If you can’t cope with reading something substantial - run away and hide now. Off you go! Netflix or Netporn is calling! Don’t forget to shut the door.
I’m going to paint you a picture - and I’m not going to put the brush down till it’s done!
I challenge anyone at this early sentence of this Essay - that if he decides that what I am going to say here is all lies - he/she should just cut and paste the entire essay - into an ordinary “Word” file - and go through it sentence by sentence - and try to identify a single actual lie - and tell us ALL - about it.
The Real Lie - is not in what I’m going to say here - it is the cultural Lie deeply embedded in the modern-day Kiwi Culture - and it is being used to clobber us - and rob us of our rights and our heritage and they are engaged in a full frontal assault on our democracy. It is damaging our language - and it is changing the very nature of our Nation as we speak - so this is THAT important.
It’s a shame that the word “Lie” -- is such a small word - because as a topic it is GIGANTIC!
The problem is that I am going to tell you the truth - about this gigantic Lie that underpins New Zealand society, including the subversion of Kiwi lore and public culture - and has now even been given legitimacy and has found its way into the Laws of the Land - and on the basis of that they want to do such things as change the name of the Nation to a word that was just being invented by Europeans pushing a dubious narrative about early Maori - when I was a child at school - seventy five years ago.
Get real people - they told us it was a translation of - “The Land Of The Long White Cloud.”
Seventy five years to get to the vile propaganda and brain washing we have today.
But that’s just the start! Our great and unique New Zealand Lie - is right up there with the great sets of lies that have underpinned other totalitarian regimes - like North Korea - and the Communist countries - Russia and China - and Fascism - and up till now our version might have seemed somewhat benign.
It is now proving to not be so benign. Time to wake up Kiwis. This Great New Zealand Lie is a doozie! It is carrying a new APARTHIED with it.
I have alluded to our Great New Zealand Lie many times in my writing - but always stopped short of making too much of an issue of it. The problem is that I remember when I was a kid at school in the forties - even as a child - I could see this Lie emerging at the core of our popular culture - - but like everyone else I went along with it - because I could understand the reason for it. The problem is that today that same Lie is being used to reimagine our entire culture in its name - and use it as an excuse to introduce Apartheid into all our social systems.
That’s not an overstatement - it is something that needs to be said - and if I need to - I will answer to the Authorities for saying it.
I’m there - at the front line!
Our Great New Zealand Lie is about covering up real Maori Culture - and propagating the Maori Culture as it is romantically portrayed by the Authorities and the Media - and all that reinforced by Maoridom in their displays of Maori Culture as it is in this modern age. And for the record - that “modern age” arrived here with the Europeans. Prior to us arriving - Maori lived a totally different life - and it has been recorded in thousands of History books - and also distorted in what we now call “Maori myths and legends”.
They were always described as “Maori Warriors” - and that was because being warriors was a major part of their culture. They were in fact ‘Maori Warriors “ - and we have lost sight of that.
We just have to look behind the nonsense that’s in front of us.
Did you notice how me saying that “Civilization arrived here with the Europeans” - made you feel uncomfortable? But it’s true - and that was our contribution to New Zealand life - and there is nothing to be ashamed of about that. But we have avoided talking about that for generations - even though it is absolutely true. It did without question - arrive with us.
CIVILISATION - You know it in your heart of hearts - it came from EUROPE - not Polynesia - and today in this modern age - every last one of us lives in it - and enjoys it - and relies on it for all shelter and sustenance and enjoyment of and fulfillment of life.
Find the lie in that please.
So yesterday - I was challenged on one of my Facebook posts by a person I’m not going to name - who gave me a very romantic version of Maori Culture - and he - like most New Zealanders - just happened to leave out all the most important bits - because that is what we have trained ourselves to do.
That woke me up in the night and it triggered me.
Woke and triggered! - I sound like creepy Jo Biden.
But - I realized the time had come for me to man up and tell the truth of it - without fear or favor.
The problem for me is - I actually know precisely where the Great New Zealand Lie originated - and after (just below) reproducing my response to this character on Facebook - I will explain that to you - and then YOU will understand also.
