WAS IT COLONISATION - OR CIVILISATION - AND THE ANSWER IS VITAL TO NEW ZEALAND'S FUTURE.
The essential component of this essay - that I really really need to emphasise - is that there is a void in the narrative left by the establishment’s elimination of any discussion of authentic Maori Pre European culture - and its relationship to Cannibalism - and Tribal Wars - and into that void of reality created by the refusal to acknowledge that aspect of their early and authentic culture - they and the liberal Labour/Greens can mount an argument for Maori having a rich and romantic culture that didn't benefit at all from the arrival of civilisation as it existed 200 years ago.
See - how you feel uncomfortable already.
Yeah - it's a thing. Suck it up buttercup.
As it is - the Establishment are not too concerned about the discussion of Tribal Wars - because everyone has wars - and winning one has a lot of kudos associated with it.
As for me as an essayist - I am constantly trying to find better ways of expressing that simple social equation.
Which must include the way Maori Culture was when Europeans found it - and how it is now after 200 years fully immersed in European Civilisation.
It was amazing in the circumstances - that they managed to survive at all - but they did - and sometimes they thrived.
But this issue desperately needs honesty - and some of that needs to come from academia - because recent events show that they are mired in ideological stupidity and ignorance - made worse by fanciful racial theories that have nothing to do with actual realities.
The fact is - that that void of information left by the elimination of Cannibalism and other realities from the discussion - provides the space in the Narrative for the establishment’s greatest weapon against actual truth - and the corollary of that is - that it causes bitter resentment because unthinking but angry Maori can believe that colonisation is the source of all their problems.
It means they can always blame the white man instead of themselves for some of their shortcomings - and ignore the FACT - that the white man brought the CIVILISATION - that they crave and live in and enjoy with all the rest of us as citizens - IN THE ENTIRE CIVILISED WORLD.
The question is - was it colonisation - or civilisation that we brought them - and was it possible to bring them civilisation without colonisation - or are they both actually one and the same?
Did we colonise them and fail to give them civilisation?
Like they say - you can’t have one without the other - and that means that this topic needs to be top and central of any discussion about colonisation - and I am not sure that our current academia are linguistically and intellectually capable of that.
I know there are at least seven who would be - but as for the rest - they are captured by ideology - just like the Germans were.
I have almost said it a dozen times - and because of my educational shortcomings have never quite got it right - but I have asked again and again - what if we didn’t bring them civilisation with the colonisation? What if we left them to their own devices?
They would never have achieved civilisation without us and all the centuries of the evolution of ideas and inventions - that we have pressed in the space of two generations into their once savage lives. No matter what some academics say or think - civilisation was the property of the Europeans until they spread it around the world - and it was never going to arrive here without their intervention.
Let’s call that intervention - instead of an “invasion” or a “colonisation” if that would make them feel better about themselves - because that is the truth of it - and if we did that we would all feel better and the resentment would surely pass.
That “colonisation” argument is a thing - that with the help of a few disingenuous white liberal academics - Maori can believe was the cause of all that ails them. It is an excuse - not a reason. We need to change that narrative to "welcoming the Arrival of Civilisation" - because that is a better way of expressing what did actually happen - and we could all move on in a positive frame of mind.
I cannot believe that even the silliest of liberals could argue against the arrival of civilisation - because like it or not - that is what Maori enjoy as a lifestyle today - courtesy of the Europeans - but it seems some of them prefer to hold on to the still valuable ogre and excuse of Colonisation to whinge about and feel sorry for themselves about - thereby ignoring their own contributions to their own problems.
They need to go back in time - and consider - that as soon as they began adopting European tools - they had capitulated to civilisation - and perhaps the false idea that they were stealing it rather than being offered it - would make them feel better about it.
Which ever way we look at it - right now it is very screwed up.
Could those idiot liberal professors in Universities actually get up and say that we should not have brought Civilisation to the indigenous peoples of the world - because basically it seems that is what Critical Race Theory is saying - and such an idea is ridiculous.
My opinion is - that they feel within their rights to call us out for bringing colonisation - while ignoring the fact that what we really brought was Civilisation. So what’s the difference mister professor - and try to keep your answer in the context of the late seventeen hundreds - if you are able.
Otherwise they are like people at a table trying to eat off someone else’s plate.
Sometimes Intelligence manifests itself as cunning - and there are a few of those in Parliament.
By Denis Hall