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There have been some writings in recent days about Critical Race Theory (CRT) and how it might affect New Zealand under the spectre of the current government’s stealthy plot to saddle our country with the divisive co-governance system laid out in the He Puapua Plan.
What is Critical Race Theory?
CRT started in America as a legal theory that illustrates how racism becomes institutionalised even though discrimination is illegal. It has since branched out but the essence remains – to show how race and racism continue to operate across various systems, interrogating their role in society. One well-publicised branch of CRT is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) international social movement formed in the United States in 2013, dedicated to fighting racism and anti-Black violence, especially by police.
BLM activists have held large and influential protests in cities across the United States as well as internationally. In June last year, thousands of Kiwis joined in BLM public marches in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in support of US reaction to the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. (Interestingly, one of the Auckland speakers was Will Ilolahia, co-founder of the Polynesian Panthers in 1976, whose story is currently being featured on TVI on Sunday evenings).
It’s not hard to see links between CRT and BLM and the barely disguised agenda of He Puapua of co-governance of New Zealand, with Maori having 50% of the authority. What Kiwis need to get their heads around, is that the theory of critical race is in direct conflict with the practice of critical race as we have known it in New Zealand since the signing at Waitangi and elsewhere of that treaty in 1840 – unity (kotahitanga).
I have often wondered how the history of our country might have been different if the word kawanatanga had never been invented, probably by one of the Pakeha missionaries who served as translators in those times. Wikipedia tells us:
The first part of the word, Kawana, is a transliteration into Maori of the English word governor. The suffix -tanga is very similar in meaning and use to the English suffix -ship, for example rangatiratanga (chieftainship) and kingitanga (kingship). So a literal translation of the word would be governorship. From an idiomatic perspective, this word had little meaning to the chiefs signing the treaty, since the concept of being governed by an overseeing authority was alien to Maori. What understanding Maori may have had of the term was derived principally from the Bible and in particular Herod‘s Governorship. At the time the Bible was one of few long printed texts in Maori enjoying wide distribution.
The concept of a single, nationwide governing authority would have been unknown to the Maori tribes of those times, given that their only form of governance was a localised barony, in and around the place where their particular ancestors (tupuna) had landed in each of their several canoes (waka).
Anyone interested in this should look here to learn about the first steps toward a single, united nation/state. In 1831, 13 Ngapuhi chiefs wrote to King William IV of the United Kingdom to seek an alliance and protection from other powers. On 28 October 1835 James Busby took this a step further at a hui (meeting) he had called at Waitangi. By the end of the day 34 rangatira had signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (known in English as the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand).
He Whakaputanga created a body known as Te Whakaminenga, the Confederation of United Tribes, and provided that no foreigners could make laws. Te Whakaminenga was to meet at Waitangi each autumn to frame laws, and in return for their protection of British subjects in their territory, they sought King William’s protection against threats to their mana. They also thanked the King for acknowledging their flag. Thus, for their first time since their various arrivals in their new land, the chiefs of a number of individual tribal baronies agreed to amalgamate into a single quasi-national governance organisation. In its turn, this would lead to the signing of what we now know as the Treaty of Waitangi.
There have been two essays in recent days that emerge as beacons of light, wisdom and certainty through the confusing haze that the Covid pandemic has cast on the country and those who are supposed to be leading us:
The first is an open letter by Auckland businessman Hugh Perrett to the Prime Minister:
It begins:
Many, many of we New Zealanders are heartily sick of and extremely annoyed at your Government’s ongoing campaign to bring about a change in our country’s name from New Zealand to Aotearoa.
This has obviously in effect involved instructing Government Departments and major media (at least) to continually push the name Aotearoa in association with or, increasingly, at the expense of our country’s name, New Zealand.
We, as a country have spent billions of dollars over many, many years promoting the name New Zealand and giving it identity and meaning internationally.
It is our Brand name in the same way as names like Coca Cola, Colgate, Persil, Watties, Palmolive, Milo, Vegemite and many others are brand names instantly conveying the identity, positive benefits and positive consumer associations with them.
None of these brand owners would for a second contemplate changing the name of these branded products.
Do read it in full for yourselves. If ever there was a time when all public communication should be clear and unequivocal it is now in the midst of this pandemic. This is no time to be furrowing brows by inserting words other than English that can be understood by at most some 11% of the population at the last official count. It is no time for TV1 News to be chipping in incessantly with whai ake nei, and I’m still waiting for Simon Dallow to explain why we appear to have gained a second Parliament at Paremata a few miles up the coast north of the old one at Molesworth Street in Wellington.
This is not to say that there’s no place for te reo words in our Kiwi vocabulary.
For my own personal greeting to friends, I customarily use Kia ora e hoa, which I regard as more typically and uniquely Kiwi than the “Gidday, mate” that has come across the Tasman. There’s nothing unusual about the borrowing of words from other languages, as we do in English with ennui (boredom) or schadenfreude (satisfaction at witness misfortunate to others). Or as Maori should do instead of transliteration in words like wiki (week), kawanatanga (governorship) or kapu ti or kapu kawhe (the tea or coffee custom requires them to offer you after a powhiri (welcome).
The second essay you should read is by Dr Muriel Newman, which begins:
More and more Kiwis are beginning to realise that the campaign to change our country’s name from New Zealand to Aotearoa is part of a wider agenda to replace democracy with tribal rule. The transfer of democratic rights and public resources to the elite of Maoridom – who run billion-dollar business corporations that pay no tax – is being orchestrated by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern through her commitment to the Treaty partnership fiction and equal tribal co-governance.
Again, you need to read it in full to grasp the extent of the danger to our hard-won democracy posed by Jacinda Ardern and her Marxist gang of would-be globalists.
It is vital, nay critical, that all Kiwis pause and consider this popular and probably most widely-quoted Maori whakatauki (proverb):
He aha te mea nui i te a o? He tangata, he tangata he tangata.
(What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people).
The fact that Maori themselves, in this most sacred of their sayings, repeat the reference to people three times tells me that they themselves mean to imply ALL the people (tangata katoa), all humankind, regardless of ethnicity or ancestry.
In the westernised (Westminster-ised?) world to which all Kiwis apart from a small minority of extremist and acquisitive malcontents are devoted, we call it democracy, and it is, as it should be, our Critical Race Practice. To hell with theories! Kiwis are doers! As for Black Lives Matter: It ought to be our Kiwi way (and will be again when we kick the Ardern gang out of government in 2023), that ALL Lives Matter.
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