John Robinson: New Zealand Nonsense (one) - the Maori race

Once when Maori called me racist, I would say “No, I am not.”  Then I thought a bit about what racism is, and I realised that they were the racists.  I had entered dangerous grounds, for it did not take long to see that my country is deeply racist.  I do not belong here.

New Zealand nonsense (one) 

The Maori race

What is New Zealand?  This is a country that has defined itself out of existence.  It is no longer one sovereign nation.  Instead, sovereignty rests with many race-based hapu and iwi scattered across the country, ruled by unexplained tikanga based on the ways of a past warring tribal society.  

Who are these special ones who hold the sovereignty of our lands?  This is the Maori, people whose identity is fundamental to government and laws.  The definition of Maori is then basic to any understanding of the country.  Here is, written into law in 1974.

“A Maori is a person of the Maori race: and includes any descendant of such a person.”[1]

Here there is a Maori race. There is no thing as a race, yet here it is written into law.  So, what is this?  It is a race consisting of Maori.  We are none the wiser – keeping in mind that key words in legislation and in international treaties must have a clear, well-defined meaning, leaving no doubt of what is implied.  We are back where we started, and can go on round in circles as long as we like, but will never get anywhere in an effort to find a clear definition of ‘Maori’ in our law.  This is nonsense, but it is the basis of much New Zealand law, and of increasingly divisions in many spheres of government.

Despite the lack of any clarity on the meaning of ‘Maori’, the above definition insists on the inclusion of all who have any degree of ancestry.  This is a wider definition of racial identity than those of apartheid South Africa (which referred to the full blooded as black, with those of mixed ethnicity defined as coloured), Nazi Germany (at first requiring half or more ethnicity for a Jew), being that of the ‘Jim Crow laws’ re-establishing racial segregation in the American South.[2]  Here is the affirmation of a very wide definition of race as the basis of a national ideology, to be written into all law.

In practice these Maori are descendants of some Polynesians who came in the 13^th century (including now anyone with any degree of such ancestry, no matter how small).  Research in the early twentieth century by the distinguished Maori scholar (doctor, military leader, health administrator, politician, anthropologist, and museum director) Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) identified three series of migrations to New Zealand; Buck referred to the first group as the ‘tangata whenua’.  Each new influx of settlers found numerous people living here; many were killed so that the newcomers could possess the land, often in wars of extermination, resulting in the practical extinction of the men, while the women and children were absorbed by the conquerors.  The first to come, according to Buck, was around the 9^th century; later research has suggested a much earlier date for first human settlement.  The canoes bringing the ancestors to today’s Maori were probably the third of these migrations.[3]

But all reports of settlers preceding the Maori have been deleted from history, with an insistence that they only are the first people, tangata whenua’, and the ‘indigenous’ people.  That assumption is then held to support a claim that they are a special race, demanding higher status and better treatment.

Such division by ancestry or first settlement, with race-based privileges, has been universally condemned.  This is made clear in the introduction to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which includes a powerful rebuttal of inherent differences between peoples.[4]

“Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust.” 

This statement of a condemnation of superior status based on national origin or ethnic difference and refutes the many claims of that Declaration which demand special race-based rights for the (undefined) indigenous people.  Nonsense is not unique to New Zealand.

There is no such thing as race.  Humans cannot be, and should not be, divided by race.  To do so is to reverse the struggle over past centuries in opposition to division by race and the subsequent racism, a struggle that brought equality to New Zealand when this nation was founded.

*This is the first of four short articles noting the nonsense that is driving New Zealand ever further into apartheid, with different treatment based on race and two race based governments and sets of law.  Only a ship of fools would sit back and allow this happen.

 Dr John Robinson is a research scientist, who has investigated a variety of topics, including the social statistics of Maori.  His recognition of fundamental flaws in the interpretation of nineteenth century Maori demographics led him to consider the history of those times in several books.

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[1] Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1974

[2] Robinson J 2024. Who really broke the Treaty? Tross Publishing, page 41

[3] Buck P (Te Rangi Hiroa) 1938. Vikings of the sunrise. Whitcombe and Tombs, republished as Vikings of the Pacific in 1959 by University of Chicago; Buck P (Te Rangi Hiroa) 1949.  The coming of the Maori.  Reprinted 1982, Whitcoulls Ltd.; and Robinson J 2020. Unrestrained slaughter, the Maori musket wars 1800-1840 Tross Publishing, page 9

[4] United Nations 2007.  United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf