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Thursday, June 9, 2022

Denis Hall: A more positive perspective - On the relationship between Maori and Europeans


I’ve been looking at some of the commentary on what I’ve been contributing here [facebook] - and I feel I need to discuss the other side of this social equation that I have discussed recently.

It’s the degrading relationship between Maori and European - that I believe is being driven by Governmental and Media activists intent of promoting division and creating a racially divided society.

Yeah I know - maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist - but I know what I can see with my own eyes.

Maybe I’m just a by-product of that - and to set the record straight I offer this to follow.

I sat down yesterday and read well over 500 comments on my essays about the relationship between Maori and the Colonists in New Zealand. It’s all a bit daunting. The vast majority supported my stance - but a few didn’t - and this is for them - and for all of us of course - if only to get some balance.

So this essay this Queen’s Birthday Weekend is well meant and is about that discussion - and how we might move it to a more healthy place.

That relationship with Maori in New Zealand is a thing of vital importance to each and every one of us - and I just feel that the true state of it has been obscured and disrupted by what people are prepared to read - that reinforces their thinking - pushed along by thoughtless - or even deliberate political, academic, and Media obfuscation that we have carried into this important discussion.

(And perhaps by people like me trying to explain myself to a large and diverse group of people - some of whom don’t like reading anything past a bullet point.)

Many people who claim Maori ancestry today share bloodlines with those Colonists - because they married each other - and the rest of us make up the bulk of the population as it is today.

Yeah - we have all heard it:- Colonisation is a bad bad thing and guilty of everything and made everything bad blaa blaa blaa.

But maybe these myths about colonisation do need to be addressed - because these serial grievers cannot see the big picture - and keep trotting it out and bleating about it.

That’s a real and actual thing we need to consider - and I realised from a couple of the comments that I read yesterday - that because of the way people read essays on these issues - I needed to put more emphasis on the more positive aspects of the social equation.

I can do that - and here goes!

The great unavoidable reality in all this - is that the global March of Civilisation was absolutely inevitable and unstoppable 300 years ago - and this is a point that I have made many times - and that may have been missed by those who despise and criticise the march of what they would rather call “Colonisation” across the entire planet - even including what was once the most advanced country on the planet – China.

Yep - It’s a fact! A 5000 year old highly evolved culture and civilisation - and they have willingly and positively overlaid it with all the accoutrements of Western Civilisation. That means electricity and cars and computers and phones etc etc etc - and they seem to have no qualms about that at all. They have unequivocally adopted it and are now doing it back at us.

You are getting distracted again Denis.

To have left out - or excluded Maori from that massive human advancement that started with Tasman in 1642 and followed by Cook in 1769 and Marion du Fresne three years later in 1772 - and indeed excluding any indigenous population in the world - from the unstoppable and inevitable March of Civilisation - really would have been racial oppression - and would have been a crime against humanity. It just would.

From a purely gratuitous and navigational point of view - it is interesting to note that Cook and du Fresne - having each sailed half way around the world in what were by today’s standards - tiny wooden sailing ships - both anchored in the same bay in the Bay of Islands.

Focus Denis:

Can we imagine - a world today where people like the Maori in New Zealand were still the only inhabitants of these islands - still living in the Stone Age Culture that the Civilisation found them in - surrounded by advanced countries all over the world saying:-

“No no - don’t disturb them! - It’s all wonderful and woke - leave them to their wonderful ancient way of life. You can just look at them in their canoes from a cruise ship and throw them sweets and junk that floats. It’s good for our economy that way”.

Think about it - that would just be stupid.

But the way I see this - it wasn’t JUST - a Dutchman - or an Englishman - and a Frenchman who sailed their little ships to here and found them - it was the outreach of the Global Civilization itself. Absolutely inevitable - and all those deluded people who lament the arrival of Civilisation by always referring to it as “colonialisation” have got the wrong end of the stick. They need to learn to look at the biger picture. They need to try to understand - what an anti human travesty it would have been to have excluded them from colonialisation and therefore Civilisation.

Perhaps those foreign navigators Tasman, Cook and du Fresne didn’t quite see it that way - but I have a funny feeling that a group of Maori Chiefs did.

And that again - brings me to a largely hidden and apparently ignored letter from thirteen Maori Chiefs to the King of England - written on their behalf and at their instigation and in their presence by a clergyman - in Kerikeri - named William Yate - dated November 16 - 1831 - nine years before the now bastardised Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The letter is attached below this paragraph - and I make the assurance it is a true and correct copy.

If we look at it with open eyes - we see an astonishing act of foresightedness, wisdom, and courage tinged with statesmanship - and humility - on the part of these thirteen Maori men - Chiefs of their people - that flew in the face of the Warrior Culture - and paved the way for Maori to take their rightful place in the great global human civilisation.

Isn’t it unfortunate that there are people who now lament that act on their part - and work to suppress this letter.

