Originally Posted by
Banditbandit
OK .. this is a relativerly easy one to deal with too ...
Here I was answering Smoke's question about why there is a high rate of doemtstic violnce. I was attempting, in a very short answer, to get axcross the kind of mindset that some peoppel have - and that leads them to domestic violence.
I would stress that I was not pushing my own mindset. I work in educastion to try to change that mindset and get people moving forwards ...
However - from the other culture here - "those who do not know their history are bodn to repeat it". We rememebr our history - because it informs the present. It makes us who we are today.
The dominant culture has a different view of time and narrative from Māori culture. All our words for the past sound like the future
Mai rāno = the days come again ...
Nga ra o mua - The days in front ...
As we try to frame these concepts in English we get accussed of staying in the past - well yes, our past is us, it is all around us, it is our future as well. THis does not mean that we are stuck in the old ways - of course we move forwards. Te Ao hurihuri ...
Māori had the highest rate of literacy acquisistion in the world ... so much for today's poor educational achievement ...
In 1860 there were something like 60 Māori-owned trading ships working out of New Zealand ... the Waikato was farmed by Māori owners and the goods shipped to Auckland on Maori-owned river barges and sold in Auckland or shipped across the Tasman on Maori-owned ships to be sold in Ozz .. My own tipuna grow wheat, milled it in their own mills, sold the flour to the Pākehā - along with fruit from Māori-owned orchards, loads of firewood gathered from the ngahere ...
Our tipuna jumped into the new capitalist world with both feet ...
Which past do you think we want to return to? The tribal society of pre-contact or the healthy capitalist world of the 1800s?
Did you know that Māori are the single biggest shareholder group in Fonterra? New ZEaland's largest company and Māori are the single biggest shareholder group ... And they didn't get those shares through a treaty claim ... and there are plenty of other business examples ...
Second, the chance to delevop in the modern world was taken from us by the colonization of the 1800 and 1900s .. a huge loss of land meant a huge loss of economic power. At the time, western writers were saying that Colonization was unethical - and the British Colonial office certainly ordered Hobson not to sign a treaty - becauser the British Crown recognised the declaration of Independence - and yet the white people here acted unethically and Hobson ignored his orders ...
Imagine where we would be if we had been allowed to develop as we were already doing ... where woudl Māori be in today's world? But all that was taken by the imigrant Pākehā - and Pākehā have continued to benefit from that ... we see that all the time - every day - is it any wonder some of us are angry ?? And then we get accussed of having "more opportunities" handed to us .. that is such bullshit ... and just rubs in salt ... The Pākehā world took our whole world, and now dribbles a few crumbs from the table and calls it "advantages" ... Isd it any wornder some of us are angry ...
By the mid 21st Centrury the total treaty settlement process had cost this country less than one year's profit from Telecom ... around $700million dollars - Telecom earned more than that the year I saw those statistics ... (I'm not sure what the current comparison is) How come this company gets to make $700million dollars in just one year but the white people begrudge the same amount to Māori ??? The tax alone from this company paid during the years of the treaty process has more than covered the total treaty settlements ...
How much tax do you think the Maori shareholders in Fonterrra pay each year ?? And yet the treaty settlements are begrudingly handed out - and we get accussed of wanting hand outs all the time ...
the white world earns millions each year in this country - but begrudges the small amount paid out in treaty settlements- fuck, the Māori ecomony is worth abiout $36buillion in this country - so that ecomony contributes, (at a rough calculation of 33%) $11billion annually in taxes ... adn yet $1billion in treaty settlements is seen as Maori demanding hand outs all the time ..
And we see the past all around us - you mention Gate Pa .. it sits on the hill and people can see, every day, the reminders of the past ... all of us live on land that was once ours - but unfairly taken by the Pākehā - sure there were legitimate sales .. but also plenty of blood and death - the slaying of our people ... Every year in New Zealand in April we recognise the events of the past - called WARS ... should we forget that past and move forward? WWI was 100 years ago - ancient history - forget it ... (no, seriously we should remember that) But when we remember our past, the Māori past - we are wrong and get told to forget the past ...
Most Pākehā in this country slightly remember the Highland Land clearances, the Irish "troubles" ... but they are not surrounded every day by the pyshical reminders of those events .. nor are they forced, every day, to speak the language of the invaders ... act in ways demanded by the invaders ... Most Pākehā in this country have been cut off from their past by the move to the other side of the world
Scotland sings Flower of Scotland as their anthem .. a reference to William Wallace ... 100s of years in the past - How come Scottish people in Sotland rememebr that past - but Scottish descent people here have forgotten it? So - Scotland is allowed to remember events of the distant past but Māori are not allowed to remember events of less that 200 years ago??
You want us to forget the past and move on ... but the solutions to today's issues lies in recognizing the past and dealing with those issues ... If we do not, then those issues will remain ... South Africa had a brilliant solution - the Truth and Reconciliation Commision process allows that country to move forward ... they did not forget their past - they recognized it and dealt with it ..
About time we did the same thing here ... just a small example, unless we rercognize and deal with the past we will always have angry people who commit domestic violence and child abuse ... and high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse ...
Unless we deal with propoganda from the past that white people still carry and recognise that Māori are not stupid lazy and genetically inclined to crime, we will always have a racist society
Unless we deal with the propoganda that says the white society's way is the best way ... then we will always have systems and processes that discriminate against Māori. Unless we deal with the past we will never move forward in appropriate and productive ways.
Shit - as I go back and edit this I keep aqdding stuff - and my anger increases .. I don't need this shit - I need coffee. Ka mutu tēnei kōreo.
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