a step closer

As we approach Waitangi Day I'm going to put some of my poems up - they relate to this day, they relate to me and they relate to today's world.

at waitangi once,

when Rangatira didn't

say go! wildeyed,

they wanted their land.

the good had gone,

dead, shot, sick or

sobbing. Breath to

breath they looked

at them, and they

walked away hungry.

the white man's island

Some think that racism is not here in this country or that we are somehow better than other countries around this area. But they completely forget about colonisation and the severe, utter destruction it brings to indigenous peoples. The following exchange between a meat selling, rugby league loving Knight of this country Sir Peter Leitch aka The Mad Butcher and a young Māori woman on Waiheke Island illustrate so much that is hidden.

Māori Television

Lara Wharepapa Bridger, 23, says she was at a vineyard on Waiheke Island earlier this week with her mother. Leitch, famously known as The Mad Butcher, approached the group about not drinking and driving.  He doubted that they were locals, which sparked Bridger to tell him she was born on the island. This promoted  Leitch to make the comment – which he describes as light hearted banter but Bridger took as a racist taunt. 

The exchange upset Bridger, who posted an emotional video on Facebook last night to express her emotions."He said specifically to me, 'this is a white man's island, you need to go.

Now leitch is not disputing this - he is calling it light hearted banter. And THAT is where the major problem is in my opinion. Leitch has zero idea of the impact of colonisation upon tangata whenua - the losses of so much including the mana of saying, "this is my land". He does not have a clue - why would he? He did make this statement

In a press statement, Letich says he “apologised unreservedly” when he discovered that Bridger was offended by his comment.“There is no way I can ever be accused of being racist,” he says.

Oh dear apology FAIL leitch - you ARE racist for saying that to a young Māori woman. You believe your own hype - "my partner/wife/friend/teammates/aquaintances/workmates and so on are Māori/Pasific Islanders/Asian/Aborigine and so on - I CANNOT BE RACIST!!! 

and to top it off we have the sight of michelle boag - a horrible National Party ex pres, stalwart saying

But Letich media spokesperson Michelle Boag, says that his comments can’t be racially targeted because Bridger is “barely coffee coloured” referring to her being a light-skinned Māori. She also claims that Bridger has come forward because she wants to be famous.

what a disgusting piece of work boag is - and notice this - this is how racism and colonisation work - they 'other', they use the results of colonisation against you as in skin colour, they use best intentions against you, they use anything and everything against you - why? Because ANY realisation from indigenous peoples of their rights is considered dangerous, is a threat, and ultimately is a source of shame to them because underneath their racism is the knowledge that their ancestors took, that they take and that as they take others lose, sometimes even their cultural identity.

Newsflash racists - we aren't taking that shit no more - we will call you out every, everywhere and on all media. 

a terrible story, retold

The voice of reason is still struggling, so to help out

imo saying one set of atrocities against an indigenous population is better or worse than another set of atrocities against another indigenous population is not the way indigenous communities think about or remember or frame these things. This is a construct designed by colonisers and their descendants to miminise and justify their actions or maybe just to mitigate guilt. Totally understandable and almost subtle because as people do, they can use this to go to a better/worse dichotomy and this leads to the "what are you moaning about" lines. There are many other reasons too, such as the intensely personal side of the lived knowledge of the past.

To then say stuff like, 'tell that to the victims of genocide' shows an extreme defensive mode where attack is the only alternative. The point I make in the first paragraph is pretty basic but only if you listen.

And please don't think for a second that I am unaware of 'intent', 'the end of empire', 'genocide' and 'atrocities'. I am, and each of them was a blot on us all. The suffering that has occurred is immeasurable , almost unknowable, and it is known.  Indigenous communities around the world, even today, face each and every one of the destructive forces aligned against them. That s why indigenous communities should stick together and work together and build new /old ways of thinking for this troubled world.

The measurement of atrocities is more than numbers although the numbers do tell a terrible story, just not the full story. The comparison of what has happened to indigenous communities through colonisation, compares suffering to suffering, not numbers to numbers imo.

Air Colonisation

Air NZ are the biggest bunch of hypocrites and cultural liars around. They have misappropriated the koru for their advertising (to make money) and as their logo yet when a Māori woman applies for a role as an Air hostess and she has ta moko on her lower arm she is told the job interview is over.

NZH

Claire Nathan says she had her dreams of being an air hostess dashed after Air New Zealand turned her away because of her ta moko.

Ms Nathan applied for her dream job in January, but last month, the national flag carrier terminated an interview when she declared the traditional Maori motif on her lower arm.

It really irks me that they keep calling ta moko a tattoo - why can't they get their heads around the difference between getting inked for whatever reason and ta moko depicting cultural pride and a person's whakapapa.

