The title of this post just popped into my mind as I opened the blog post editor. I flipped over to Google to check the basics of the Split Enz album of that name and discovered it was even more appropriate than I first thought. Here are some of the tracks from the 1982 album:
Dirty Creature, Never Ceases To Amaze Me, Small World, Six Months In A Leaky Boat, Make Sense Of It.
Apart from the fact that two of those songs are favourites of mine, these titles all fit with my train of thought on the subject of the land history of New Zealand. I’ve had many of these thoughts for quite some time but the prompt to publish came from veteran media attention-getter Hone Harawira. An excerpt from this Stuff article sets the scene nicely.
Prime Minister John Key has labelled MP Hone Harawira’s email on white people “deeply offensive” and he wants action from coalition partner the Maori Party.
“Hone Harawira has made a statement that is deeply offensive to a lot of New Zealanders.”
The MP was already in trouble. This morning his party co-leader Tariana Turia expressed concerns his unscheduled side trip to Paris during a taxpayer funded work trip last month would damage the party’s reputation.
Mr Harawira skipped a meeting in Brussels so he and his wife Hilda could spend a day in Paris. He paid for the extra travel himself.
Buddy Mikaere of Buddy Mikaere and Associates wrote an email to Mr Harawira complaining about his actions.
“… you’re no better than that w***er Rodney Hide and the white mofos you complain about,” Mr Mikaere wrote, referring to Mr Hide’s actions in taking his partner on an overseas ministerial trip despite the Prime Minister John Key’s direction against the practice.
“And get off you moral high horse while you’re at it – nobody forced you to be an MP.”
Mr Harawira wrote back starting his email; “Gee Buddy, do you believe that white man bullshit too do you?
“White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit.”
Mr Harawira then went on to say how much time and energy he put into fighting for Maori and what a big role his wife Hilda played in that.
“And quite frankly I don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?”
It’s a wonderful piece of prose from Mr. Harawira, but the statement that sticks out for me is
“White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit.”
The Maori people are often considered the ‘original’ inhabitants of these lands and it is beyond doubt that their race did indeed signicantly pre-date any pakeha (the Maori word for ‘white man’) settlement. On this basis, successive recent governments have begun and continue a programme of ‘reparations’ for the wrongs that pakeha have inflicted upon Maori since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The premise is that the pakeha, after signing an agreement with the Maori, renegged on that agreement in many ways and basically took advantage. Much land was taken outright, or unfairly. This is all true. I doubt you’d find anyone to disagree that some of the pakeha of the day (including many of high standing) were basically fraudsters and criminals with respect to their treatment of Maori and Maori lands. On this basis, considerable amounts of money and nautral resources have been returned to the tribes of today. This process is still ongoing. These are substantial settlements.
Here’s the rub. Less than 10 minutes’ drive from my house you will find Te Rauparaha Park. Go a little further and you will come across Ngati Toa Domain. Te Rauparaha was a great Maori chief of the Nagti Toa tribe, known for his cunning and savagery in war. Yes, war. You see, Te Rauparaha’s ancestral lands are in the Waikato region of New Zealand. It was because of constant scuffles between his Ngati Toa and the neighbouring Waikato tribes that Te Rauparaha headed south and took over by force much land from Rangatikei in the lower-middle North Island across Cook Straight to the upper South Island too. That’s an awful lot of land Te Rauparaha basically stole by acts of war.
In summary, it appears that two key points can be taken from the existence and actions of the Waitangi Tribunal (which decides the settlements):
1) Today’s government of New Zealand – freely elected by the whole population and containing special provision for Maori people over and above that afforded the whole population – is by association a direct descendant of the pakeha-only government in force during the actions that are being redressed.
2) If you want to take land from another, do it by force and there will be no comebacks.
Furthermore, if the Maori culture is in danger of being lost then I am wholeheartedly behind the use of public resources to bolster its use and significance in our society. It is a piece of our country, our history, our future and should not under any circumstances be allowed to fade.
