Insights From Social Media: We will all drown eventually?

Gravedodger writes: Not from the predictable if somewhat erratic tropical storms that today again threaten the North but from the torrent of inanity that surrounds Co Governance and Partnerships in current political thinking.

Maori are no more indigenous than my forbears who arrived by sea following the signing of the pacification document often referred to as “The Treaty” as if it is the one sole such document ever signed by a current authority here in New Zealand.

Pee Kay: This is a social and financial fraud of massive proportions…

It was no surprise to see the “usual suspects” swiftly turn to their harmonised friends in the MSM to condemn the coalition governments, 2025 announced, review of the Waitangi Tribunal.

“This review is not about efficiency or clarity, it is about control.”

“For nearly 50 years, the Waitangi Tribunal has played a vital role in advancing justice for Māori.”

Bruce Pardy: Legal rights should not depend on lineage - Indigenous or otherwise

A judge of the British Columbia Supreme Court recently found that the Cowichan First Nation holds Aboriginal title over 800 acres of government land in Richmond, B.C. But that’s not all. Wherever Aboriginal title is found to exist, said the court, it is a “prior and senior right” to fee simple title, whether public or private. That means it trumps the property you have in your house, farm or factory.

Geoff Parker: John Key's short-term, wheeling dealing perspective

Former National Party leader Sir John Key, as reported in the NZ Herald, has urged a more measured approach to race issues. He emphasized the importance of careful handling, saying, "You should always treat race issues carefully because in the end, we all want to live in a harmonious society, and Māori are the indigenous population of New Zealand and Treaty partners. So you have to treat them with respect and carefully, I think."

However, considering the race-based policies implemented during the last National Government, many feel Key is out of line in calling on the current government to "take the temperature down a wee bit" in the debate around race issues.

Lushington D. Brady: Peters Tells the Harsh Truth

Time to drop the “indigenous” myth

Winston Peters has truly thrown the cat among the pigeons by challenging the foundational myth of “Aotearoa-New Zealand”: magic Maoridom and “indigeneity”.

Peter Williams: Winston hits the spot - again

If he says he's not indigenous how can we disagree with him?

Winston Peters just won himself at least a couple more percentage points in the election race after his speech in Nelson yesterday. The ultimate politician was prepared to say out loud what thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands have been saying - or at least thinking - for fifty years. Māori are not indigenous.

He is, by the traditional definition of the word, absolutely correct. Indigenous comes from the Latin word indigena, which means a local, native or aboriginal inhabitant.

Lushington D. Brady: Thanks for Showing Us What a ‘Voice’ Will Be Like

Nepotism, abuse and troughing all the way

When Lidia Thorpe went on a raging, racist rampage of abuse outside a Melbourne strip joint, some commented that it was a preview of what the “Voice” in action would look like. They were more right than they knew.

Point of Order: McAnulty mentions the important role played by indigenous people in emergency response and recovery

Some ministers commemorated historical events in the latest press statements from the Beehive while others pointed to New Zealand’s role in the space age and to technological developments around the digital economy and data storage in the cloud.

Three statements were related to events in the past – a speech by the PM to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship between New Zealand and Samoa, an expression of condolence after the death of the last-surviving Battle for Crete veteran, and the commemoration of the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima 77 years ago.

Jerry A Coyne: More from New Zealand, a nation whose science is circling the drain

I’ve written a lot about New Zealand lately, in particular the schools’ and government’s attempt to force the teaching of “indigenous ways of knowing” (mātauranga Māori) into the science classroom as a system coequal in value with modern science. That means not only equal classroom time, but equal respect, treating indigenous ways of knowing as complementary if not identical to “scientific truth”. 

Note that I’m not dismissing the value of mātauranga Māori (henceforth “MM”) in some spheres, even science. For MM contains “practical knowledge”, like how to catch eels, that could conceivably be inserted into science courses. 

And of course MM is the worldview of the indigenous people, and thus an important part of the history and tradition of New Zealand. It thus deserves to be taught in anthropology or sociology classes. But the science within MM is precious little compared with the larger titer of myth, legend, superstition, theology, and morality that are essential to MM.