Ms Nathan said she was told tattoos that could not be covered by the uniform were unacceptable.

"I said straight away, 'This is a ta moko.' She [the interviewer] said, 'You can't even cover that up' and that 'we will have to stop this interview.'

Air NZ should be renamed Air Colonisation because they perpetuate the othering and denigration of tangata whenua - but they are only too happy to use rock stars or rugby players covered with tattoos and ta moko, to advertise and make money, when it suits them.

How do you imagine a Māori woman feels after that interview?

"I was totally shocked and just couldn't believe what I was hearing."

 Ms Nathan said she never thought her ta moko - depicting her heritage and her two children - would limit her career choices.

It is so bad that tangata whenua get treated this way and I'd expect susan devoy the Race Relations Commissioner to get involved but she won't. But others will because

The Human Rights Commission says "a person of Maori descent may not be denied employment, entry to premises, or declined service because they wear moko visibly"

Air NZ you are about to find out the meaning of utu for your denigration of  Māori.

paula bayonet

Paula Bennett the Minister of Social Welfare continues her attacks on the disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society. She wants Cabinet to consider “introducing court-ordered sanctions or legislative changes to stop some parents from having more children”. For ‘some parents’ just read ‘Māori’ because that is what she is alluding to. Does she really believe in sterilization of some parents or is it a line to generate outrage. Bennett is letting us all down by ignoring the reasons behind this abuse and murder. Those reason lead to the real solutions and Māori such as Rawiri Taonui articulate them well.

So the judges shall decide who has children and who is not allowed to – we have seen the judgements of some of these judges in recent times – pathetic.

Bennett knows that currently a child at risk is removed from their parents and she admits that, “in the past year, 148 children were removed from a parent within days of being born”. So she is really after the children not being born at all because those 148 children aren’t with their parent/s anymore, so it is not about protecting them, they have been removed.

I agree with Metiria Turei co-leader of the Greens, who says about Bennett that

RadioNZ

“She expressed great enthusiasm for the idea of forced sterilisation and did say that Cabinet had been considering just that option. Now, she has corrected herself - but I'm not so convinced that they haven't considered or won't consider it in the future.”

How bennett became a minister I just don’t get – oh that’s right she reflects our society and its beliefs. Bennett says that it is not about banning people from having children, but instead giving them the message that if they have another child it will be removed from them at birth. This is already done but bennett doesn’t want that to get in the way of the story. Don’t be mistaken it is fiscally based as well as ideologically driven.

Within our society we have people from all ethnicities and backgrounds who abuse and kill their children. The children have to be protected but sterilizing the parents is not the answer, that solution is disgusting. Māori figure highly in the statistics relating to abuse and murder of children. Rawiri Taonui wrote Mana Tamariki: Cultural Alienation. Māorichild homicide and abuse published in AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, Vol. 6 Issue 3, p187-202, (2011), on this subject and he found that the eye witness evidence from the first Europeans corroborate evidence from Māori knowledge including waiata and whakatauki showing children were treated with respect and tolerance traditionally by parents in Māori society. Yes, some children were abused or killed as isolated incidents, as is true within the histories of all peoples, but the prevalence of this abuse today, for Māori, has its genesis in colonisation and deprivation.

No one is trying to minimise the issue or pretend it doesn’t exist but to seriously deal with the issue means to understand what the real reasons are for it and that leads to where some of the solutions may lie. Re-enculturalization is one area of solutions, as Rawiri Taonui says,

“Promoting the rebuilding of culture within the perpetrator not only includes the beliefs and values of the ancestors, but also the history of the people, including colonization. At an individual level, this knowledge has the ability to dissipate anger by raising consciousness. Positive enculturalization enhances a sense of belonging, rebuilds identity and promotes self-worth. This facilitates the healing of relationships within families.” (p199).

Obviously there is still major work to be done and although current Māori child murder rates are decreasing at twice the rate as that for non-Māori, to achieve any momentum needs the government to support tangata whenua initiatives and ideas. Instead of sterilizing people, they need to be actually trying to fix the issues. There are considered views from Māori that need to be heard. Rawiri Taonui sums it up well,

“We rarely recognise that colonization and its concomitant intergenerational impacts constitute violence: colonization is the application of anger upon vulnerable peoples. This violence has a reciprocal reaction within the societies upon which it is inflicted: cultural alienation, forced assimilation and cumulative marginalization create anger in indigenous societies. Where this anger is not understood, it becomes internalized within the colonized society and inverts upon itself. The indigenous oppressed attack each other. Angry men fight each other, sometimes in gangs, the red fights the blue. Anger seeks the weak and vulnerable in the form of mothers and children, violence expresses itself by seeking innocence. Re-enculturalization can emancipate individuals, families and tribal groups” (p 199).

