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Dr Michael Bassett’s column referred to below has been removed from the Northland Age website. Upon review, its unacceptable views did not meet our standards. We apologise for its publication.
Northland Age – NZ Herald
Suppression continues apace of historical opinions that do not conform to the government’s re-write of NZ history. The latest voice to be censored and his article thrown down the memory hole is Dr Michael Bassett.
Perhaps his crime was refusing to toe the party line that paints NZ history as a black and white story with no grey areas. Colonialism is all bad and Maori tribes are all good and anyone who counters that narrative must be censored, silenced and attacked.
It is curious to me that the author, who laments the apparent demise of Pakeha culture in Aotearoa New Zealand as racism on a grand scale, appears entirely ignorant of the racist views peddled throughout his article.
[…]To begin with, Dr Bassett takes issue with the new Aotearoa New Zealand history curriculum, in particular that only one serious Pakeha academic has been involved in its design. Which begs the question, are Maori academics not serious? Is it only Pakeha who are knowledgeable enough to design teaching and learning? Dr Bassett’s implication is that Pakeha knowledge is of most value, and it is Pakeha who should hold the power and authority over what our children and young people learn.
Did Dr Bassett really imply that Pakeha knowledge is of a higher value than Maori knowledge or was his criticism about the lack of balance? Fortunately, The BFD has obtained a copy of the memory-holed article so we do not have to take Kelly Jensen at his or her word. This is what Dr Bassett actually said:
“Recently, I sought from the Ministry of Education details about who was designing the curriculum. Back came the names of a couple of school teachers and a collection of Maori revolutionaries. There were a couple of academics, both Maori. No serious Pakeha historian in sight.”
Judge for yourself if Kelly Jensen’s comments are a fair summary of what Dr Bassett wrote. My reading of his comments is that he is criticising the lack of balance in the group (given that it included Maori activists) as well as criticising the lack of serious historical credentials of the Pakehas that were involved.
[…] the perpetuation of negative Maori stereotypes, positioning them as savages who were responsible for the demise of their own people. This is Dr Bassett’s view of Aotearoa New Zealand history he is advocating for.
That is one hell of an accusation to throw at Dr Bassett and of course, the writer Kelly Jensen provides not a skerrick of evidence to back up his or her outrageous smear.
Of course, according to Dr Bassett’s white supremacist view, anything that happened prior to European arrival in Aotearoa New Zealand doesn’t actually count.
nzherald.co.nz/
Does it not strike readers as bizarre that Dr Bassett’s article was labelled as unacceptable because it didn’t meet both papers’ high standards yet they published the above defamatory slur by Kelly Jensen? Allowing Jensen to label any historian who does not toe the party line as a white supremacist (without any evidence) and publishing that unforgivable slur in both the NZ Herald and the Northland Age is disgusting.
The suppression and distortion of viewpoints that are in conflict with far-left politics are well entrenched in our country now. Far from showing that the NZ Herald and The Northland Age have high standards, their censorship of Dr Bassett’s article and their publication of the defamatory attack on his reputation prove the exact opposite.
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