That lie came about because we New Zealanders are reasonable people - and mean well - and we try to assuage racism - and want the best for our countrymen of all races - and there are a lot of different races living and being born here now - and time and study is going to expose this Great New Zealand Lie that we manage to tell to all of those newly arrived people - including all their children - and I can tell you now - that a lot of them think it really is time we faced up to the truth of it.
Okay - so this guy in the Facebook comments section gave me the stock standard romantic version of the Great New Zealand Lie in response to my little thesis on the abuse of the English Language - that I had called: “Did You Watch TV One News Tonight?”
It had been posted on the NZCPR facebook page - is still there - and less than 60 hours later (as I write this morning,) it is up to 602 ‘Likes’ - 172 ‘comments’ and 175 ‘Shares,’ not to mention hundreds of readers on other pages - including on “NZCPR Breaking Views.”
Do I keep score? ABSOLUTELY!
Here’s my response to that romantic comment I mentioned above - that I wrote straight off the top of my head - and I apologise for none of it.
“You must be a schoolteacher George. (I changed his name!)
How romantic! The historical reality George - is that Maori families back in the day instructed teachers to make sure their kids could speak English - so they could progress in the civilisation that was surrounding them - and note well - the advent of Civilisation in New Zealand was absolutely inevitable - and for the people of Europe to not share it with Maori would have been a crime against humanity. Tell me that the savage life would be preferable George. That story would be fascinating.
Tell me what you would say if we had sealed them off and got all the European powers to agree to - “Not Discover them” and left them here living that savage life. Now THAT really would be a crime.
(But it was the one crime we have never been accused of committing. It’s always the romantic version and we are the bad guys.)(I added that sentence this morning.)
They joined in the civilisation because they considered that it was a country mile better than living in grass huts behind stockades - being hungry and cold and enduring Tribal Wars and Cannibalism that was their culture when the Europeans arrived. Best you factor that into your romantic view of pre European Maori Culture. (George)
As for getting wacked across the knuckles in school - I’m a male European New Zealander - and when I was at school in the forties - (yes - the forties and the war was on - and obviously I am an old white man,) we got wacked for not attending to our lessons as well - not that I ever saw a Maori kid get wacked for speaking Maori - because by the time I was a kid they were no longer speaking Maori - and that was because back then their Mums and Dads were more concerned about living in a house with a gas stove and their kids learning English and getting and keeping a job so they could buy a car.
When I started work I worked with Maori Apprentices learning to build houses.
Try to get your head around the alternatives George. (Grass huts. See the pictures.)
Below you will see Maori habitation in the late 1800s - and as you look at the picture - remember - photography didn’t arrive here till the 1860s - at least two decades after the Treaty was signed - and then it had to get to here on the other side of the planet on guess what - a Sailing Ship.
Imagine what life was like here for Maori 50 years earlier - before the arrival of the blanket - and clothes.
Our schools need to describe early Maori life as it was - and explain the reasons why they were so quick to give up the savage customs of their past and (stop the tribal wars) and come to live in houses - instead of painting a romantic notion of the noble savage living in finely carved meeting houses behind a stockade. (the flash meeting houses arrived with the settlers and their metal tools.) The business of teaching nonsense to children - and adults - is in fact dividing the Nation - because people are not told about the need and the difficulty - for Maori to change and live in the civilisation with us.
That would be a far more productive and adventurous story.
Work it out George - grass and raupo huts and dirt floors - no taps and toilets - down to the river for a drink in the morning - no ablution blocks. No metal of any kind - so no tools or blades - no sheep or cotton plants - so no clothes or blankets to keep you warm. (No fancy carved meeting houses - because no steel tools.) No ceramics or pottery so no vessels to carry or keep water in - or store or cook food. They had hunted the Moa to extinction - extinction! (and the Huia too - for their feathers,) and they had decimated the seal population. Their primary food sources were Weka and Kiwis and the Polynesian rats (they came with them from the islands) - and birds - and fish - with no metal hooks. (……. And each other of course - if they were an enemy.) (Sorry - but truth is truth.)