Now that is an analysis, not bennetts numbnuts approach. Sadly this whole angle from Bennett may just be a “go too far and then pull back to the actual position” approach – or maybe she really does believe it – I’m not sure which of those two scenarios scare me the most, they are both filthy.

we can handle the truth

I like this new Māori parenting program, due to be released on Thursday, by The Office of the Children's Commissioner. It is based upon research which shows that abuse of children was shunned by Māori and arose from Missionaries and colonisation.

Stuff

Prior to Europeans arriving, children were considered gifts from the gods and whanau shunned child abuse.The researchers suggested abuse arose only after Maori were introduced to corporal punishment in missionary-run classrooms

It is so good to see the myths and slurs on Māori getting dealt to by research. Te Kahui Mana Ririki, the child advocacy group, commissioned the research and Chair Dr Hone Kaa states

"It will serve to demonstrate to Maori they don't have to believe they're inherently violent," he said.

Maori children were taught by Europeans that bad behaviour should be punished by physical violence, he said. This steered away from the traditional idea children were tapu and discipline should be avoided because it tamed the child's spirit.

They researched the treatment of children using oral histories, poems, and European observations and what did they find?

Researchers found children were treated with loving care and indulged. "The father was devotedly fond of his children and they were his pride and delight," the report found. "Children would entwine themselves around their father's neck for an entire day, asleep or awake, as a constant companion." This instilled love, security, and confidence into Maori children.

Lead researcher Margaret Mountain Harte hoped the findings could be introduced in school curriculums to educate Maori teens. "It's empowering for me. The whole warrior culture was balanced by the nurturing one," she said.

Yes we need to take back the ownership of us, we need to keep decolonising our own heads because they have forcefed the myths into us. This isn't a rosy picture of hippie Māori - the reality of the old times are known and people were killed and degraded for all sorts of reasons, including children. But that is irrelevant to the fact that children were the future and that future was protected seriously. Of course there are those who don't buy this and that includes Paul Moon

Maori history professor Paul Moon, of Auckland University of Technology, dismissed the idea abuse began after the Europeans came. "The proposition that missionaries introduced violence, it's one of those allegations that entered the historical bloodstream and once it's in that bloodstream, it's hard to get out. I would want to see evidence."

Hey paul isn't that research and evidence included in the report coming out on Thursday?

Moon said the report's reliance on oral histories and lullabies also raised doubts over its reliability

Oh well, I am sure I saw that the 'great european historical record' has also been researched so hopefully that will allay moons fears. Meanwhile his broken record will keep revolving.


The abuse of children is intolerable and must be sorted. Race or ethnicity has nothing to do with whether a person will abuse a child but poverty does, and stress does. This research can rebalance the lies and disinformation put out to suppress Māori aspirations. This research can be used to reeducate those at risk of abusing, those who do not have the mana and knowledge and are already abusing. This program will make a difference for our children.

Does it work?

Te Kahui Mana Ririki has reported a reduction in child abuse after running workshops based on its findings.

Great initative and some awesome research - thank you.

TPPA is dangerous

This Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is very dangerous for us. Framed in the language of trade, it is a not so stealthy method of taking everything that they haven't taken so far.

Press Release Te Wharepora Hou

Te Wharepora Hou, a group of Maori women based in Auckland, supports civil society groups from Australia and New Zealand that are opposing the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Similar free trade agreements have had a devastating impact on the rights & lives of Indigenous peoples around the world. Indigenous peoples have been criminalised and rights to their lands and resource have been ignored.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is colonisation by corporation. Maori and Pacific Island communities have already borne the brunt of neo-liberal economic restructuring in the 80’s and 1990’s.

The TPPA will intensify and increase these negative economic impacts In our communities and as a result are hugely over-represented in all negative indices. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is part of the neo liberal structural adjustment programme to diminish and extinguish Indigenous rights forever.

The TPP represents a significant and; disruptive challenge to Maori.

As wahine Maori, our long and deeply-held traditional values and understandings of collectivity, of manakitanga , of kaitiakitanga (Caring for Earth Mother), for Tangaroa (god of the sea) and for their children, is in direct opposition to what is being proposed in the TPPA. The New Zealand government does no have the right to negotiate away our Treaty rights and our rights as Indigenous peoples.

The selling off of our mokopuna and their future must stop.

I agree with those statements.

From TPPA Watch

Why should we be concerned about the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

If these negotiations succeed they will create a mega-treaty across nine countries that will put a straightjacket around what policies and laws our governments can adopt for the next century.

Which countries are involved in these negotiations?

As of November 2010 there are nine: in addition to the US and New Zealand, there are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

What could the TPPA affect?

