It is striking how often the loudest voices in New Zealand’s race debate come from those who have the faintest connection to being Māori. The same individuals who enjoy cushy jobs and generous salaries often exploit a sliver of Māori ancestry to advance themselves, however they spend their days decrying colonisation as if it were the worst thing ever to happen to this country.
Without colonisation, most Māori would not be where they are today. Warm homes, hospitals, schools, universities, and entire welfare systems that provide accommodation and benefits are all products of colonisation. Two centuries ago, Māori lived in basic huts, relied on woven flax blankets for warmth, and kept the fire burning through winter. Today, the taxpayer funds housing and healthcare for thousands of Māori families. Colonisation made that possible.
It also brought law and order. Intertribal wars and cannibalism were stamped out. Livestock and agriculture expanded food options beyond birds, seafood, and other humans. Colonisation brought technology, medicine, and stability that Māori had never known. Life expectancy rose, infant survival improved, and an entire framework of health care was created.
Even te reo, celebrated as a cornerstone of Māori identity, owes its written form to colonisation. Missionaries and people like Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with chiefs like Hongi Hika to record the language in writing, ensuring it could be preserved, taught, and passed on. The very tools used to defend “Māori culture” today came from colonial influence.
Before colonisation, “education” meant learning survival skills - how to hunt, fish, build a waka, carve a kauri trunk or start a fire. It was not education in any modern sense. Colonisation created schools and universities that ensure every New Zealand child can learn reading, writing, mathematics, and science. That is the foundation of opportunity in this country.
Those who often have the least Māori blood are the ones shouting the loudest, painting every white New Zealander as a “coloniser” with dripping contempt. They embarrass themselves by conveniently forgetting that their voices, their platforms, and their comfortable lives are all made possible by the very colonisation they despise.
Colonisation in New Zealand was not oppression. It was liberation. It ended tribal warfare, brought medicine, built homes, and safeguarded species from extinction. It provided education, law, order, and health systems. It gave Māori the tools to thrive in a modern world.
Colonisation was liberation. That is the truth.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
It also brought law and order. Intertribal wars and cannibalism were stamped out. Livestock and agriculture expanded food options beyond birds, seafood, and other humans. Colonisation brought technology, medicine, and stability that Māori had never known. Life expectancy rose, infant survival improved, and an entire framework of health care was created.
Even te reo, celebrated as a cornerstone of Māori identity, owes its written form to colonisation. Missionaries and people like Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with chiefs like Hongi Hika to record the language in writing, ensuring it could be preserved, taught, and passed on. The very tools used to defend “Māori culture” today came from colonial influence.
Before colonisation, “education” meant learning survival skills - how to hunt, fish, build a waka, carve a kauri trunk or start a fire. It was not education in any modern sense. Colonisation created schools and universities that ensure every New Zealand child can learn reading, writing, mathematics, and science. That is the foundation of opportunity in this country.
Those who often have the least Māori blood are the ones shouting the loudest, painting every white New Zealander as a “coloniser” with dripping contempt. They embarrass themselves by conveniently forgetting that their voices, their platforms, and their comfortable lives are all made possible by the very colonisation they despise.
Colonisation in New Zealand was not oppression. It was liberation. It ended tribal warfare, brought medicine, built homes, and safeguarded species from extinction. It provided education, law, order, and health systems. It gave Māori the tools to thrive in a modern world.
Colonisation was liberation. That is the truth.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
This is the very uncomfortable truth that underpins the NZ disaster currently unfolding.
This should be introduced into the school's history curriculum
The term "Colonisation" and it's meaning has slowly been corrupted to imply there was only inherent evil.
And for many European countries through the centuries who also colonized parts of the globe there certainly was evil done against indigenous people.
The British did not want to repeat that in NZ so offered sovereignty to the micro nations of tribal groups that became known collectively as Māori.
But this basic fact has also tried to be denied, and our history corrupted. So please continue with your truthful insights for the sake of all NZ.
NZ was fortunate to have been 'colonised' by the British. Think what might have happened if other 'colonisers' pre dated them. I'd suggest that the Maori race (however you define that) may well have not existed at all today.
None of today's Maori would be here without colonisation (yes that goes for you too Maiki) as there are no full-blooded Maori. Even the radicals are a product of, and benefited from, the greatest evolutionary device of cross-fertilisation.
Anyone who has even a smidgen of blood other than 100% Maori would not only be suffering lesser comforts! Without colonisation and its threads through their very DNA, they simply would not exist at all. How foolish then is it to have here tens of thousands of 'jobs' for which only so-called Maori (currently) qualify, but literally no jobs for which one has to be (say) a white person to qualify? The steep rise in recent years of Maori comprising 12% of NZ population to now 17% is because it seems fashionable to be Maori. As with all fashions, this seems likely to go out of date rather sooner than later.
The "Blood Quantum" argument for being defined and identified as Maori has become something of a hot kumera with TMP co-leader saying in Parliament there is no such thing. That she was offended by such a suggestion. Well the uncomfortable truth is that most of the "25 %" of NZers who now identify as Maori would not even be here without "colonisation." . Is it a false narrative for someone of say 75% Non Maori heritage and 25 % Maori heritage to totally ignore their main bit and embrace the Maori bit, hence "qualifying" for the privileges of such? Like scholarships and jobs for the whanau?
Bring in the quantum system I say. How else can you determine who is Maori? Self identifying is a no go, Just because I self identify as the Tooth Fairy doesn't make me one
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