And as for birds: - Imagine seeing your dinner fly away every time you got close - and no bow and arrow to get them from a distance. Just stones and sticks. I could throw a pretty mean rock when I was a kid - but I never managed to hit a bird.
Sorry about the reality George - but I have it in my genes.”
* ** * * * * *
Okay - so now a couple of this morning’s comments from me - about that above:
(1) Kiwi (the walking birds) were not protected back then. Nor were seals. They were food.
(2) Thirteen Maori Chiefs got William Yate to write to the King and asked for his protection.
(3) That means that Maori asked for the Treaty - not the other way around.
(4) They signed the Treaty in numbers - but only the King’s Representative signed for us.
(5) It was between them and the Sovereign - the King - not them and us.
(6) When they saw muskets for the first time they wanted them - to fight other Maori.
(7) As a result we had the Musket wars - Maori against Maori. Many many died.
( 8 ) Maori didn’t get together just to fight white men - they fought each other even more.
(9) That’s the history - and our Great NZ Lie is such that we are rewriting History!
(10) Rewriting History is the preserve of liars, cheats and totalitarian states.
(11) Note well: The Nub of that Great New Zealand Lie is the one about Cannibalism - Tribal wars - and the Maori Wars. We have been led to believe that the Maori Wars were fought principally between Maori and Europeans - and the reality of inter-Maori conflict has been avoided and glossed over.
I’m not going to do that here.
I will stop procrastinating. Here is the origin of that great New Zealand Lie:
As a kid at school in the forties - we were taught about Cannibalism and Tribal wars - but it was played down by the Nuns who taught us - and aIso I believe - in all schools across the Nation. It was part of the History of the Nation - but the prevailing view was “let’s not dwell on it. There are other things we need to learn about History” - was the common view then - that because today’s Maori no longer do any of that - and we don’t want them to feel uncomfortable about their past - let’s just move on. We all live in the modern age now.
But that doesn’t change the reality of it.
It seems to me - that as a result of not actually denying all that - but avoiding discussion of it - we have created a Nation of people that is so ashamed of its past - and they are actively trying to hide it. We are allowing people to push this new romantic lie into the void created by trying not to be offensive. That gigantic lie is being written up and published as our true history - and too many of us know it to allow it to work.
So there it is - the origin of the Great New Zealand Lie - that is now being used to justify the theft of the Nation’s assets on a GRAND SCALE - and the destruction of our Democracy - so that they can be handed off to a minority in the Basis of their race - and in the process dividing the nations people so completely - that these Charlatans are calling for “co governance” - and a separation of people - AND CONDONE THE LEGITIMISATION OF NEW ZEALAND APARTHEID.
WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
Figure it out people - a well meant lie - being turned into a travesty that should horrify all thinking people. When the Governor signed that Treaty - we made Maori equal in lore and in Law - and now some of their decedents - all full participants in the Civilisation that we brought with us - want to side-line us - and make us second class citizens in the Nation that we were instrumental in creating. We allowed a well-meant lie - but one that is now being used to preach nonsensical history - and undermine what civilisation did actually do for Maori. It made them active participants - and they are ignoring the FACT - that in the space of only two generations - they were able to step hundreds of generations into the future.
What a great gift that was.
I say again - it would be a crime of gigantic proportions to HAVE NOT brought Maori into the Civilisation - and every effort over 180 years has made to do that - and our current crop of crazies want to brush all that aside - and bring us instead the poisonous gift of APARTHEID.
We should be ashamed to have let this go this far.
I say again - given the advances in Civilisation that were taking place in that age of Exploration - what were the chances for Maori to remain as they were - in a stone age world? Less rational people might have just wiped them out.
* * * * * * * *
I have attached two picture with this: One is actually an early photograph. Realistically it would have been taken in perhaps the late 1860s - perhaps 60 to 70 years after the arrival of the first settlers - and twenty years after the Treaty of Waitangi. The first photograph taken in New Zealand was in 1859 - of the Pink and White Terraces.
This photograph shows Maori habitation and it shows several things of note. The people are all wearing clothes and some are wrapped in blankets - none of which were available before the settlers arrived. Well - they just weren’t!
