Paul Moon on 'Article 4' of the Treaty of Waitangi

Michael Laws discusses 'Article 4' of the Treaty of Waitangi with Paul Moon on the Platform

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Mike Butler: Ngapuhi report reason to can tribunal

A report by the Waitangi Tribunal that argues Ngapuhi chiefs did not agree to cede sovereignty is deeply flawed and provides further evidence that the tribunal should be abolished.

The report that was released on Friday, He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti The Declaration and the Treaty: The Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry, is the first stage of the tribunal's inquiry into Far North treaty claims and looks at events before 1840. (1)

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin, a descendent of chief Hone Heke who was the first to sign the treaty, said that the tribunal's emphasis on the Declaration of Independence, which a few had signed in 1835, as being the basis of their relationship with the British, is a lie and that is not what the tribunal was told. (2)

Mike Butler: Maori TV shows anti-white bias

Bias is prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair. Maori TV showed anti-white bias as it launched an attack on jailed Northland farmer Allan Titford and supporters on Monday night, failing to treat the subject fairly and accurately as required.

What lies beneath revisited the Te Roroa claim at Maunganui Bluff north of Dargaville, Titford’s battle with claimants, his conviction for allegedly burning his home, and included interviews with claimant Alex Nathan, Maori rights academic Ranginui Walker, activist/unionist Justin Taua, treatyism critic John Ansell, pre-Maori New Zealand researcher Martin Doutre, treatyist academic Paul Moon, and old footage of former MPs Muriel Newman and Ross Meurant.

Mike Butler: Moon twists Urewera history again

Historian Paul Moon’s claims on TV3’s Third Degree show on Wednesday and in his New Zealand Herald column “The past must be remembered for us all” on Friday, that Tuhoe underwent “ethnic cleansing”, fails to remember key facts of our history. When questioned by Guyon Espiner for the Third Degree current affairs show about Tuhoe history, Moon said:

Mike Butler: Dried heads were not sacred

Glad to see that historian Paul Moon is pricking the balloon of sanctimony that surrounds the repatriation of preserved Maori heads, known as “toi moko”. ONE News reported that Moon “uncovered new evidence” which shows the trade in preserved Maori heads was little more than a profitable industry for 18th and 19th century Maori. "One captain for example pointed out he could order a head on demand, turn up at a community, they would find someone, kill a person ... and sell it to them," Moon said.

Moon would have had to claim new evidence to get historically challenged mainstream media reporters to show any interest in the story. Anybody familiar with New Zealand’s brief history would know that preserved Maori heads quickly became a valuable item of trade as 19th century European ethnographers revelled in the discovery of the real live Stone Age Maori culture, and were keen to acquire specimens.