Dear New Zealand – we need to have a chat about Waitangi Day
I’ve never had the honour of actually going to Waitangi on Waitangi Day, it’s something I believe all NZers need to do once in their lifetime and now I have a wonderful wee daughter, I certainly want to take her one year.
What I do try to do each Waitangi Day is take a walk up One Tree Hill to look at the obelisk that Logan Campbell paid for. At the turn of the 19th Century, the social, technological and political interaction with Pakeha had almost killed the entire Maori race off.
The obelisk was built as a commemoration to the Maori people.
Pause, and just consider that.
Interaction with white people almost wiped out the entire Maori race. That’s a sobering reminder of what our real relationship with Maori has been.
Pretty racist.
We don’t as Pakeha like to commemorate Waitangi Day because it forces us to confront these unflattering truths about race relations in NZ.
We can barely acknowledge the racism right now that locks up so many Maori, that sees them fail in almost every social statistic, that sees them damaged most by violence, poverty and crime so attempting to reflect on 177 years of broken promises is too much for many who just want a beer and BBQ.
This is why many NZers have quietly ignored Bill English’s decision to not turn up at Waitangi, English avoiding it means we can all avoid it.
Avoidance however won’t get us the public holiday we all want because if one thing has been constant in that 177, it’s been Maori angrily pointing out to the rest of us that the Crown hasn’t lived up to its obligations under the Treaty. Maori will be there for another 177 years making the exact same points if we as a nation refuse to engage.
This is real life, not social media. You can’t just block someone or mute them, you have an obligation to interact civilly and if we as Pakeha want a day where we can celebrate being NZers, then that requires Maori to be with us enjoying the same fruits of the societal harvest.
We can only do that if the Crown has lived up to its Treaty obligations.
To use a Thanksgiving comparison, Bill English wants to have a Thanks Giving dinner but he doesn’t want to invite any Native Americans to it.
Inspiring sentiment nicely expressed, Martyn Bradbury.
Some too few people live up to the promise of humanity.
How come there so many thpusands of happy, productive, educated, high achieving, progressive Maori NZERS just getting on with life???
Because they have been lucky enough to have been born into the right household and not one at the bottom of the low income heap.
Well said, and that continues today.
They are the minority Bridie. How come the majority aren’t like that? Get real – the reality is not so easily dismissed as you try to do it.
And how many thousands are in Prison? They go to court for bullshit charges and get hammered into jail. And if you are white and on the same sort of bullshit charge, 90% of the time you’ll walk free
Especially if you’re a white (or immigrant) businessperson on fraud charges.
‘You can’t just block someone or mute them’
I’m afraid you are totally wrong there Martyn.
That is exactly what city, district and regional councils do when anyone attempts to present truth, as does central government and most of the media, of course.
‘you have an obligation to interact civilly’
Try telling that to the CEOs of city, district and regional councils: they will roll on the floor laughing their heads off.
I wonder how it can be that you are so out of touch with what goes on in this country? I guess you have had no experience of such things and rely on the corrupt media for coverage (or rather non-coverage) of what actually goes on in the real New Zealand.
….’We can only do that if the Crown has lived up to its Treaty obligations.’
Absolutely no chance of that because the dominant culture is a loot-and-pollute culture founded on deceit and maintained via deceit.
Fair points. I think perhaps Martyn means “it’s a moral outrage to do so”.
As someone that is maori, I don’t understand all the current fuss. I came from a single parent family, that struggled to make ends meat, I spoke Te Reo fluently before I could speak english. But, I also had equal access to education, and greater access to scholarships. Now I own companies in multiple countries and am living the dream. I didn’t do this with my hand being held, or complaining about how unfair life is, and sure in some ways I’ve been lucky, not everyone has my skillsets, but mostly its been hard work and refusing to give up.
Don’t get me wrong, there are real grievances, but focusing on the negative is doing a disservice to maori youth. Creating mental barriers, why bother striving for greatness, when everyone is telling you its not possible..
Growing up, I didn’t think i could go to uni, no one in my family had. I left college early, just as my friends did. I was fortunate enough to have a flatmate that was studying math, he would get problems to solve each week, and left them in the lounge, i would be bored, and do them. One day we were talking and he asked “wtf are you doing pumping gas? you should be studying”, this was enough to break these mental barriers, I enrolled at uni the following semester.
If we as a society send the message that “you’re maori so will probably end up in prison” (even if sadly its not far from reality), it removes hope for the future. We need to be focusing on the positive, sending a message of encouragement. Peoples hearts are in the right place, but the current approach is backwards.
“At the turn of the 19th Century, the social, technological and political interaction with Pakeha had almost killed the entire Maori race off.”
And now, just after the turn of the 21st century, the project has almost succeeded!
More on point though, excellent post Martyn. Our anxious, social media vanity obsessed culture is rotting out the heart of what once made NZ social fabric beautiful, treacherous and globally unique. This is part of the unfettered expansion of neoliberal policy and more broadly, its race-to-the-bottom approach to life. The sad part is, we either de-escalate this monstrosity through regulation and localization, or we continue raising the temperature until we crash.
One note Andrew. Not all the poor are filthy or brutal, or Maori. Or poor by choice.