Everything from foreign ownership of land and resources, including mining licenses, media laws and support for local NZ content, Treaty settlements, control of financial speculation, the price of medicines, to compulsory labelling of food, plain packaging of cigarettes, privatisation contracts for water, prison, schools and hospitals under public private partnerships (PPPs) …

How come it is described as a ‘trade’ agreement?

That’s a clever branding exercise. It is really an agreement that guarantees rights to foreign investors that operate out from any of the TPP countries – think entertainment (Warners and Sony), pharmaceuticals (Merck and Pfizer), mining (RTZ and BP), tobacco (Philip Morris), retailers (Wal-Mart and Woolworths), finance sector (Merrill Lynch, Westpac, AIG, Macquarie, JP Morgan), agro-business (Cargill, Monsanto), private water operators (Bechtel, Veolia) and much more.

They want what we have - so they can make money.

Hat tip - Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua

sale just wrong

So someone will be making  lots of money from the auction of maori artifacts stolen and looted from these islands (and I mean that under all circumstances including gifts). Will our government bid - oh i don't think so, that is only for fantasy movies and finance company investors - maybe a museum will buy them - you know, for their antiquities area.

I'd like to see them come home and be treated with respect - this disgusting habit of comodifying indigenous people must stop and i'd ban the auction and sale of indigenous cultural artifacts.

From TV3

More than $600,000 worth of precious Maori artifacts are to be sold at auction in Paris next week, including a canoe prow said to have been owned by a Treaty of Waitangi signatory.

The prow is only about 28cm high and described as "very rare" and in the shape of a tattooed head representing Hema, a hero of Maori mythology, will be sold in Paris next Wednesday.

"The rarity of the work and its importance in the history of the Maori is equalled by the exceptional treatment of the facial tattoos, which completely cover the face in curvilinear patterns," the auction house said in notes for its catalogue.

A 48cm waka huia - an ancient wooden container for greenstone and huia feathers - was carved with stone tools. It was collected by William Oldman.

A 13cm hei tiki carved from greenstone was collected by naturalist Frederick Strange during a stopover of the HMS Acheron in Auckland in 1849.

Collected - such an innocent euphamism - how were 'artifacts' collected? What was the mindset of the collectors?

This is a filthy business and these auctions are the latest shameful episode in the long exploitation.

Remembering Steve Biko

I have decided to repost this post - 33 years ago he died.

Hat tip Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua

One of the most influencial people in my life was a man called Steve Biko. I found this book when I was young and it affected me greatly. Then along came the tour and I carried a handmade sign saying, 'Remember Steve Biko' throughout all the protest marches.

This is a quote from a paragragh of an article Steve Biko wrote in 1970

"Does this mean I am against intergration? If by integration you understand a breakthrough into white society by blacks, an assimilation and acceptance of blacks into an already established set of norms and code of behaviour set up and maintained by whites, then YES I am against it. I am against the superior-inferior white-black stratification that makes the white a perpetual teacher and the black a perpetual pupil (and a poor one at that). I am against the intellectual arrogance of white people that makes them believe that white leadership is a sine qua non in this country and that whites are the divinely appointed pace-setters in progress. I am against the fact that a settler minority should impose an entire system of values on an indigenous people".

That was written in a different time, place and context I agree, but once you get over the fact that we are not black south africans, and allow your mind to slide over the black/white terminology, the message still resonates.

We must do things our way.

What does that mean for us Ngai Tahu? Many of us still have an inferiority complex. Many of us still believe that the consumerist, western model is our model. Many of us still think they are right and we are wrong. Colonisation is insidious, it is designed to make people change their values, it erodes a peoples confidence in themselves so that they believe the lies that they cannot do it, or that they don't have the skills or that the pursuit of money is the be all and end all. It's all rubbish. Only Ngai Tahu whanui will save/protect/grow/empower Ngai Tahu whanui.

That is why I believe we must employ Ngai Tahu in every position that comes up and all existing positions should have a succession plan put in place for the goal of, eventually having 100% Ngai Tahu in the roles. (Just a small digression, I have great respect and admiration for all of the work that non Ngai Tahu have done for the iwi. I thank you sincerely for your mahi and aroha, and hopefully it goes without saying that I also respect and admire the iwi members who do work for the iwi, it is a very tough environment that takes great patience and forbearance to survive in).

But my point is that it must be Ngai Tahu who build this iwi. Our values not others, and don't worry the knowledge is there, waiting to come forth. We have thousands of brilliant people that could run TRONT and OTRONT and all of the subsidaries.

Perhaps another quote from Steve Biko

"The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves."

Letter to SRC Presidents, I Write What I Like, 1978.

Steve Biko died on the floor of a empty Pretoria Central Prison cell on 12 September 1977, aged 30.

sci fi colonisation

the first one arrived all

sun-spill and screaming

like a God. Somewhere

a parchment of pixels

was signed and they don't

talk to us anymore.