The raupo and brushwood house seems to have a brick chimney - and of course a wooden door and a door handle. That would be European - and the reason why a chimney in a place like that so early - is that a fire inside to keep them warm - would be like lighting a fire under kindling - if it were not kept contained in a fire place. A door would be the logical first step after the fireplace to keep the warmth of the fire in - with less chance of setting fire to the place.
The thing about the cold - was that early European Doctors who examined Maori - said they were dying young because they could not keep themselves warm or dry - and were dying from ailments of the lungs because of cold and damp.
That’s just the truth of life before Civilisation - and the reality that we see in that photograph - is that life a generation earlier would have been much more primitive.
Imagine trying to keep a baby alive before fabric arrived to help keep them warm.
Then there’s the other picture (below) - a painting - but obviously made after the settlers arrived - because with them prior to photographs came the artists - and painters and canvases and paints and brushes and the skills to use them - from Europe. So that means after the arrival of clothes and blankets - and therefore chisels and mallets for carving. Look at the picture and we see a stockade. It wasn’t there to keep wild animals out - because there were none. That was to guard against the “Teasing of other Tribes” that the Maori talk about in the famous but never mentioned William Yate letter.
I have it if anyone wants to see it and read it.
Remember - it could easily take two or three days to create a painting like that - so you could put people in as and where you want them. We see three men with weapons - and it looks like the man at the centre of the painting actually has a musket. That would be a prized possession.
And clothing and Blankets. Same deal as the photograph - but earlier - and more fanciful - because the painter would have enhanced everything - because that’s what Artists do.
Where would the enhancement most likely be? I know - in the carved bargeboards, which were possible once the chisels and mallets arrived. They would have been the first things after blankets that Maori would trade their girls for. (Yeah sorry - but they did that too.)
I’m not sure what would be kept on the top of those poles.
A carved barge board on the front of a reed structure? Seems a bit fanciful to me - but who knows - it’s a painting
Denis Hall describes himself as an old man and an artist - a thinker - a writer - and a commentator. He does what he does - for the love of it.
The problem is that I am going to tell you the truth - about this gigantic Lie that underpins New Zealand society, including the subversion of Kiwi lore and public culture - and has now even been given legitimacy and has found its way into the Laws of the Land - and on the basis of that they want to do such things as change the name of the Nation to a word that was just being invented by Europeans pushing a dubious narrative about early Maori - when I was a child at school - seventy five years ago.
Get real people - they told us it was a translation of - “The Land Of The Long White Cloud.”
Seventy five years to get to the vile propaganda and brain washing we have today.
But that’s just the start! Our great and unique New Zealand Lie - is right up there with the great sets of lies that have underpinned other totalitarian regimes - like North Korea - and the Communist countries - Russia and China - and Fascism - and up till now our version might have seemed somewhat benign.
It is now proving to not be so benign. Time to wake up Kiwis. This Great New Zealand Lie is a doozie! It is carrying a new APARTHIED with it.
I have alluded to our Great New Zealand Lie many times in my writing - but always stopped short of making too much of an issue of it. The problem is that I remember when I was a kid at school in the forties - even as a child - I could see this Lie emerging at the core of our popular culture - - but like everyone else I went along with it - because I could understand the reason for it. The problem is that today that same Lie is being used to reimagine our entire culture in its name - and use it as an excuse to introduce Apartheid into all our social systems.
That’s not an overstatement - it is something that needs to be said - and if I need to - I will answer to the Authorities for saying it.
I’m there - at the front line!
Our Great New Zealand Lie is about covering up real Maori Culture - and propagating the Maori Culture as it is romantically portrayed by the Authorities and the Media - and all that reinforced by Maoridom in their displays of Maori Culture as it is in this modern age. And for the record - that “modern age” arrived here with the Europeans. Prior to us arriving - Maori lived a totally different life - and it has been recorded in thousands of History books - and also distorted in what we now call “Maori myths and legends”.
They were always described as “Maori Warriors” - and that was because being warriors was a major part of their culture. They were in fact ‘Maori Warriors “ - and we have lost sight of that.
We just have to look behind the nonsense that’s in front of us.