If the Maori people wish to claim that they are disadvantaged in today’s New Zealand society and therefore deserve special attention and assistance because they are Maori then I say go and invade another land, as you did once before, and do what you will there. Societies evolve. My father was born in this country but his society was very different to that which my children are experiencing. Nobody has invaded in the intervening time. Time moves on. Many things change. We all arrived in boats.
A final point. Hone claimed pakeha were raping the land for centuries. Well it seems they carried on a tradition started by the Maori – who can claim the world’s fastest known extinction of an entire fauna (14 species) of large animals. Both the giant Moa family and their only predator, Haast’s Eagle were hunted to extinction by Maori in record time.
“Quote”
On this basis, considerable amounts of money and nautral resources have been returned to the tribes of today. This process is still ongoing. These are substantial settlements. “Unquote”
The value of settlements is 1/10th of current land and asset value. Call this substantial???
“Quote”
If the Maori people wish to claim that they are disadvantaged in today’s New Zealand society and therefore deserve special attention and assistance because they are Maori then I say go and invade another land, as you did once before, and do what you will there.”Unquote”
Where were these claims given? or was this via media channels etc. Don’t believe everything you read or hear. Do your research properly – which means, don’t cut and paste from others work and get out and attempt to find the truth. Polynesians were visiting Aotearoa and other areas well before the so called final settlement. From my sources at least a dozen times and invasion was what was then termed the fight for your original claim on land.
Now extinction: These birds were a food source. Please read the following for the real process of extinction.
“The British showed them no mercy. Thousands were killed. Successive wars against the British in the New Zealand reduced their population from about 100,000 to 35,000 by 1900. This is just one example of the methods by which Britain increased their empire in the period 1750 to 1900.” This makes no mention of the mortality rates by disease.
Please do your research and don’t over generalize as you are only showing your ignorance.
Yes, I call $952,082,645 (so far) significant. Land value is a highly subjective measure. I never said it was too much or not enough. I said it was significant. In what society circles is this believed to be an insignificant amount of money to be allocated to 1/6th of the population based purely on race? If you want to give a billion dollars to people who need it, then go ahead. No such means testing was done for this money.
Yes, the media. Of course the media. I know they make a pig’s breakfast of just about any topic they’re given, but it’s pretty hard for them to make completely baseless claims about politicians without those politicians having their say! Various politicians over the years have demanded Maori representation. The Auckland Super City was the latest one I recall. Once again, this is purely on race. As far as I know, no official post in New Zealand is off limits to any citizen of this nation, regardless of race.
Perhaps I was wrong about the extinction of the Moa. Your cut-and-paste is probably correct. But I do believe the Maori played a significant part in its demise. Where, for example, is the pakeha account of seeing Haast’s Eagle? I also realise that the arrival of the pakeha had a devastating effect on the fauna of New Zealand. Probably the pakeha effect was greater in a short period than the Maori effect over all their years of occupation. But for Hone to accuse pakeha of “raping the land” is over the top. Those are strong words and his people are not absolved of all blame either. That was my point. “Humans” have raped the land. Nearly all races have done it.
I note you have not refuted my key points that the whole Waitangi settlement process completely ignores inter-tribal conflict and that all New Zealanders, including Maori, are currently paying for the Treaty. The process merely recognises the state of affairs at the time of the treaty and assumes public money is equivalent to ‘pakeha’s ill-gotten gains’. My contention is that had the pakeha simply taken all the lands by force we would not have distributed a billion dollars on the basis of race.
Finally, my blog is a work of opinion. It represents my view of the world. I am perfectly happy to be wrong, but on historical subjects it is almost impossible to be certain unless you were there.
Land and real estate value in not subjective to land and real estate agents when selling. I agree Hone’s sentiments are and always will be wrong when comments like this are brought into the public eye and he should be disciplined. As for the The treaty process, we all acknowledge regardless of race that this needs to be finalized and all move on but there are parties who have a financial interest for this to be prolonged, mainly large legal firms and consultancies. For some this is an industry called “the gravy train”. Now marry this up with Iwi and Hapu boundary and historic ownership (not inter tribal conflict), equals time, expense and frustration for us all.
I’m seeing a solution here. Make the lawyers pay the settlements.