What have we loved?

To make ours into

theirs they came in numbers.

I know it's a bit indulgent putting up another visual poem but this photo, when I turned it around, just looked like clouds to me, then spaceships. Stephen Hawkings warnings about aliens...  my love of sci fi and the assignments that I have just finished on colonisation... an interesting mix and my response to the ansells of this world.

The highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation

We know that monoculture is dangerous. We know that growing cows where they aren't meant to be is silly and expensive and we know that for every lovely dairy farm they build - there is a massive loss in native habitat and ecosystems - we know this and now it has been confirmed.

From Stuff

"Intensive farming is destroying native plants at the fastest rate since European colonisation, Landcare Research says.

"Analysis ... confirms that agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation," the Crown research institute's report said.

The highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation - that is the truth and it is hard to swallow. We are worse now than we have ever been - not better.

"Landcare ecologist Bill Lee said moves to intensive farming practices over the past decade had "dramatically" wiped out native plants and animals."

"The Canterbury Plains have probably suffered the highest level of biodiversity loss of any ecological region in New Zealand."

He said biodiversity losses included shrubs, herbs, lizards and large invertebrates.

Fish species had suffered from pollution and loss of habitat from water extraction.

Once it's gone - it can't come back... when you're out of the blue and into the black.

"Labour has renewed its call for a halt to tenure review on the South Island's lakeside properties."

I agree with looking into tenure review - there is something really wrong with that approach but labour were fended off successfully by Nick Smith when he said

"The irony of Labour and the Greens criticising biodiversity loss from this report is that they were in government for nine of the last 10 years that it refers to,"

That is smiths answer - do nothing and blame everyone else.

I well remember being in Otautahi, just out of town and looking around and noticing that every single plant and animal I could see was introduced - not a native. And that is our shame that we have wanted this country to be so different to what it is that we are willing to just cut and paste the introduced for the native.

It is not right and it must stop.

Global War on Tribes

This article is brilliant.

From Zoltan Grossman at Counterpunch

"The so-called “Global War on Terror” is quickly growing outside the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, into new battlegrounds in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and beyond. The Pentagon is vastly increasing missile and gunship attacks, Special Forces raids, and proxy invasions--all in the name of combating “Islamist terrorism.” Yet within all five countries, the main targets of the wars are predominantly “tribal regions,” and the old frontier language of Indian-fighting is becoming the lexicon of 21st-century counterinsurgency. The “Global War on Terror” is fast morphing into a “Global War on Tribes.”

Tribes are distinct from ethnic groups. Ethnic group identity is based largely on language, such as Pashtun, Kurdish, Somali, Tajik, and so on. Many ethnic groups also assert a territorial nationhood, whether or not they have their own independent state. Tribal group identity is based on smaller and older regional clans and dialects—such as Zubaydi and Jibbur (Iraq), Durrani and Ghilzai (Afghanistan), Wazir and Mehsud (Pakistan), Wahidi and Zaydi (Yemen), and Darod and Hawiye (Somalia). These internal divisions are familiar to anyone who has studied ethnic nationhood. (The Lakota Nation, for example, contains seven bands such as the Oglala, Hunkpapa, and Sicangu. In most other countries, these “bands” would be termed tribes, and the Lakota Nation would not be called a tribe.)

One of the hallmarks of American colonization is to pit favored tribes and ethnic nations against the national security threat of the moment— Crow against Lakota, Igorot against Filipino, Montagnard against Vietnamese, Hmong against Lao, Miskito against Nicaraguan, Kurd against Arab. When the minority tribal allies (with their very real grievances) are no longer needed, Washington quickly abandons its defense of their “human rights.” We love ‘em, we use ‘em, and then we dump ‘em. These divide-and-conquer strategies are being revived from Pakistan to Yemen, as the Pentagon arms tribal militias to do its bidding—often against other tribes.

Tribal resistance against Western intervention and corporate globalization take different forms in different countries. In Pakistan and Iraq, tribes may fight under the green banner of political Islamism. In India and Peru, some tribal peoples have fought under the red flag of Maoist rural insurgent armies. In Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico, they have coalesced within their own self-defined indigenist movements, which have effectively intersected with socialist and environmental movements.

In central and northeastern India, the Indian Army has launched a counterinsurgency war against Naxalite rebels, to open up the tribal forest regions to mining and timber companies. The Naxalites are usually described as “Maoists,” but as the writer Arundhati Roy observed in Outlook India (3/29/10), “It’s convenient to forget that tribal people in Central India have a history of resistance that predates Mao by centuries…. Naxalite politics has been inextricably entwined with tribal uprisings.”

