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We've got a new Government here in New Zealand as well, q. Or at least we had an election last month and the pollies are still trying to decide who's going to run the show. Funnily enough, things seem to be ticking over quite nicely with a caretaker Government not making any decisions.
The interesting point is that the party which holds the balance of power - whether it goes right or left - is the New Zealand First party. Nobody seems to be able to decide whether they are conservatives or liberals. They campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket that the other parties called racist, and won all the Maori seats. So we have an ethnic roots party that got a fair chunk of the neo-Fascist vote (such as it is). Isn't politics confusing?
The only thing the major (National and Labour) parties agreed on before the election was that Winston Peters was the most obnoxious and dangerous politician New Zealand had ever seen. Now they're trying to outdo each other in saying they didn't really mean it.
Winston is a Maori who has said in plain terms that Maoris shouldn't expect handouts - that they are entirely capable and should be allowed to compete on equal terms with everyone else. And it seems a majority of the Maori agree with him. The concept is not new in Maoridom. Maori leaders encouraged the British to settle here - some wanted guns, some wanted peace and "civilisation". Some (probably a majority) helped the British defeat the "rebel" Maori who didn't want the settlers here. A common theme throughout our short history of settlement has been one of Maori leaders calling on their people to accept the advances of European culture even at the expense of losing their own. Equally notable has been the continued attempt of a relatively enlightened Government to preserve Maori rights and heritage.
There were and still are injustices, of course. Maori were cheated out of land by white speculators, we brought diseases with us that killed many, we didn't put a high enough value on many Maori traditions, or learn enough from them about living in harmony with the environment. Our forebears often assumed that Victorian christianity was the only religion worth considering. They were benign conquistadors, though.
We now have a situation, like most of you I think, where some Maori are doing very well in a "white" society and are happy about it; some are doing badly and want to blame the Pakeha (white settlers) for it; some Pakeha want us to admit guilt for every imagined injustice to the "noble savages" and put the Maori on some sort of pedestal; others say it was all in the past, let bygones be bygones and we'll hang onto all the things we stole off the Maori, anyway.
The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle of all those contradictions. As Heraclitus is credited with saying:
"The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ comes the fairest attunement; all things are born through strife."
I don't think we're doing badly, but we're still a long way from wherever it is we're headed.
Kia whakapainga te Karaiti e tuitui nei i a tatou i roto i te rongomau.
the Gripper
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