehow. Not so much what she said, because I can’t remember what she said that made me feel that way, but it was her vibe – like being a Maori was disappointing and a hassle for her in that she would have to endure it. Like I had, personally, just made her life a difficulty. She was the one that had asked though, I think she had asked the class if anyone was Maori rather than kids introducing themselves in turn. 40 years later I can only recall with clarity the impression, the feeling I had made a mistake, I shouldn’t have said anything. What look she gave, was it scorn or pity – it was a form of displeasure. Being Maori was bad, being whatever everyone else was was good, was normal, was welcome and natural and right – being a Maori was wrong and would lead to trouble. That was my first lesson in uncritical race theory from a Pakeha teacher at a Devonport primary school in the early 1980s.
One of my Pakeha uncles taught at intermediate school in a Maori populated area. He was very racist. All for the Springbok tour, from what I understand, always had some tricky argument why it was OK. But he is a teacher and they do rather overrate themselves and become foolishly obdurate. I wondered just how many years of having a racist teacher that school endured, how many hundreds of non-white students had to endure his racism? What racist beliefs did that guy inflict on his students? How many Maori kids were disadvantaged by his actions? How many Pakeha students were encouraged into racism by his actions? What shitty takes did this guy put into those formative minds? I did a brief Google search and found it appears he made it to Deputy Principal for a few years and then falls off the radar so I guess he retired. Deputy Principal is the enforcement officer of student discipline for the most part in the hierarchy so what sort of judgment would this racist guy have been meting out?
And now ask yourself which Party(s) would he vote for? What would this guy think of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill? In a wide sense this guy represents about half the Pakeha electorate of the 1980s. This guy represents all the shitty racist troll comments on every platform and there are multitudes of them. A ZB guy. Everyone has a classic liberal uncle and everyone also has a classic redneck uncle, and this guy was a classic bigot. There are a lot more than you suspect and they have their female counterparts.
It’s obsessive hate, like a paranoid persecution complex. Why would that be top of mind, all the time? Why would you be constantly comparing yourself to people you don’t like? Why would you choose to devote all that energy and time into genocidal white settler militancy? What about… crochet? Golf?
It’s futile, as a non-Polynesian person, to live in a Polynesian country and hate the Polynesians whose land the country is on. They are dooming themselves to this self-inflicted torment of hypothesising genocide but never being able to go full Van Diemen’s Land. Their objective of swamping the Maori population and vote and increasing their land value cannot happen unless they import more non-white settlers than white settlers to maintain their position at which point they might as well go to Aussie. This is what they are facing. In being so hyper-conscious of the existential condition of the white settlers they summon a Rhodesia sunset each time they complain they have lost ground to the barbarian Maori. They concede they are losing.
This isn’t a white country, it’s a Maori country under white settler occupation. That is why the rednecks rark up because they cannot maintain white control without rarking up. The occupation is not passive, it is being resisted and the militants are counter-resisting. Their mentality is on a war footing – every social interaction is a chance to say cut the tall trees. Some of them have the same ideology as when their ancestors came to fight in the Land Wars – must be where it originated.
What makes Maori the enemy? The existence of Maori is a threat to their idea of themselves and the security of their land investment, yes, but it’s undoubtedly social more than economic. Who would they be punching down on if they had been successful in their genocide? The rednecks are fanatically tribal – that’s the irony. This guy and the hundreds of thousands of Pakeha he represents do not hinge their racial hostility on the Treaty or any Principles, they will continue to be how they are irrespective of any politics. Take away the Treaty and the racism will remain. They will be bitching about Maori long after every law was expunged of reference to the Treaty – the Treaty cannot address their racism.
Some time ago my Dad (Maori) had mentioned once that this uncle had never liked him – but he couldn’t work out why. I told him the guy was extremely racist, and that was why, but he didn’t seem to believe it. I explained that I didn’t think he understood – the guy would have easily disliked him on that basis alone, there didn’t need to be a reason per se except for that. He didn’t seem to comprehend that racism might be actually just as stupid as that. Well, it actually is just as stupid as that.
The last family Christmas I attended, many years ago, the racist uncle was there, as usual. I can’t remember how many jugs of Black Russians we were into the conversation or how racist on a scale of Muriel to Newman he was being at the time, probably about Steven Franks, and he was starting on the “eating the cats and dogs eating the people’s pets” disparaging ethnic commentary part of his stand up performance when he either said “…. Maori” and then stopped abruptly, or he stopped abruptly and said something about me being Maori (I can’t remember how it happened precisely) and then said (to everyone else) “I’ll tell it [ie. the ‘joke’] after you’re [ie. me, is] gone.” Talk about gone – I’ve never been back! But naturally, one does then think – is forced to consider – whether the rest of the Pakeha family thinks the same way only it’s just that he is more Alabama about it than the polite North that does the same thing only with gloves on. Was I better off not knowing that?