Whether in Mexico, India, Iraq, or the United States and Canada, the Global War on Tribes has some common characteristics. First, the war is most blatantly being waged to steal the natural resources under tribal lands. The rugged, inaccessible terrain that prevented colonial powers from eliminating tribal societies also made accessing minerals, oil, timber and other resources more difficult--so (acre for acre) more of the resources are now left on tribal lands than on more accessible lands.

Resources are not always the underlying explanation for war, but they’re a pretty good start at an explanation. In the case of Indigenous tribal peoples, their historic attention to biodiversity has also enabled natural areas to be relatively protected until now, as corporations seek out the last remaining pockets of natural resources to extract. Look no further than the Alberta Tar Sands, for instance, to see the exploitation of Native lands by modern oil barons.

The Global War on Tribes is a campaign against the very existence of tribal regions that are not under centralized state control. The tribal regions still retain forms of social organization that has not been solely determined by capitalism. In her anthology Paradigm Wars, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, comments that “promoters of economic globalization, the neocolonizers, use the overwhelming pressure of homogenization to teach us that indigenous political, economic and cultural systems are obstacles to their ‘progress.’” (p. 14).

During European colonial expansion, small, tribal peoples who could not muster large military alliances were more vulnerable to conquest and occupation. In most countries, the colonization process left them divided and fighting each other. In the 21st century-- just as many remaining pockets of exploitable resources are located in tribal regions--the only successful pockets of resistance may be found in the mountains, deserts and forests where tribal peoples refuse to die.

Go here to read the full article.

We have seen the same tactics here where divide and conquer is the standard approach. We must see through the mists they place over the truth. Community and connection is our natural state. It is easy to slide into self interest with the baubles they offer - but it is not our natural way.

john minto is right

John Minto is right.

From his blog

"The next time Sheppard drives from Auckland to Hamilton through the best agricultural land in the world I hope he gives a thought that all the land he sees was confiscated from Tainui because they had the temerity to fight a defensive war for their land against an invasion by colonial soldiers. Sheppard would call the miserly $170 million paid to Tainui in compensation a handout. I'd call it a ripoff."

and this is sheppards post that caused the response

"Look, nothing changes, our forebears gave them lollies in the 1820s, guns and booze, and it surely killed them off in droves. Copious volumes of cash that will cause social divisions among their people will surely do the same over time."

Read the comments on both posts to see what the challenge is in this country. We have a long long way to go but we are going don't worry about that.

avatar - holiday viewing for our politicans

Avatar the movie has had much hype. This post from  Annalee Newitz at Gawker and comment thread offer a slightly different view of the movie, for instance

"Avatar imaginatively revisits the crime scene of white America's foundational act of genocide, in which entire native tribes and civilizations were wiped out by European immigrants to the American continent."

and

"This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member."

Go here for the full article - I highly recommend it. And for another view try here.

I haven't seen the movie yet. But I do note the brownlee would not be one of the blue ones. Perhaps all of our politicans would do well to ponder this movie, and it's deep and deeper meanings, behind their 3-d specs these holidays.

Hat tip stuff white people do blog

Footnote - It is good to see Rawiri Taonui saying here that 'avatar recycles indigenous sterotypes' too.

we are in the middle of a phase transition - enjoy the ride!

There is something about phase transitions that i love. This is the place where things change from one state to another state. The place that is neither one or the other - the inbetween place. And in that place - the place between the changes - there is magic.

Of course when we think about it, there are lots of 'middle areas'. The space between matter and energy, the space between words and meaning, between sound and music, words and poetry - anyway you get my drift.

We are continually in a state of change. In fact nothing is static - absolutely nothing.

Just as indigenous cultures have been colonised, so the changes keep coming and the empowerment of those colonised cultures so that they can de-colonise themselves is also occuring. We needn't be worried by this.

All of the debate around maori and foreshores and seabeds is actually within the space that I have described above. We are in a state of phase transition now - it's just happening in slow motion. Interestingly, when the 'state' of matter changes - it changes to something quite different to the original state. Think of water turning from liquid to solid (ice). If you listed the qualities and characteristics of water and ice you would find it hard to see any relationship between the two. They are quite different - yet the same. Our changes will be the same. They will be quite different and also the same.

Belt up - the ride is underway and there is no way of getting off! Yee hah!

Music - much of the music that i enjoy is between the lines. This band for instance is right on the edge. The reid brothers are geniuses. The guitar slips from the melody into a noise and back again. That guitar attracts and repels. That is the space i love and revel in.

Treaty - getting it is only the first step

It's an interesting question. Having a treaty that protects some resource is one thing. Having that treaty enacted so that the resource is actually protected - is another. Is it any wonder that indigenous people have suspicion with treaties?

