I am replying to Sam Nikora who wrote last week about 'Maoridom framed”.
Sam, please do not lose sight of the fact that as there are no full-blooded Maori left in New Zealand, you must include, along with your Maori whakapapa, either British, Scandinavian, Dutch or European ancestry in your bloodline. In fact, without this you would not exist! You obviously have a great resentment about (to quote your letter) 'the theft of the most beautiful land from its indigenous people”.
You are correct - there were so many wrongs committed during the settlement of New Zealand, but through the Waitangi Tribunal, the Maori tribes are being paid squillions of dollars in compensation. There are also a myriad of health and social services set up especially for Maori that I cannot access and which I do not for one moment grudge you.
However, Sam, you cannot on the one hand accept the money being paid out to you through the treaty claims, and still complain that 'we was robbed!”
It seems that early Maori were not uneasy about the arrival of the white man. The great Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika went to England in 1820, in the five months he was there he helped with the compilation of a Maori dictionary. He also met with King George 1V and then called in to Sydney on his way home.
He regarded the white settlers as a bonus for New Zealand because of their material and technological gifts (for the time) to enhance the way of life for Maori. Sam, you are a mix of ebony and ivory and you live in the best little country in the world. You have so much to celebrate!
Robin Bishop, Pyes Pa.