Why voluntarily communicate with idiots about idiotic ideas is what it comes down to – racist uncles, racist Act party leaders, the select committee. Is it worth knowing what other people really think, what they think of you? Is that process of airing contempt for one another going to be healing and cathartic or hellish and cancerous? The winner of the debate is the winner of a referendum which almost certainly wouldn’t get a supermajority – so what validity would that have to the ‘losing’ side? It doesn’t settle an argument it creates a fresh one.
Protest yes, but communicate, “debate,” submit – take it… seriously? Pretend it has some sort of credible foundation worthy of discussion? It is a slimy slogan hoping to tap hate to roll back the RMA so Rimmer’s parasitic mates can make more money – that’s Act’s bottom line, I think everything else they supposedly care so much about is probably expendable.
Seymour’s Bill is just racism of the most cynical type and it is designed to motivate the worst type of person in an ultimately hopeless emotional rear guard action to save a colony built on white supremacy. We have to see the Bill for what it is – an Act 2026 election campaign – a graceless stunt too idiotic to analyse seriously.
When is David going to sit down with Maori and talk about why he wants to wipe out their rights .Also why does he think he is the person representing the King who really is the other party to the treaty not David or luxon.The government is not the crown that is why we have a Governor General who represents the king here in NZ .
So first the conversation should be between the King and Maori .When they have had their conversation and come to an agreement the King should instruct the Governor General on how to instruct the government in how to move in the future .As a party to the treaty Maori should have a major input as they were by far the biggest population at the time .There were only a few thousand English here at that time .
The way to think about what is going is that David is not acting in good faith – the Treaty Bill is a slight of hand. It’s intention is not to initiate a genuine discussion about Māori rights and the Treaty – the intention is create noise and disruption that will polarize the electorate. That polarization around the Treaty Bill – even when it’s voted down – will be milked and leveraged all the way up to the 2026 election. And not just by Act – the Treaty Bill is the first shot in what is going to be ongoing war.
We will need resilience and the ability to almost ignore Seymour because he is taunting and goading for a reaction. Reacting implies that Seymour sets the agenda (as the right so often do) and we respond to his agenda and not our own.
The best outcome for Seymour would be a relentless 6 month culture war played out on all media platforms across NZ. Somehow we have to avoid that because David Seymour made the sandpit and we don’t have to play in it – it’s fall of shit.
Is it race or is it about differences in cultures and beliefs?
Well you wouldn’t know would you. Palestine? Gaza? Heard of? Now fuck off.
BOTH
Its actually greed we want the remaining land and the sea bed
100% nailed it.
Cue the prepared media blitz funded by the Atlas Network.
As soon as public submissions open, there will be huge amounts spent by the astroturf groups such as Hobson’s Pledge, Taxpayers Union, et al ; bombarding us with bullshit to turn immigrants and ZB Ford Ranger types into full-blown racists.
And it all boils down to corporate take over of our natural resources.
The Treaty is the only thing protecting us from being totally robbed as a nation. Note how reference to Treaty principles are being removed from legislation all over the place.
All kiwis, not just Maori, should be aware and prepared for the propaganda and misinformation storm about to be unleashed by these shameless fuckers.
Totally agree. Always follow the money.
Exactly.
On point.
Well, call it greed if you wish. But at the crux of the matter isn’t it about access to resources … on both sides.
Culture, Beliefs and dislike of those of different colours are inherently the same thing Ada.
If you dislike a person because they are different in their beliefs, culture and colour then you are a racist.
Most beliefs and cultures you don’t like are because you have been taught to believe you are superior by the bigotry of your forebears. Colour is one additional factor that you probably have been taught is inferior to your ancestry.
I believe from what you say that you have had a very narrow exposure to other ethnic groups and their cultures which leaves you poorer as a person.
I was fortunate to spend 2 years at a school in the far north where amongst some 200 pupils our family of 5 were the only ones who were not Maori.
This taught me that yes they did have different ideas, thoughts, mannerisms, slang, but they were inherently decent human beings.
I was then placed in a secondary school where red neck farming stock were the majority. Maori were very much were a minority. Strangely the Maori pupils mostly seemed to be in the “d” stream. Yet most of them were as intelligent or moreso than us Pakeha. They were very valuable to the school for their athletic prowess.
Two of the very good rugby players somehow made their way into the classes where the better teachers were. The lowest classes had the worst teachers.
