Welcome to New Zealand, where “tradition” is less about preserving the past and more about rewriting it on the fly with taxpayers footing the bill. Only in Māori culture can something be both a “revival” and a brand-new invention, all while being enforced as if it were chiselled in stone since time began. Point this out and you’re instantly branded a cultural heretic. Because nothing screams “authentic” like rituals cooked up in a committee room sometime around 1987.