Did you notice how me saying that “Civilization arrived here with the Europeans” - made you feel uncomfortable? But it’s true - and that was our contribution to New Zealand life - and there is nothing to be ashamed of about that. But we have avoided talking about that for generations - even though it is absolutely true. It did without question - arrive with us.
CIVILISATION - You know it in your heart of hearts - it came from EUROPE - not Polynesia - and today in this modern age - every last one of us lives in it - and enjoys it - and relies on it for all shelter and sustenance and enjoyment of and fulfillment of life.
Find the lie in that please.
So yesterday - I was challenged on one of my Facebook posts by a person I’m not going to name - who gave me a very romantic version of Maori Culture - and he - like most New Zealanders - just happened to leave out all the most important bits - because that is what we have trained ourselves to do.
That woke me up in the night and it triggered me.
Woke and triggered! - I sound like creepy Jo Biden.
But - I realized the time had come for me to man up and tell the truth of it - without fear or favor.
The problem for me is - I actually know precisely where the Great New Zealand Lie originated - and after (just below) reproducing my response to this character on Facebook - I will explain that to you - and then YOU will understand also.
That lie came about because we New Zealanders are reasonable people - and mean well - and we try to assuage racism - and want the best for our countrymen of all races - and there are a lot of different races living and being born here now - and time and study is going to expose this Great New Zealand Lie that we manage to tell to all of those newly arrived people - including all their children - and I can tell you now - that a lot of them think it really is time we faced up to the truth of it.
Okay - so this guy in the Facebook comments section gave me the stock standard romantic version of the Great New Zealand Lie in response to my little thesis on the abuse of the English Language - that I had called: “Did You Watch TV One News Tonight?”
It had been posted on the NZCPR facebook page - is still there - and less than 60 hours later (as I write this morning,) it is up to 602 ‘Likes’ - 172 ‘comments’ and 175 ‘Shares,’ not to mention hundreds of readers on other pages - including on “NZCPR Breaking Views.”
Do I keep score? ABSOLUTELY!
Here’s my response to that romantic comment I mentioned above - that I wrote straight off the top of my head - and I apologise for none of it.
“You must be a schoolteacher George. (I changed his name!)
How romantic! The historical reality George - is that Maori families back in the day instructed teachers to make sure their kids could speak English - so they could progress in the civilisation that was surrounding them - and note well - the advent of Civilisation in New Zealand was absolutely inevitable - and for the people of Europe to not share it with Maori would have been a crime against humanity. Tell me that the savage life would be preferable George. That story would be fascinating.
Tell me what you would say if we had sealed them off and got all the European powers to agree to - “Not Discover them” and left them here living that savage life. Now THAT really would be a crime.
(But it was the one crime we have never been accused of committing. It’s always the romantic version and we are the bad guys.)(I added that sentence this morning.)
They joined in the civilisation because they considered that it was a country mile better than living in grass huts behind stockades - being hungry and cold and enduring Tribal Wars and Cannibalism that was their culture when the Europeans arrived. Best you factor that into your romantic view of pre European Maori Culture. (George)
As for getting wacked across the knuckles in school - I’m a male European New Zealander - and when I was at school in the forties - (yes - the forties and the war was on - and obviously I am an old white man,) we got wacked for not attending to our lessons as well - not that I ever saw a Maori kid get wacked for speaking Maori - because by the time I was a kid they were no longer speaking Maori - and that was because back then their Mums and Dads were more concerned about living in a house with a gas stove and their kids learning English and getting and keeping a job so they could buy a car.
When I started work I worked with Maori Apprentices learning to build houses.
Try to get your head around the alternatives George. (Grass huts. See the pictures.)
Below you will see Maori habitation in the late 1800s - and as you look at the picture - remember - photography didn’t arrive here till the 1860s - at least two decades after the Treaty was signed - and then it had to get to here on the other side of the planet on guess what - a Sailing Ship.
Imagine what life was like here for Maori 50 years earlier - before the arrival of the blanket - and clothes.