At the time I was party to this racist system because I was unaware of my heritage because my part Maori father had found out early in his life being Maori was a disadvantage.
I have now learned that what was happening at that school and probably most others was not because Maori were intellectually deficient but because the School management was biased against them. This is being perpetuated today and is ably demonstrated by the outcomes from the Kura as opposed to the outcomes from Pakeha dominated mainstream schools.
So Ada, I believe their is no difference between your fear of culture, beliefs and colour that is different to yours.
I also believe that is what drives Seymour , Peters, Luxon and their cronies, it’s a fear that one day they will be facing the prospect that their comfy little world of superiority will be turned upside down and they will be beholden to those that they fear intensely. This fear is the result of their manipulation and abuse of those they have been able to suppress for generations.
As in many societies over many generations the oppressor becomes the oppressed. That is what you and yours really fear is it not.
People also forget Seymour doesn’t want NZ Superannuation yet is quite happy to take parliamentary Superannuation, plane fights for life and any perk an MP can get his hands on.
And yet he speaks with forked tongue on the treaty when he talks “equality”.
So what is his real agenda given the hypocrisy?
Maori are native of this land, and therefore all must have the opportunity to learn the language and culture.
The culture may influence various rules and regulation, but the law should be applied same to all.
Maori culture has lot of spirituality and it can help us reach similar conclusions as science, such as in clean water, protecting sealife etc.
However the depth of any culture and it’s values is measured by depth of philosophy backing it, and that is when questions gets raised when forced onto people.
Seymour doesnt need a majority. Fascists work with a minority organised into storm troops. The Maaori minority will need to prepare for this assault.
Maori have always been prepared DB we’ve been conditioned for ova a century and are always on edge sadly that militancy of expectation expresses itself in negative ways towards their own communities! The question you should ask is Pakeha ready????
We have a huge problem with this clown . Māori can see it sadly the racists can’t. These racists would have been very disappointed with the massive peaceful protest unfortunately we may not be so lucky next time . David Seymour is causing a divide we may never truly recover from .
The oil slick that many of us have come to know of as david seymour is on a *Vulcan Chess like vector.
He’s attacking by retreating. He’s spending to save and he’s using logical fallacies to deceive and distract.
He’s using the Treaty in an insidiously devious manner to achieve the goal that he’s doing his best to keep a lid on. What he’s doing, and achieving, is division. He’s dividing AO/NZ into broken pieces.
Maori are first-nation people. They were here first. Let’s be clear about that. And if we non Maori interlopers don’t respect and understand that then that’s not a good look to say the least and there will be no good outcome either.
Fast-forward to today. What you’re seeing in seymour is a traitor and a liar. He’s also a member of a clique of traitors and liars who are also immensely wealthy financially although morally bankrupt. You will have read about the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires each with a post tax minimum of $50 million each and you will have heard of the new staff and management of our AO/NZ? The Australians? Heard of them? They’re our bogan neighbours with the barking pit-bulls and the meaty, smelly barbies. They do burn-outs up the street, throw their beer cans over the fence then piss on the letter box. The Raw Prawn Riders. Yea, those ones. They also own what were once our banks: ANZ, you’ll know that one. ANZ’s the bank jonky found tantalising as he fondled its profit margins. ASB. Another loser bankster pretending it’s of value in a dying little town known for its tinsel and bloated fake economy. BNZ. The ol’ BNZ aye. The BNZ is more a grubby little laundry in a seedy neighbourhood where hookers and crack addicts go to wash their underwear. The bnz got so dirty and so morally out of balance after all the free farmer money it had to launder, whether it liked it or not, that it had to be sold to the Australians, the only one’s interested because their laundry’s even dirtier than ours and that’s saying something. And let’s not forget westpac. Ol westpac aye. The fungus foot stuck in AO/NZ’s kitchen door. Westpac. Why, you might ask. Well, it goes like this. The Press :
NZ banks ‘some of the most profitable in the world’
https://www.thepress.co.nz/business/350094635/nz-banks-some-most-profitable-world?utm_source=pocket_saves
The ronny brierly would have an opinion on that if he were not so dug in under the house cringing from anyone coming to the door looking like a cop or a creditor.
The only way out of the maze of deceit, lies, vast fortunes and poverty that’s come to define AO/NZ is if we are opened up then spread out for all to see. Be warned. Best pop your welding goggles on when that inevitably happens. seymour and his squeaks is a subterfuge. Farmers and @ Maori piloted by The Green Party, once it’s divested itself of its idiots with their fruit stalls and bangles would transform our AO/NZ. Until then, however, we’re deeply, desperately fucked.