Puget Sound sunset

"In 1974 a ruling was given by U.S. District Judge George Boldt that Puget Sound's tribes hold treaty rights to half the region's catch of the fish."

"Another judge, today,  is dealing with Boldt's unfinished business — presiding over a U.S. District Court trial in Seattle this month about the state's obligation to make sure the fish survive in perpetuity."

"No matter the outcome, taxpayers this time may be on the hook for $1.5 billion or more to repair clogged and broken road culverts that prevent salmon from swimming upstream to reach spawning beds."

The choice seem stark. If there is a treaty then that treaty should be effected in such a way that the outcomes of that treaty are realised. The treaty gives rights to the tribe of half the region's fish. The culvets stop those fish spawning. The culvets need to be fixed so that the fish can spawn, so that the tribe can realise the potential of the resource (and treaty) and thus create positive outcomes for them and their communities and society as a whole.

"Even more significant might be the groundwork laid for future lawsuits over other insults to salmon habitat, from stormwater pollution to wetlands to housing developments.

"The judge has already found that there's a treaty right to protect fish habitat," said Robert Anderson, director of the University of Washington's Native American Law Center. The question now is "how far the federal courts are willing to go to compel that result.""

"More than 1,000 culverts between the Columbia River and British Columbia, most of them owned by the Washington Department of Transportation, are designed so poorly or in such ill repair that they block or limit access by fish to hundreds of miles of streams.

While the state slowly has been working to fix them, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled for the first time in 2007 that treaty rights required it."

The state argued in negotiations that it didn't have the ability to bind future Legislatures, said Marty Brown, Gov. Chris Gregoire's legislative director. But he also said the state's holistic approach to salmon recovery showed fixing culverts wasn't always the most ecologically important thing to do, especially since cities, counties and federal agencies — including national forests — often had hundreds of culverts blocking the same streams.

"We're just as concerned as the tribes about Puget Sound and habitat restoration," Brown said, "but we want to make sure we're talking about the whole ecology of the thing."

It sounds reasonable but is it.

"The tribes say the state knew about problem culverts for 60 years but kept building them and even now fixes only a few dozen in a good year. Given the tribes' successful record in these cases, some outside observers suspect the state may in part be using the courts for political cover. The state could appeal if it loses, putting off binding commitments a few more years. And spending the money ultimately "might be a lot easier if they were under a court order," said Michael Blumm, an Indian law expert with Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland."

Personally I am not a big fan of treatys. They are often one-sided and have fish-hooks galore! But if there is a treaty then it should be enacted to give realisation to the outcomes of that treaty - now and into the future. And this case is interesting from that perspective. The judges have said that there is an obligation to protect the fisheries and that that obligation extends to the future ability of the treaty partner to be able to also reap the outcome of the treaty obligation.

Now the lawyers will sort this out but i wonder about the implications of that style of ruling on the treatys and agreements we have here.

Hat tip - Native American Legal Update

black drain - why don't you drink a glass Environment Bay of Plenty

Short-term-ism

Sadly this affliction is rampant - especially when the environment is concerned.

"Environment Bay of Plenty has given permission for the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill in Kawerau to continue discharging effluent into the river, as well as gas and dust emissions, for another 25 years."

Does the mill pollute the river?

"The commissioners acknowledged the degradation of the river as a result of the discharges"

What do local tangata whenua say?

"Tipene Marr, leader of eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Ngati Rangitihi, had argued for a 10-year consent and a genuine commitment by the companies to reduce damage to the river.



Mr Marr said he was saddened that he would not see the Tarawera River run clean again in his lifetime.


"They are now allowing them to pollute the river for 90 years.


"We can't use the river, we can't swim in it, it's no good to us anymore."

So why have Environment Bay of Plenty dropped the ball on this 'Black Drain'?

"The hearings commissioners said the permit renewal was granted under exceptional circumstances, and because there was no scientific evidence of poisoning of aquatic life.



The commissioners acknowledged the degradation of the river as a result of the discharges, but said this was outweighed by the social and economic benefits the mill provided in the forestry industry."

You reckon? Try taking the social aspect out because you don't really care about that and what you have left is economic benefits. To who? The people of the land? I don't think so - why not try the mill owners and shareholders and how many of them live in kawerau? bugger all. You have sold out this river and our people for NOTHING. Spineless and useless you have left nothing for your grandchildren and your names will be mocked, if anyone can be bothered to remember them.

Might be good to drop a nice glass or two of this lovely water for Environment Bay of Plenty to have a sip - bottoms up.

24 months ago they came for terror

We haven't forgotten - 2 years ago they conducted their terror raids.

Good article here good website here

Give the land back sir noel - you know it is the right thing to do

This one seems pretty straightforward.

"Former Paraparaumu Airport landowners are continuing their fight for the land as a $450 million redevelopment of the airport is about to begin.


