This was always a lofty goal, only ever achieved in part, but a lofty goal indeed.
Most of the freedoms and privileges we enjoy today are derivative of this core idea. Most of the most terrible events in history are derivative of the violation of this idea.
It seems that in New Zealand today we no longer believe this.
Note the following from Centrist in response to an article published in The Daily Mail January 20.
Mount Taranaki is set to gain the legal rights of a person under the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill, which will become law on 30 January 2025.
The dormant volcano will now be represented by a panel of eight, including four traditional owners and four Crown representatives.
The legislation, passed by Labour in 2023, recognises Mount Taranaki, alongside its companion peaks, as a living ancestor with its own identity and rights.
Popular with tourists, it is the country’s most frequently climbed mountain, and Lonely Planet has named the area one of the best places in the world to visit. Under the new law, harming or mistreating the mountain will carry the same legal consequences as harming a tribe. (Centrist, Jan 19)
If we believe that a Mountain has the rights of a human being, then (ipso facto) the reverse of this may also, at least potentially, and in part, be seen to be true i.e. that human beings (in a sense) have rights equivalent to that of a Mountain.
If a human being was perceived thus, then on what grounds might you attest that a human being has greater rights than any other inanimate (or indeed animate) object, or being.
Just pause for a moment and think of what the implications of this type of thinking might be, or have been in the past.
In summary, this is not a new kind of madness, it is a madness as ancient as man himself ... a kind of madness that will leave destruction in its wake as it always has.
It is another legacy of tribalism. It is the further embedding of a new and dangerous pantheistic religion that is shaping our society and its institutions with breathtaking scope and speed.
This is a monumental sin against humanity with frightening implications.
Caleb Anderson, a graduate history, economics, psychotherapy and theology, has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty as a school principal.
10 comments:
The mountain has been there for thousands of years before the local washed ashore. How the heck can it be a living ancestor?
Affinity to the mountain and a love for its beauty and what it represents to you as a human is one thing, this thinking however is other world, out of site derangement.
Wanganui river was also “corporatized” when it was granted artificial person/person status. The corporate apartheid agenda (corporate government/corporate iwi) stealing our assets little by little with out bothering to ask the stakeholders. But then again, aren’t we lucky to be living in a “democracy” eh.
I presume this is all confirmed by NZ science?
If you think this is madness, just wait until "Tikanga" Maori "law," which is unwritten and differs from tribe to tribe, is fully incorporated into and alongside of our traditional British legal system! Say your 16 year old son gets drunk, takes your car,, crashes into my pregnant wife's car killing her and the baby she is carrying. Under Utu, I am fully justified in killing your son and you with no involvement of any third party. Sounds good to me.
Firstly, there is no way Maori occupied all of New Zealand continuously. They paddled here from another place.That is the benchmark for ownership claims. Every inch of coastline is being claimed, every mountain and stream called an ancestor. This is simply a rort of the highest order. However, I blame the New Zealand voters, not the politicians. New Zealand voters seem to have a poor grasp of our history and are being manipulated by those in power.
How long before public access to Mt Taranaki is barred as it has been for Uluru in Australia? But wait, that would be denying the Taranaki Maunga Collective their right to extract koha from citizens exercising their right to enjoy a National Park. I'm sure it must be in the Treaty somewhere. I wonder what level of admission fee will mysteriously overcome the cultural objections to having tourists walk on their revered ancestor's head. By the way, I see the Bill makes nine references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, despite the coalition Government's current moves to remove all such references from the New Zealand Statute Book (Peters' bill that is).. Are we about to see the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Amendment Bill remedy that problem. Because Luxon is steadfast there are no principles, and you can't define something that doesn't exist can you? Or does the Collective have some secret knowledge of how the principles are defined that has escaped Luxon, or for that matter David Seymour. Perhaps we should ask Debbie Ngarewa-Packer in her capacity as chief executive of Ngati Ruanui, one of the members of the Collective. She generally has a lot to say on the matter.
And what of Mr/Mrs/They/It Egmont/Taranaki - do 'they' not get a say in what is done to, or on, theyself? What an absolute insult! Eight unelected guardians and not so much as a by your leave? And this from a cohort (well at least four of them) that almost invariably demands consultation. It's enough to blow one's top over!
Wouldn't it be justice if the 'eight' got to enjoy They/It's wrath first hand? After all, They/It has been here many times longer than all of them and their ancestors collectively and, in their tradition of that which came first, the first right to self-determination and governance must lie with They/It and certainly not with these eight blow-ins.
It's fundamentally disrespectful to Maori to say, 'Yeah, whatever.'
It is not respectful to a majestic, towering mountain to ascribe human attributes to it.. But it is not blinkin' respectful to the citizen to pay for 8 useless w....rs to administer it.
Pure tribaloney.
Kevan
The newly appointed Appeals Court judge, Christian Whata, is working on " a bijural system of law" which blends Tikanga and Common Law. This would become the official system of law in Aotearoa NZ.
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