This false history would have us believe the tribes were a united nation, did no wrong and built scientific institutions. They want us to believe they almost rescued the moa from extinction and certainly never ate one, but English settlers recorded the truth of stone-age Maori life.
The truth is they took food—aerial, terrestrial or aquatic—without limit and when they exhausted a source they moved on. Science consisted of unwritten observations of nature. Humanitarian instincts were only for the tribe. Other tribes represented lethal threats or new territory, slaves or cannibal feasts—now very embarrassing.
How deep the oblivion that mourns the loss of such brutish poverty and overlooks the abundant prosperity generously unlocked by the English?
Human biology is the same everywhere, and the matter of race trivial, yet rebels demand rule just because they’re Maori, which, they say, makes them indigenous, which is no reason at all. Anyway it’s untrue.
Their quantum of Maori ethnicity has fallen. By 2006 those identifying as Maori had DNA that was on average almost half British (43%). So as mixing makes us rapidly ever more similar, activists cry racism to divide us, yet there are more part-Maori MPs now than ever. In addition, they get more help than others with housing finance, lower standards for admission to university and financial help in health and other areas.
Like the rest of us, Maoris are immigrants, and not the first. Shipwrecks, stone monuments, artefacts and bones found beneath precisely dated volcanic ash layers prove that people settled here more than seven thousand years before Maoris arrived.
Maoris are not indigenous, they have no rights to the treasury or a free pass in court, and nobody has a natural right to rule. Leaders are elected under strict rules.
Maori indulgence in violence gave them a deep distrust of visitors, and they call their welcome ceremony a challenge for that was indeed how they greeted visitors. But nothing can disguise its crude indignity or its menacing imitation of combat:
A half-naked warrior in a grass skirt leaps around the visitor, be they merchant or monarch and whatever their sex, threatening them with a spear or other weapon, pulling hideous faces, eyes wild, artlessly poking his tongue and growling roughly. He drops a clutch of foliage, brandishing his weapon, daring you to pick it up. As you reach down to it you’re vulnerable, but take it and they let you in.
Maoris were deeply grateful for the protection of global English power, along with dairy products, fruit, vegetables, modern farming methods and new animal breeds that gave them and their families a wholesome diet.
British engineers replaced the communal cesspit with pipes and pumps, doctors brought modern medicine, dentistry and optometry. Eventually roads, vehicles, metal tools, warm clothing and cosy houses eased and extended their lives.
The colonisers brought law, democracy, civic services, institutions, schools, libraries and writing, eventually rescuing Maoris with a Paradise Regained. My many part-Maori relatives, neighbours and friends laugh at claims by the activists and say the colonisers never had an agenda to make trouble, except for some unruly settlers.
The English brought conveniences of all kinds along with the great English language (the world’s most widely spoken), created by thoughtful scholarly minds over centuries.
We have seen these rebellious activists demand a separate House of Parliament—while dishonouring the House they already have. What were they thinking?
Tribalists are wrecking the law to raid the treasury. That path is toxic. All reasonable people earn their own money and improve themselves. Rebels can do the same. Activists lusting for what they did not create will be thrown off the waka.
Better to unite. Acknowledge the glory of body, mind and spirit. Devote toil to the nation, knowledge to the youth, health to the sick, comfort to the weak, strength to the striving, resolution to the strong, peace to the old and wisdom to all.
Build a nation.
Richard Treadgold, a proofreader for over 40 years, started the Climate Conversation Group website about 20 years ago to champion climate realism and in 2021 founded the conservative think tank Free New Zealand to fight for democracy.
17 comments:
The STATE has allowed this to happen. Successive governments and politicians, the so called guardians of our sovereignty and democracy, are solely responsible for creating this racist apartheid state.
Why didn't they say NO back in 1975 to the TOW Act, which kicked it all off?
Our true 'non revised' early history tells us that it wasn't the crown who broke the treaty which created equal rights for all, but rather the other party, so what's going on here?
Why have successive governments/politicians continued to fan the flames of apartheid, instead of overturning that act of treason, and restoring justice?
What is the real agenda here and who is behind it? Who is really in charge of this counties direction of travel?
Why are 'we the people' putting up with this STATE SABOTAGE that has been going on behind our backs?
An excellent summary and reminder for all - and much of what should be covered-off in our schools NZ history syllabi.
Had explorers and merchants (Whalers, Sealers, Flax-traders etc.) not come to New Zealand the islands now would be a barren wasteland with, still, only rats and, maybe, dogs as the only mammals.
Maori would have died out, through in-fighting, cannibalism and a complete lack of enterprise, after, of course, burning down much of the natural landscape..
Remembering that Maori had no wheel, no metal, very little (in places no) agriculture and very little skill other than killing easy targets, it is a wonder how they even got here. Certainly when the afore mentioned got here Maori didn't have the technology to go beyond the horizon, often not the technology to travel on the wet stuff at all.
I suspect the Chinese (probably Taiwanese) were to blame.
