The Polynesian link
Many Māori people today pride themselves on having a connection to the immigrants who came to New Zealand many centuries ago, from different parts of the Pacific.
Some of these folks are one eighth, one sixteenth, one thirty-second Māori, but this ethnic link seems to be paramount for many of them. (It is equivalent to someone calling themselves French, on the basis of a great-great grandmother born in Toulouse.)
She looks European but there are big privileges
attached to claiming a Maori bloodline.
Today to be Māori, whatever the amount of Polynesian blood, can be the gateway to rewards, riches and reputation. Some iwi leaders are far more Irish, English and Scottish than Polynesian, however it is the Pacific connection that has allowed them to become very wealthy, especially those administering Māori trusts and businesses which have often been set up using settlement money determined by the Waitangi Tribunal on the basis of grievances, and paid for by the taxpayer.
Meanwhile at the other end of the social continuum, far more numerous lower class part-Maori, struggle to get adequate housing, employment, health care and education.
Much difference?
Today to be Māori, whatever the amount of Polynesian blood, can be the gateway to rewards, riches and reputation. Some iwi leaders are far more Irish, English and Scottish than Polynesian, however it is the Pacific connection that has allowed them to become very wealthy, especially those administering Māori trusts and businesses which have often been set up using settlement money determined by the Waitangi Tribunal on the basis of grievances, and paid for by the taxpayer.
Meanwhile at the other end of the social continuum, far more numerous lower class part-Maori, struggle to get adequate housing, employment, health care and education.
Much difference?
Māori women were the focus due to their high smoking rate: 32.5 per cent, compared with the country’s total rate of 13.8 per cent. –Stuff, 6 May 2019
Does this comparison actually mean anything useful? Picture a Wellington flat which Jenny and Hanna share. They are both smokers and their respective parents were born in New Zealand. Jenny has forebears from England, Scotland and Dalmatia, and Hanna has ancestors from Wales, Ireland and the United States, but also has a Māori great, great grandfather.
In smoking rate statistics Hanna would feature in the Maori category, but not Jenny. Does that make sense?
All people who categorize themselves as Maori are actually descended principally from colonist and settler fore bears. So when we read or hear of Maori having far worse educational qualifications, housing, life expectancy, health etc… does that really mean anything useful?
Democratic representation?
In October the nation’s voters will be electing people to represent them in local authorities.
Surely all the candidates should be elected, as this is the democratic way. We are all New Zealanders, immigrants or descended from immigrants, and belonging to a particular ethnicity should not entitle an elite group of people to be elected for councils by voters of a particular ethnicity, rather than by all voters.
Equality and fairness are principles we should value above all else in society. Wherever we have come from and whatever our mix of ancestors, we should all be treated the same and no particular group should have special privileges.
Time to end so-called ethnic population categories
John Robinson has observed in many articles on WW that New Zealand has an apartheid system. It is less extreme than the original apartheid policies in South Africa after 1948, but there are many similarities between the two countries. Whereas in the South African Republic the minority Whites were the dominant group, in New Zealand Māori have the superiority and special rights.
A key piece of legislation which under-pinned the apartheid system in South Africa was the Population Registration Act which categorized people by race/ethnicity. (Ironically if any Maori had been in the Republic at the time, they would have been classified as Coloureds.) All subsequent apartheid Acts were based on the racial classifications – e.g. A Native …is in fact or is generally accepted as a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa.
Isn’t it time we dropped our “population registration” and as former Health Minister Shane Reti said in 2022, we should treat people on the basis of need not ethnicity. The categorisation of people is in fact meaningless especially as Maori are descended principally from settlers and colonists.
In the past I have been annoyed by organisations who have classify me as New Zealand-European. I have no known European ancestors and am simply a New Zealander or Kiwi, like every other citizen of the country.
Roger Childs is a writer and freelance journalist. He is a former history and geography teacher, who wrote or co-authored 10 school textbooks. This article was first published HERE
11 comments:
I decided a while back that every time I have a form thrust at me (like the ones from the Health Dept) that I shall answer the ethnicity question with the word "HUMAN".
Using the "Maori style self identification" I can claim to be German.
My grandfather was German.
Exactly, anon.
I will enter Human Race on any such forms. !!!
>"Today the vast majority of those involved in research on human variation would agree that biological races do not exist among humans…"
Oh, that's why I can never tell the difference between a Negro and an Eskimo.
Of course race is real - but I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a one-sixtyfourth Negro and a one-sixtyfourth Eskimo.
The issue here isn't race per se but assigning people of mixed extraction to racial categories, especially where the category chosen represents only a fraction of that person's racial heritage.
Without identification we would not be driven to constantly drive down education standards, go soft on crime, and much else to not clearly show up maori deficiencies.
Just as traditional economic Marxism was refuted by the counter-example of the middle class who both work for salary and hold capital, the cultural Marxists can be defeated by the counter-example of the mixed race person. Thus "race" can be reduced to self identification and/or recognition by an authority. And the later is the definition of privilege and inequality.
I call my self a Pacific Islander, even though I am 100% genetically European, as I have lived a lifetime on Pacific Islands named New Zealand.
It's absurd that having a 64th, 128th, 512th etc of Maori blood qualifies you for extraordinary benefits.
Another reason why NZ has become a global joke.
But if we stopped that, how would the likes of Tuku afford his $90 silk underpants, JT his $5m waterfront pad, or Tipene to amass his multi-million dollar empire. These (and others) deserve our largesse and apologies, for they have been oppressed - the stats (puportedly) prove it.
The underpants need to be inflation adjusted; otherwise losing clout. He must often rue the day, but one of few maori I can distinguish.. Unfortunately probably drives utu motivation.
As whalers were active in the 1820s and the locals in the SI well disposed, the 1 in 512 fraction is not far fetched. The wariness of many non maori blokes of pro maori obsessed, or likely to become, females will help contain the spread.
Excellent commentary. I work in healthcare and we are constantly bombarded with ethnic statistics, the purpose of which is to illustrate that we are part of a racist health system. The real question is, do health (or other) outcomes arise from genetic predisposition? And if not then why are we comparing statistics based on ethnicity?
As David Seymour says, it’s just laziness, an easy variable to record.
I have several ethnically Maori patients who are fed up with being told they are more at risk of this or that, they are very health conscious and make sensible lifestyle choices, so why are they being labelled?
People are people, some are lucky and some aren’t, some make conscious choices to try to improve themselves and some don’t. We just need to do what we can to help anyone that wants to improve their chances in life’s lottery.
Classic Kiwi mistake. The classification Mr Childs refers to is very probably referring to race. It seems that he,- like many other Kiwis does not know the difference between 'race' and 'nationality'. He is European by race and New Zealander by nationality. I sometimes wonder if this denial of heritage has some explanation for why white New Zealanders do not stand up for "their people" allowing others to ger their own way.
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