Idyllic Cannibalism

Harawira's Revisionist History: It's All Your Fault

New Zealand Maori, we are told, have lots of problems.  One that doesn't get much mention is Maori have too many Hone Harawira's--folk that think like Hone.  And they have far too much influence in our humble opinion.

Hone has published an indignant tirade in the NZ Herald, calling out a correspondent who opined that he had found the whole Waitangi Day ritual protest by Hone and his bus load of Occupy mates an anachronism.  Hone's response is to justify such public protest over Maori grievance because, well, the grievance is justified. 

Now, of course, Hone's view of New Zealand history is superficial, one-eyed and prejudiced.
  His basic point, reduced to its kernel is that Maori were living as an idyllic people in Paradise until whitey came and ruined their lives.  Glossed over is the terrible state of Maori tribal life in this country prior to the European settlement.  Ignored is the cannibalism, the slavery, the literal farming of people to eat.  Silent is Hone on the Maori warring season when war parties went out on conquest, or utu, or just to get some "decent kai" for the "long oven".  Overlooked is the ecological devastation wrought on bird life as species like the majestic moa were hunted to extinction.  Neglected a mention is the ever present risk of starvation in the winter months because of  the primitive state of Maori agriculture. 

Hone lives in a reconstructed cocoon of Maori history.  In his calculus, pre-European Maori lived in a blissful state of Edenic, pre-lapsarian glory.  Maori children played outside the stoop of their whares in the warmth of a happy, cheerful cannibalistic society.  They were "treasured" and loved.  And, Maori women--well, they were adored, respected, cherished.  Never harmed.  Not until European grog arrived, and then all hell broke loose.

What an idyllic picture.  What a farce.  But that's Hone's view.  And as they say in politics, never let the facts or reality get in the way of a good story.  Particularly about the past. Consider his panegyric of Maori society and the evil devastation of whitey:

You see Mr Holmes, back in 1840, Maori owned the whole of Aotearoa, and although life wasn't exactly a bunch of roses, we had strong and vibrant societies dotted all round the country, until you guys introduced the gun, the Bible and the pox of course, and wreaked havoc and devastation like we'd never seen before.

It is true of course that as soon as Maori tribes got the musket, Maori internecine warfare got a whole lot more deadly, but of course there is no moral interdiction against Maori blood lust ventured by Hone.

Hone is wont to blame all current Maori problems on the coming of the Pakeha and the alleged devastation wrought upon his people.  Particularly annoying to him is his view that the Pakeha "stole" all Maori land--since Maori "owned" the whole country.  What Hone's deceptive anachronism conveniently overlooks is that there were no titles to land in primitive Maori society, no bills of sale, no ownership.  Just a right of possession.  And sometimes Maori were dispossessed--but by rights of their own culture--which Hone almost worships--when they lost possession, they lost it.  Period.  Gone.  No comeback.  Only utu--and if that failed.  Too bad.  So Maori dispossessed the Moriori, to the point of extinction as a people, practising a form of genocide.  And that's OK, because possession was ownership. 

To introduce a Christian notion of legal title and claim that Maori ownership by de facto possession did in fact represent legal title to the land is an anachronistic fiction.  Under such a primitive concept the Pakeha could not steal land from the Maori any more than Maori stole it from the Moriori.  Stealing has no meaning when one does not have legal title.  So Hone stands upon the legal principle and common law rights and presumes that such rights were enjoyed by Maori before Maori was not under the sovereignty of the British crown.  One of the driving intentions behind the Treaty of Waitangi was to bring them under the Crown's sovereignty so as to bring Maori under the protection of British law, including, for the first time, the protections and privileges of property title and ownership. 

The signing of the Treaty meant that Maori had legal rights, including the right to property, as subjects of the Crown.  This was a double edged sword: they could sell off their land if they chose freely to do so, and many did.  But once sold, it was lost to future generations--and it is this which folk like Hone resent and refuse to accept.

Granted the Crown acted as a imperialistic overlord at times, confiscating land without due cause--and so genuine Treaty grievances and restitution have an important and necessary place in our society.   

But the most revealing of all of Hone's claims--and one that few will contest--comes when he stops pontificating about a mythical past and deals with the present.

Maori are also part of the broader fabric of our society. But did you know Mr Holmes, that in terms of health, welfare, education, employment, housing and justice, Maori statistics are still worse than everyone else in the country?

And your point, sir?  The unspoken point seems to be that loss of property has caused this modern Maori degradation.  This is laughable.  How many people have come to this country with not a bean in their pocket and through hard work, thrift, diligence and application have made a living for themselves?  Thousands upon thousands.  Why not Maori?  Is it a racial or ethnic inadequacy?  Are Maori somehow genetically inferior? 

Of course not.  That is an absurd notion.  Two things have devastated Maori: the first is a false and degrading doctrine of victimhood:  "I am inferior in just about every social metric because whitey ripped me off."  This is Hone's axe and he grinds it without ceasing.  He is consequently complicit in the devastation of his own people.  The more such degraded Maori believe themselves to be victims and look to external causes rather than their own duties and responsibilities as human beings, the more the devastation will grow. 

The second cause of Maori degradation is the social welfare system which had exacerbated ten times over the sense of Maori grievance and the belief that they are owed something by someone else.  Now this is not peculiar to Maori: it is the common mien of socialists the world over.  But it is been particularly devastating amongst degraded Maori because it has been able to link up with the sense of Maori grievance peddled by Hone and his ilk. 

Because New Zealand society as a whole believes in entitlements and payments which "others" have to provide it's rather hard for our culture to develop a compelling argument against the Maori sense of grievance.  But for those who get sucked into the entitlement rights mentality, whatever their ethnic characteristics, the future of current degraded Maori awaits them.