Dividing a Nation – the return to tikanga, chronicles tikanga back to the beginning of Polynesian migration to New Zealand and shows that modern tikanga is being used as a political weapon that creates racial discord.
As a scientist, Robinson was alarmed at absurd demands of the Royal Society of New Zealand for “matauranga Maori”, or “the Maori way of thinking” to be used as the basis for scientific work in New Zealand.
This demand conflicts with the purpose of science, which seeks provable facts without any cultural bias, he wrote.
Because Robinson has worked as a consultant to government departments, has researched Maori social experiences for Massey University, and did demographic work the for the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, he has an insider's perception of policy in action in the civil service.
But long since retired, he is also enjoying the actual academic freedom of not having to toe any political line.
Robinson asks what is this tikanga that we must increasingly follow?
Is it the pre-European tikanga, does it include Christian beliefs, is it from the separate kingdom that rebelled against the government in the 1860s, is it something new, is it tribal or national, fixed or ever-changing?
The pre-European tikanga has clearly gone. Chiefs are no longer in control, tribal war has ended, land is no longer taken by force, utu score-settling is not visible, captive warriors are not killed, cannibalism, infanticide and slavery have gone, widows are not expected to commit suicide.
He contrasts the friendly handshake, a symbolic action that says we come in peace with no sword in the right hand, with the haka, the aggressive grimace of tikanga, necessary in a tribal society in which newcomers could be warriors ready to kill.
After the Christchurch mosque murders in March 2019 both Governor General Patsy Reddy and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern proclaimed “we are one people”.
Robinson bluntly wrote “they were lying”. This is because both were aware that the “Treaty partnership” division of New Zealand into two race-based classes is increasing constantly.
Robinson is a mathematician whose analysis of Maori population, which undermines a belief that Maori thrived before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, continues to be rejected.
His figures show that inter-tribal wars from 1800 to 1840 reduced the Maori population by 40 percent from around 120,000 to 70,000. With few young men and a shortage of women in 1840, the population declined further until new births eventually turned it around.
The trick the academic community uses to promote the belief that Maori thrived before 1840 “is to print only what they believe and then to justify their beliefs on the authority of what they themselves have printed”, he wrote.
Robinson points to social engineering that went wrong.
The combination of unemployment and the domestic purposes benefit helped destroy the family unit among a large number of disadvantaged Maori.
But when Robinson tried to raise interest in this to social researchers in government and universities, he was repeatedly told that any mention of this, any criticism of the DPB, or any comment on the actions of solo mothers, would ruin their careers.
“This was a glaring example of the damage being done by political correctness and the requirement in research and policy development, so often self-policed, to follow restrictive and ill-defined rules”, he wrote.
Robinson details 84 race-based laws that are dividing New Zealanders, shows the self-interest of the tribal elite, explores grievances and Maori anger, looks at conflict in New Zealand, and warns of the threat of violence.
Perhaps Dividing a Nation – the return to tikanga provides an insight into how government departments function when handling Maori issues and perhaps shows that more than 40 years of racial activism has created a shambolic brown supremacist bureaucracy.
Dividing a Nation – the return to tikanga, John Robinson, Tross Publishing, 206 pages, illustrated, $35 (including postage).
2 comments:
What about the disadvantages placed on none-elite Maori, the entitlement, grievance, and backward looking messages actually hold them back. Much like the gansta rap culture actually undermines African Americans as they try to live the 'gansta' lifestyle. Anyone want to hire a 'gansta'? This undermines millions.
An example is of Maori who go to Australia and effectively just get on with it, they seam to do better as their internal dialogue isn't telling them they are different, special, or oppressed.
Maori in NZ are holding themselves back with this rhetoric.
The creeping acceptance of a contemporary maori interpretation of almost every aspect of life is very insidious. For persons to question it is career or business doom, so in the main only a few brave established retired folk dare do so. RNZ with its pro maori Charter and Board as a matter of course resolutely does not. The private media dare not question for risk of utu from the now mighty maori economy. The modern general lack of critical investigative ability does not help. The kauri dieback programme is a prime example of maori influence. By seizing upon the fashionable partnership reinterpretation of the Treaty, it is reasoned that similar expenditure should be applied to maori considerations as is applied to conventional research. Thus under the heading of matauranga maori we have a host of studies of so called forest cultural health and other contrived mostly unscientific make work paid for twaddle.
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