Our schools need to describe early Maori life as it was - and explain the reasons why they were so quick to give up the savage customs of their past and (stop the tribal wars) and come to live in houses - instead of painting a romantic notion of the noble savage living in finely carved meeting houses behind a stockade. (the flash meeting houses arrived with the settlers and their metal tools.) The business of teaching nonsense to children - and adults - is in fact dividing the Nation - because people are not told about the need and the difficulty - for Maori to change and live in the civilisation with us.
That would be a far more productive and adventurous story.
Work it out George - grass and raupo huts and dirt floors - no taps and toilets - down to the river for a drink in the morning - no ablution blocks. No metal of any kind - so no tools or blades - no sheep or cotton plants - so no clothes or blankets to keep you warm. (No fancy carved meeting houses - because no steel tools.) No ceramics or pottery so no vessels to carry or keep water in - or store or cook food. They had hunted the Moa to extinction - extinction! (and the Huia too - for their feathers,) and they had decimated the seal population. Their primary food sources were Weka and Kiwis and the Polynesian rats (they came with them from the islands) - and birds - and fish - with no metal hooks. (……. And each other of course - if they were an enemy.) (Sorry - but truth is truth.)
And as for birds: - Imagine seeing your dinner fly away every time you got close - and no bow and arrow to get them from a distance. Just stones and sticks. I could throw a pretty mean rock when I was a kid - but I never managed to hit a bird.
Sorry about the reality George - but I have it in my genes.”
* ** * * * * *
Okay - so now a couple of this morning’s comments from me - about that above:
(1) Kiwi (the walking birds) were not protected back then. Nor were seals. They were food.
(2) Thirteen Maori Chiefs got William Yate to write to the King and asked for his protection.
(3) That means that Maori asked for the Treaty - not the other way around.
(4) They signed the Treaty in numbers - but only the King’s Representative signed for us.
(5) It was between them and the Sovereign - the King - not them and us.
(6) When they saw muskets for the first time they wanted them - to fight other Maori.
(7) As a result we had the Musket wars - Maori against Maori. Many many died.
( 8 ) Maori didn’t get together just to fight white men - they fought each other even more.
(9) That’s the history - and our Great NZ Lie is such that we are rewriting History!
(10) Rewriting History is the preserve of liars, cheats and totalitarian states.
(11) Note well: The Nub of that Great New Zealand Lie is the one about Cannibalism - Tribal wars - and the Maori Wars. We have been led to believe that the Maori Wars were fought principally between Maori and Europeans - and the reality of inter-Maori conflict has been avoided and glossed over.
I’m not going to do that here.
I will stop procrastinating. Here is the origin of that great New Zealand Lie:
As a kid at school in the forties - we were taught about Cannibalism and Tribal wars - but it was played down by the Nuns who taught us - and aIso I believe - in all schools across the Nation. It was part of the History of the Nation - but the prevailing view was “let’s not dwell on it. There are other things we need to learn about History” - was the common view then - that because today’s Maori no longer do any of that - and we don’t want them to feel uncomfortable about their past - let’s just move on. We all live in the modern age now.
But that doesn’t change the reality of it.
It seems to me - that as a result of not actually denying all that - but avoiding discussion of it - we have created a Nation of people that is so ashamed of its past - and they are actively trying to hide it. We are allowing people to push this new romantic lie into the void created by trying not to be offensive. That gigantic lie is being written up and published as our true history - and too many of us know it to allow it to work.
So there it is - the origin of the Great New Zealand Lie - that is now being used to justify the theft of the Nation’s assets on a GRAND SCALE - and the destruction of our Democracy - so that they can be handed off to a minority in the Basis of their race - and in the process dividing the nations people so completely - that these Charlatans are calling for “co governance” - and a separation of people - AND CONDONE THE LEGITIMISATION OF NEW ZEALAND APARTHEID.
WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
Figure it out people - a well meant lie - being turned into a travesty that should horrify all thinking people. When the Governor signed that Treaty - we made Maori equal in lore and in Law - and now some of their decedents - all full participants in the Civilisation that we brought with us - want to side-line us - and make us second class citizens in the Nation that we were instrumental in creating. We allowed a well-meant lie - but one that is now being used to preach nonsensical history - and undermine what civilisation did actually do for Maori. It made them active participants - and they are ignoring the FACT - that in the space of only two generations - they were able to step hundreds of generations into the future.