Thirteen descendants of former landowners have instructed their lawyer to go to the High Court to have about 85 hectares of the 127ha block offered back to them under Section 40 of the Public Works Act.


The Crown took the airport land under the act during World War II, but failed to offer it back to the former Maori landowners before selling the block to Murray Cole and three other Kapiti businessman for $1.6 million in 1995."

Bogus sale -

"The sale process was criticised by a parliamentary select committee inquiry and the auditor-general, both of whom rebuked the transport minister for a flawed sale process."

Mr Cole sold it in 2006 to present owner Auckland businessman Sir Noel Robinson for "well under $40 million".



After forking out $4 million on three years of planning, Sir Noel received interim approval from the Environment Court last month for a plan change allowing his redevelopment plans, including an upgraded airport, new terminal and business park, to go ahead."

Right - now we can see where the real problem is - can't make any money if it is given back to the rightful owners can you.

"Norma Ellison, whose grandmother owned land where part of the main runway and meteorological office are situated, and two of her sisters, aged between 70 and 90, are determined to continue their fight.


"There is blood on that land. There will be no peace until it is settled. We are not going to give up," Mrs Ellison said."

I wouldn't be flying into the airport that's for sure.

"Te Whanau a Te Ngarara member Yvonne Mitchell said a dirty deal was done.



"The Crown acknowledged that the process was flawed – it was a dirty deal. The land could have been used for educational purposes for our whanau and our elderly."

Dirty deal all right - but the rich get richer and that is all they care about.

"Lawyer Leo Watson represented the whanau in its failed appeal to the Environment Court against Kapiti Coast District Council's approval of a plan change in April, paving the way for the airport redevelopment.



Mr Watson is now representing 13 descendants of former landowners, who owned 68 per cent of the land. He said he had been instructed to take the case to the High Court and had told Sir Noel of the action.


"The land that is not required for the airport and is surplus to requirements must be offered back. We will be seeking declarations that land not required for the airport be offered back to all those who are entitled," Mr Watson said."

Kia kaha for the fight to get your land back. And sir noel - i'd take that gong off you.

Mizo people and maori

Indigenous peoples all have their challenges. Maori have had their land taken and a very small percentage given back. This country is an island, and we have pasifica cousins.

But what about other indigenous peoples. What about indigenous peoples who live and have lived across artifical borders and boundaries. How difficult is life for them when they not only have one country or state to deal with but multiple countries and states. Examples are numerous - in fact it seems like we are actually lucky here to have an island or three here in the south seas.

This is an example of one people stretched across a range of boundaries. Thanks feddabonn for sharing about your people.

"People from the north eastern region of india, spread over 8 states. this is a slightly arbitrary division, negotiated more in terms of geography and difference from 'mainland indian' culture/races than in any real similarities between the various tribal cultures of the north east.

'mizo' (people of the hills), and our 'homeland' is the state of mizoram (land of the mizos). 'mizo' is again a negotiated identity, consisting of a few tribes that banded together (a lot like the maori, i guess). what we speak is the mizo language, which was originally a dialect of one of the tribes. most individual languages have been lost, but not regretted, as it has meant a common identity and a stronger base to bargain with india. of late, there has been a movement to further integrate with our people from other states of india (manipur, tripura and assam) as well as our cousins across the border in bangladesh and myanmar (the chin).


we were converted to christianity somewhere around the 1890s, and have lost most of our old religion. having said that, the christianity we follow has been indegenised, and has re-introduced a lot of elements (like the use of the drum) that the missionaries had thrown out. the missionaries also gave us our writing

post indian (1947) independence, we had a severe famine in the mizo (also called lusei/lushai) hills called the mautam. our requests for help from india were largely ignored, and in 1966 the mizo national front declared independence. india's response was to send in the air force and the army, starting off a brutal (on both sides) guerilla war that lasted till the peace accord was signed in 1986. i have (as many of us have) had family on both sides of the conflict, but by and large, we have a rather suspicious attitude to mainland india. mizoram was recently declared the most peaceful and crime free state in india!"
 
Check out these sites for more information.
 
Mizoram
Mizo writing in English
Music of Mizoram
 
To my shame i didn't know anything about these indigenous people until i began conversing with feddabonn. How many other indigenous cultures are out there, fighting for life, for dignity but we just never hear about them from the MSM (mainstream media). That is why mars2earth is open to hearing all stories - send them in!
 
feddabonn has a great blog - Bottle broke - i highly recommend it. Good discussions on art, culture, books, politics and crafts.
 
indigenous peoples have to work together. we have to learn from our similarities and our differences. and we have to resist the assimilation into the larger homogonised cultures which have colonised us.
 
kia kaha Mizo people