Well - that’s what they seem to be doing.

And remember - these guys couldn’t drive to a place to meet and do this - or horse and cart there - they had to walk - and forage for food on the way. No mean feat. Nowhere to stop for a pie and a coffee on the way to THAT meeting.

Here it is: - and I will follow it with further commentary - about what that meant to Maori - and how that relationship has matured over time - or something like that. Just a comment or two.

For the sake of your peace of mind - for God sake try to read it properly.

From William Yate, Esq, to the Colonial Secretary, New South Wales, Waimate, New Zealand. November 16, 1831

Sir,

I have the honour to forward to you, by His Majesties Ship, “Zebra” the enclosed New Zealand document, with its translation, and to request that you will lay it before the Governor for his information. I have further to request that it be transmitted through His Excellency to the Secretary of State, in order to it being laid before His Majesty.

I have, &c,

(Signed) William Yate. ___________________________________________________________________________

(Enclosure 3 in NO.1)

To King William, The Gracious Chief of England.

King William

To King William, the gracious Chief of England. King William, we, the chiefs of New Zealand assembled at this place, called the Kerikeri, write to thee, for we hear that thou art the great chief of the other side of the water, since the many ships which come to our land are from thee. We are a people without possessions. We have nothing but timber, flax, pork and potatoes. We sell these things however to your people; then we see property of the Europeans. It is only thy land, which is liberal towards us. From thee also come the missionaries who teach us to believe on Jehovah God and on Jesus Christ His Son. We have heard that the tribe of Marian [the French] is at hand, coming to take away our land. Therefore we pray thee to become our friend and the guardian of these islands, lest the teasing of other tribes should come near us, and lest strangers should come and take away our land. And if any of thy people should be troublesome and vicious towards us we pray thee to be angry with them that they may be obedient, lest the anger of the people of this land fall upon them. This letter is from us, the chief’s of the natives of New Zealand.

(Signed) William Yate,

Secretary to the Church Mission Society, New Zealand.

Wererahi Chief of Paroa.

Rewa Chief of Waimate

Patuone & Nene Two brothers, Chiefs of Hokianga Kekeao Chief of Ahuahu

Titore Chief of Kororarika

Tamoranaga Chief of Taiamai

Ripe Chief of Mapere

Hara Chief of Ohaiawa

Atuahaere Chief of Kaikohe

Moetara Chief of Pakanai

Matangi Chief of Waima

Taunai Chief of Hutakuta

************************************

I’ll keep my comments brief:

Very significantly - the Letter mentions the “Teasing of other Tribes”, and I believe they say that as a way to play down what was essentially a civil war being fought between Maori with muskets - and other Maori - and thousands were dying.

Those Maori on Maori Musket wars - an historic reality -1807 to 1842 - killed at least 20,000 Maori. They were getting to the end of that conflict when this letter was written.

Minds were changing. The future was on the horizon.

The writers of this letter knew - that if the King thought he would just be buying into a civil war on the other side of the planet - he would have backed off - but also he would like to get one up on the French - who were also sniffing about down here in ships - so the letter makes it seem the French are the most pressing problem.

These men were not by any means idiots - and neither was William Yate.

It shows they had a clear grasp of the situation in the world as it affected them - and these guys would mostly have been born in the early 1800s. (Unlikely any would be more than 50 years old - and some likely in their twenties.)

This letter is a major part of our history that seems to have been kept obscured so the nasty Lawyers and activists could slither their way into - and take over the heart of the discussion - and reinterpret the Treaty to suit their ends. The letter itself - written in the longhand of the time - is on the net somewhere - and I have seen it - but right now I can't find it - because I’m tired and my eyes hurt. You have a look on google - it’s there.

But how many of us have ever even heard of this?

Also - regardless of how this did go - it has to be acknowledged - that Maori showed great fortitude and versatility to be able to learn a new language - and completely Europeanise their culture - and learn within two to three generations - to live in the developing Global Civilisation.

Give some careful thought to THAT! Because THAT achievement - is what is being screwed with by activists and Media - both brown and white.

Yes - I was in a certain frame of mind when I wrote this - and it was very bloody late.

And that photograph - brothers in arms - and we need to remember that - and not get manipulated so easily .


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.

4 comments:

Mudbayripper said...

You know Dennis, I love your passion for the truth. Your understanding seems unique in a crazy deceitful world. Behind you all the way.

Anonymous said...

Very well written and bang on the money as usual.
Keep up the good work, you keep us well informed.

Anonymous said...

Denis, don't forget Queen Victoria's 1840 Royal Charter superseded the Treaty.

Mike L. said...

Perhaps what we currently need right now is an alternative and more accurate word for “colonisation”. One meaning “modernisation” and “ bringing up to date” - one which the divisive activists could not falsely represent. How about “fraternalisation” (involving brotherhood)? That certainly suggests inter-marriage. Any other suggestions?