What a great gift that was.
I say again - it would be a crime of gigantic proportions to HAVE NOT brought Maori into the Civilisation - and every effort over 180 years has made to do that - and our current crop of crazies want to brush all that aside - and bring us instead the poisonous gift of APARTHEID.
We should be ashamed to have let this go this far.
I say again - given the advances in Civilisation that were taking place in that age of Exploration - what were the chances for Maori to remain as they were - in a stone age world? Less rational people might have just wiped them out.
* * * * * * * *
I have attached two picture with this: One is actually an early photograph. Realistically it would have been taken in perhaps the late 1860s - perhaps 60 to 70 years after the arrival of the first settlers - and twenty years after the Treaty of Waitangi. The first photograph taken in New Zealand was in 1859 - of the Pink and White Terraces.
This photograph shows Maori habitation and it shows several things of note. The people are all wearing clothes and some are wrapped in blankets - none of which were available before the settlers arrived. Well - they just weren’t!
The raupo and brushwood house seems to have a brick chimney - and of course a wooden door and a door handle. That would be European - and the reason why a chimney in a place like that so early - is that a fire inside to keep them warm - would be like lighting a fire under kindling - if it were not kept contained in a fire place. A door would be the logical first step after the fireplace to keep the warmth of the fire in - with less chance of setting fire to the place.
The thing about the cold - was that early European Doctors who examined Maori - said they were dying young because they could not keep themselves warm or dry - and were dying from ailments of the lungs because of cold and damp.
That’s just the truth of life before Civilisation - and the reality that we see in that photograph - is that life a generation earlier would have been much more primitive.
Imagine trying to keep a baby alive before fabric arrived to help keep them warm.
Then there’s the other picture (below) - a painting - but obviously made after the settlers arrived - because with them prior to photographs came the artists - and painters and canvases and paints and brushes and the skills to use them - from Europe. So that means after the arrival of clothes and blankets - and therefore chisels and mallets for carving. Look at the picture and we see a stockade. It wasn’t there to keep wild animals out - because there were none. That was to guard against the “Teasing of other Tribes” that the Maori talk about in the famous but never mentioned William Yate letter.
I have it if anyone wants to see it and read it.
Remember - it could easily take two or three days to create a painting like that - so you could put people in as and where you want them. We see three men with weapons - and it looks like the man at the centre of the painting actually has a musket. That would be a prized possession.
And clothing and Blankets. Same deal as the photograph - but earlier - and more fanciful - because the painter would have enhanced everything - because that’s what Artists do.
Where would the enhancement most likely be? I know - in the carved bargeboards, which were possible once the chisels and mallets arrived. They would have been the first things after blankets that Maori would trade their girls for. (Yeah sorry - but they did that too.)
I’m not sure what would be kept on the top of those poles.
A carved barge board on the front of a reed structure? Seems a bit fanciful to me - but who knows - it’s a painting
Denis Hall describes himself as an old man and an artist - a thinker - a writer - and a commentator. He does what he does - for the love of it.
15 comments:
It doesn't matter what you say though. The proponents of this apartheid aren't interested in the truth. Many of us have articulated what you are saying in your article. Unless we have someone in parliament with significant stature who says " enough of this!"we are going to travel down this path unfortunately. I think it's absolutely unprecedented in New Zealands history. How Ardern was elected Prime Minister is a real mystery to many of us.
“Those that we killed we ate; those saved we made slaves of. We used to stay in the pas we took in this manner to eat of “the fish of Tu,”* and nothing but the smell of the bodies made us draw on to another place.
“In this manner we passed through the Taranaki and Whanganui districts, and to Whangaehu and Manawatu and beyond to Otaki, killing as we went.
*The victims of the war-god Tu, i.e., dead men.
“We conquered and took many slaves, with whom we returned to the place where our chief who had been speared lay, and there killed all the slaves as food for the mourners for the chief.
“We were two weeks at this pa, and so soon as we had consumed all the killed we went on up the river and took another pa in that place, where we stayed living on those who had been killed.”
