John Robinson

Price: NZD $20.00
Size: A4
Type: Soft Cover
Pages: 120

In the years following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, British forces brought an end to savage warfare, intertribal killing, torture, slavery and cannibalism, and imposed peace. Early Governors faced an immediate challenge – the prime responsibility of any human to another – which was to stop needless killing. Yet that magnificent achievement has been used – indeed abused – as a basis for grievance, and now for payments to descendants of the killers.

The Treaty, and its many modern variants, was transitional and contradictory. The most important statement, of equality in the new nation, has provided a foundation for steady advancement. Yet now many Maori call for separation and different laws, institutions and rights based on ethnicity and the accident of birth.

National culture continually evolves and changes, bringing equality for women (still not accepted on some Maori marae) and gay men. Ours has deep roots. Yet the many struggles that established a society of freedom, equality and democracy are all too often forgotten. Modern secular society means that each person can hold to their religion without persecution or the need to join in someone else’s alien ceremony. Yet Maori superstition is now included in many public institutions, even as a part of science.

Words change their meaning. Culture, tikanga, changes with time as well as differing between tribes. Wahi tapu is said to refer to a few artefacts but is then called upon to justify control of the whole Kaipara Harbour. Tangata whenua once was established by living in a place so that after just ten years in Wellington Te Atiawa could claim ownership and the right to sell that land. Now those who have lived their whole lives in a place, even for several generations, both Maori and non-Maori, are refused that status which is claimed by descendants of the temporary residents of 1840, no matter where they now live.

The focus is no longer on a search for the truth. History is reinterpreted and reinvented to suit political aims.

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