Oopsie forgotsie.
* Vulcan Chess
BTW.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-dimensional_chess
Cheers @ Tim Selwyn
People live in a world of constant anxiety and crave simple solutions..
People are told that their problems are caused by “them” the bad people.
The answer is to destroy “them” and you will be happy.
Every society has the “them” minority who are to blame for everything.
In this country the “Them” have always been us the Maori”
The alternative is for White people to blame themselves for their problems.
But the White majority are having none of that.
No White Political party and no White media outlet has the guts
to blame White people for White problems.
Political suicide and death to the business would follow.
So the Whites need a convenient minority to blame.
And we the Maori fit the bill perfectly for the Whites.
As long as Maori blaming keeps National NZF and ACT in power
and keeps White media alive nothing will ever change.
Tick.
Agree with your experience as I have had many experience of being treated differently however I didn’t have half-caste ethnicity in our family because we were just Maori. Brought up in the Te Urewera until my auntie had a stroke moved to the cities in the mid 70s Otara to be precise and I experience racism from the group that you probably wouldn’t least expect? “Pacific Islanders”
The level of anti-Maori from their groups was in your face stuff like actual being assaulted and called names as a useless Maori, made to feel incompetent and worthless because I was maori no shit! The PI were culturally aggressive because IMO they could speak their reo fluently and were culturally accepted in a huge P.I demography that was overwhelming an already fragile maori population.
This group from what I’ve gathered doesn’t believe Maori are indigenous to NZ and like to portray Maori as “Pacific Islanders” like them and have adopted the same bigoted revisionism beliefs as pakeha. Now I’m not talking of every single P.I. but this seem to be one of their core beliefs collectively when it comes to maori indigeneity.
I hope there are P.I who read this challenge my experience and give their perspective a sI am open to critical feedback as I have had many encounters with P.I content on Tiktok, Fakebook etc.. about this anti-maori sentiment which they seem to shy off from expressing their true feelings about Maori generally
Tell me more about this bigoted revisionism ?
You P.I.? I whakapapa to my maunga, my awa, my rohe, my tipuna who forged and cultivated our whakapapa in “Te Urewera” not the Islands! My Tipuna nurtured our culture in these lands which is why we are indigenous to this country.
Being Maori particular on SM receive this constant barrage of bigoted narratives “your not indigenous there were people here before Maori like the Moriori” or “Your ancestor came from the Islands” however the most insidious claim is that the “celtic race was here first” Its as if there’s a concerted attempt to erase our culture from this country. I still get this discourse from the P.I. I have been debating on SM it’s fucken shocking I don’t like it and brings back memories of the treatment I experienced in SA however I have a P.I. brother in-law who I respect and love and together with my tuahine borned 4 beautiful tamariki who I adore immensely so it not all negative.
Indeed I’m Pasifikan and i don’t tend to make the distinction between Maori and ‘Islanders.’
Nor do i say I’m indigenous to anywhere other than the wider Pasifika region.
All mountains, rivers, lands and peoples are my forebears and descendents.
I’m more about finding commonality of values to build on than arguing over the narcissism of small differences to foster division.
If we as Pasifikans, by birth or by nature, can’t do that amongst ourselves, there is no hope we can with others.
Sure there’s a lot of ignorance around who was here first, when and where from, but I’m not one to let lack of evidence stand in the way of a good story.
Ultimately, they’re just stories from the past. I’m more interested in the stories we need to tell moving into the future.
Those stories need to reflect where we’re going as a nation, not where we came from as individuals, while massively respecting the indigenous sovereignty of Maori to define that narrative from a wider Pasifikan perspective.
Excellent article combining the personal and social with such clarity. My strongest reaction to anything to do with Seymour and the Treaty Bill is to avoid it – not read the article and not listen to the discussion. Like the articles author realizing there is no point in spending energy on people in his family who are bad faith. Just like Seymour and Luxon – I don’t believe there intentions align with what they are saying.
In some ways a complete boycott of the Treaty Bill might be a good approach – the opposition should vacate parliament in protest any time the bill is discussed in the house. And all submission should be protest submissions of some sort.
Racism works both ways.Colour never interested me as to how I reacted to someone. Those whi talk for the TPM do not upset me by their colour but their feeling of superiority does.
Their feeling of superiority?
Look in the mirror and you will see the smug arrogance of National, ACT and NZ First and how they ram road through policy that is in the best interests of their donors. That’s superiority.
The English feel they are superior as per their version of the treaty. NACT and NZ First, like you feel they are vastly superior to those natives.
Read and learn.