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-SmiMaor-t1-body-d15.html
So true. What you describe is the Sorry Syndrome at play. Exploiters of the Sorry Syndrome lot demanding a perpetual apology. This manifests itself as "failed treaty obligations".
When Tamati cofey ( the previoisly funny, well liked tvnz breakfast host) said in parliament that democracy was a greek and english system that doesn't work in nz, i knew that we could end up the zimbabwe of the pacific. If the radicals in the maori party end up as kingmaker for the next election, then nz is finished. Already you can see the decline in society and those " dreadful" english systems such as being able to see a gp when you need to or have functioning hospitals - gone. Police treading softly on crime, gangs taking over the streets, masked people everywhere when the rest of the world has moved on. Watching the queen's jubilee and the patrotism over there, i can't see how democracy and freedom is something to throw away.
Reading the personal letters of Marianne Williams gives a window into the bridge of time before & after the Treaty & what life was truly like for those living in this country. “Letters from the Bay of Islands - the story of Marianne Willams” should be compulsory reading for every NZer - as RR Waiohau Te Haara says in his foreword so that through her “our Maori forebears speak again of what might have remained hidden”.
Young children and young people are dumb, they know nothing of the past, but worst of all they know nothing about the here and now, we are a sad weak lot and getting dumber sadder and weaker, welcome to the new world order, you will own nothing and you will be happy.
the musket wars were 50 years before the treaty but you forgot New Zealand independance in 1835 why was that disolved it was a better deal then the treaty and the treaty was never ratified so not a legal document its only the treaty of waitangi tribunial act of 1978 that gives it any power. repeal the act and theres nothing.
I am very disappointed in the intellect of my fellow New Zealanders - are they so dumb that they cannot see what is on the horizon - a third world NZ run by a dictatorship…… what fools!!
Can you provide references to your essay? Keen to know the sources.
Really sad teachers all seem to be complicit in this charade
It's refreshing to read an "honest" account of history , and it's been a while since I have read some honest accounts . There's been a strategic effort to whitewash the history ,and I can only suggest it has been for various capitalistic gains , but for whom in the long run ? There's one thing for sure , what's happening is most divisive and could result in many confrontations and violent struggles in the future .This govnt ,and it's cohorts must know the wrong they are perpetuating , but evil has overtaken them ! We must however acknowledge various injustices carried out by the crown (govnt)in the past , but why has there always been delays in justice for various Maori . Justice delayed is not acceptable , and now the penalty is death to justice at all ,and death to our peaceful and fair nation . Is this what we vote and live for ?
You are absolutely correct in everything you say. Keep them coming. Publish it everywhere. Don't hold back. Please send me the Yate letter. okebaylodge@gmail.co. thanks so much
NZs hanging on to a myth that's gone well past its usebydate. The Americans faught them off in 1776, the French gave theirs a right royal treatment relative to that time but no, NZ still loves the Queen. This forum (the likes of Hosking, Laws et al.) will have you believe that she exists in NZ no different & embarrassingly so that a foreign affairs politician informing the world that a mythical creature truly does exists in our waters. So it's not surprising our young are taken in by this ideological nonsense. No wonder Ardern is praised abroad. This is theatre to all those applauding her at Harvard - its a wink to the British Monarch. The US saw the problems with Monarch control. I say - find your balls, reform from a medieval belief & stand on your own feet. I can count on one hand the amount of times she has been here in the past 50yrs just a guess but you get the point. She is clueless about NZ. If Ardern can ghost out (& she will by vertue of signalling to the UN) how many other goblins exist in that parliamentary rats nest?
We are trying to hold onto the past while trying to fend off the future, the problem is the future does not look that good compared to the past.
Thankyou mr hall for talking about what is going on in this country. Until you have received and seen the actions being taken by some Maori groups, it gives other New Zealanders the option to keep their heads in the sand. Unfortunately this lack of reaction to the reverse racism is going to flourish in our homeland. The lies being articulated, supported by this government can only end in disaster for hard working New Zealanders. Yes, I am a similar age to you and yes, I have seen how Maori were involved in our lives. Everyone makes their own choices in life and where you end up is exactly where you put yourself. Please keep commenting.
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