Everything else is myth, propagated to get something for nothing from gullible outsiders.
So who is going to change the Maori power grab, when and how?
Over the last decades, NZers have tacitly endorsed it and many have actively subscribed to it. New generations are now educated in it.
Change is most likely to come from the Chinese who have profound patience, just waiting for NZ to collapse. Then they can move in, create a rather pleasant sphere of influence in the South pacific, and grow food at the same time.
Never heard a word of gratitude from Willie Jxn et al that it was the Brits not anybody else that saved them back in 1840, let alone 1940.
And I suppose it was the white component of their blood that let them down in the "Maori " All Black' Test in Japan.
To Anon 11.41
Apathetic NZers may actually have no problem with that scenario.......
Not long to wait. If Seymour's Treaty Bill does not lead to a referendum, your suggested outcome is inevitable.
As historian Paul Moon has written - Maori lived in a state of constant and sustained anxiety because they never knew just when a neighbouring tribe would appear over the horizon ready to slaughter and eat you. Life was short and brutish in a tribal structured society that gave those at the bottom no rights at all and few rights for most women.
We have allowed the mythology to become a general belief and now we officially celebrate a newly invented star time. What mugs we have become!
A newly minted public holiday created by the (it's on me) gonged one...
The West is self destructing with its own looney ideologies, In this post truth era facts are not what matters ideology is paramount. Hence Marxism requires a victim and oppressor. Native and colonizer fits this paradigm . Maori radicals have latched onto this from foolish European academics.
The damned MPs allowed all this to happen.
We have an enemy within who masterminded all this and pushed Maori activism.
Who?
Polak, Maning, and Logan Campbell all good general reads. Also reveal maori life as it was. Cook on his repeat visits to the sounds was dismayed at the complete replacemnt of occupnats between visits. And by the baskets of cannibal food which indicated the fate of the formr occupants.(Also the fate of several of his expedition)
And let us not forget that it was 13 Ngapuhi chiefs who,in 1831, signed a letter to King William of England asking him to be their friend and protector, from the southern tribes and the French. This led to the TOW 9 years later which over 500 chiefs signed.
The British colonisation of New Zealand was by invitation.
Some thoughts that co-incide with this excellent article.
The institigators of the 1975 Treaty of Waitangi Act clearly had a long view as to their ultimate aim - somewhat akin to Mao's "Long March". Start with small things, like getting agreement to adding Maori names to landmarks and locations. After a period of time the population would become used to the revised names and the Maori version would become predominant - indeed, the common - name. Ultimately the English name would just be dropped - this is about to happen with the name of the country, without any formal declaration of statutory change.
Where is the Government policy or decision on formally changing the name of the country? I'm not aware of there being any posiiton taken by any of the coalition partners. Yet the name of the country is being altered by 'osmosis' - today I encountered Microsoft Windows giving me a keyboard option for 'English Aotearoa' not 'English New Zealand'. Increasing number of commercial ads use Aotearoa, in all forms (print, radio & TV). Even in everyday conversation it is in growing use. But we, the people, have not consented to the change. Where are the plans for a referendum to get the public's support? The cynic in me says that will not happen - it will just occur.
To, in the minds of the activists, bring the Maori language to the fore, start using Maori words and names within English speech and writing. This was initially encouraged to assist the revitalisation of the native language. However, I am not aware of any other country that has allowed its language to morph into a blend of native and settler. Increasingly both written and oral language in this country is a blend of English and Maori; the Maori words are understood by less than 10% of the population and must make it very difficult for immigrants to learn or understand 'New Zealand English'. Sprinkling Maori words into everyday conversation does not make people proficient in the language. Sensible bi-lingual nations don't (as far as I know) blend their two languages in this way. They use both as identifiable vocabularies, but do not blend them. For instance, in Canada Government (and many other) publications are printed in both English and French - not in a blend of both.
It would be more sensible for us to follow the Canadian model. Allow Maori to be used for documents (and speech) in a Maori context, and retain unmodified English for general use.
To Anon 7 July
Finlayson ( now nowhere in sight)
To Tony B 7 July
Different language strategies
Canada : correct English and French are used to reflect Quebec's history.
( Not indigenous dialects.)
cf NZ - a weird mangled language is being created to force acquisition. At one point ( quite soon), the English will be dropped - all must be conducted in Maori. This is the strategy of radial Maori.
When Govt departments use a recently invented Maori word for a proud nation, one of the oldest democracies on earth, you know the rot is very deep indeed. For those of us who prefer to be New Zealanders, rather than Outer Roans, the solution is loud and frequent protest to the miscreants concerned. Any hope in our Parliament is likely to be futile. It’s up to us now.
Māori language should be treated as is French, Latin or any other. Those that want to learn it can. We should not be bastardising English in order to appease a minority of less than half castes who should be looking at their own ancestors for the demise of the Māori language-many of them had the foresight to recognise the value of the English language and supported suppressing Māori.
Well written wisdom, thanks
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