For the sake of efficiency, and efficiency is a good thing right?…can we now scrap the Maori All Black team because we seem to have new Maori All Black team, yes?
For the sake of efficiency, and efficiency is a good thing right?…can we now scrap the Maori All Black team because we seem to have new Maori All Black team, yes?
Hahahaha Jokesy Jonzie, what a Muppet.
For the sake of efficiency, stop posting bro.
Yes sorry. I doubled up like the Maori All Blacks…two teams instead of one. And there oldmTJ spouted on about unity???????
TJ was correct, clearly this government wants to divide and conquer and you call it efficient. Well, you would, wouldn’t you.
For the sake of efficiency can Seymour decide if he’s Maori or pakeha?
He doesn’t need to he should be judged by his character.
His character is fucked bro , you clearly haven’t judged him yet plus Seymour needs to stop playing the race card that he’s Maori.
Back in 60 / 70s Chch there were no Maoris, they were only in casual racist jokes and casual racist attitudes. I’m sad to report from a provincial north town that that attitude is alive and well. I judge that on comments made to me about the hikoi by people I know or heard during it’s passage through my town. It’s so freaking depressing.
The ToW ‘principles’ I grew to know – more accurately became part of my worldview – were quite straightforward and seemed to me not to be controversial: partnership, participation and protection. Partnership meant working together to achieve appropriate outcomes; participation meant acting in good faith; protection referred to responsibility and safeguarding relationships. I was of the opinion they were a sound / fair / equitable way of doing things – even if it took a few extra steps along the way. For sure, they are rather broad principles – but IMV do a pretty good job of underpinning the relationship between the Government and Māori under the ToW, and provide a guideline in working not only with iwi and hapu but other parties that may be adversely affected by actions and decision-making.
I haven’t seem much reference to the 3 Ps, on either side of the argument. I did hear Seymour say that the current state of affairs is an impediment to business-as-usual – as he would – and in much SM comment, criticism of the legal and bureaucratic gravy-train associated with the current interpretation of ToW, presumably, with the recognition of partnership, participation and protection. To be fair those against the TPB do touch on the demise of partnership, participation and protection, as it currently stands, but it seems that noone directly refers to these as EXISTING principles. The 3 Ps are invisible.
There seems then to be principles and principles. When I look at Seymour’s three principles that underpin the TPB I can’t recognize the three principles I knew. Are they even the same things? Clearly not. How fucking confusing is that! And if I am a bit confused there will will tens of thousands more. But who among those tens of thousands are in fact consciously aware of the 3 Ps anyway? But if the critics of the TPD are on the money, Seymour’s revised principles appear to undermine the principles of partnership, participation and protection. That seems to be the intention. Am I right?
And while on the topic can someone please rewrite the three principles of TPB into PLAIN English. Ok granted, for the sake of law they need to expressed in a language that most of us are not all that familiar with. Seymour says he wants transparency and discussion. Well, a good start would be to revise the legalese terminology and put three principles into plain old English that everyone understands. That’s the way to get people engaged. Not be talking down to folk in a language that is the domain of the legal profession and bureaucrats. Written in plain English we ordinary folk can judge what they really mean.
The issue for Māori is the majority of New Zealanders are not Maori.
The Hikoi will see non Maori consolidate.
False, pakeha are in agreement the scholars are in agreement Seymour is flawed. Rednecks will consolidate because there is no critical thinking amongst them.
Thank you for endorsing my point Nsc.
Yes, the right wing rednecks Will consolidate all 1000 of them.
Yes probably correct Nsc but nevertheless we should be wary.
As the indigenous people Māori are entitled to privilege that the invaders are not.Im thinking along the lines of an annual tax free stipend to people who have a trace Maori blood to compensate them for the theft by the colonisers.
That would be a foolish waste of time if you are right Daniel. Consolidation and concrete seem linked and might seem strong but will weaken our nation which needs a different response to the future. Maori tolerance is are being driven to the limits by the pakeha and wealthy response of all cultures with false attitudes and actions coming forward but always reversing from those needed for nationhood of a 21st century presenting with inferior opportunities to those of ‘yore’.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/535033/watch-furious-kuia-confronts-police-amid-arrests-at-gang-funeral
See –
A “huge” police presence is in the small Bay of Plenty community of Matapihi as Mongrel Mob gang members gather for the tangi of one of their own.
According to local reporter for Aukaha News, Ripeka Timutimu, the community has responded to the influx of police with mixed views – but the majority are angry, and say there was not enough consultation about how big the operation was going to be.
The tangi comes just a week after a new law was introduced, banning gang members from wearing patches and gang insignia in public.