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The myths white people tell themselves
MARTYN BRADBURY
John Key's extraordinary statements last week on NZ History in relation to the Waitangi Tribunal's finding that Maori did not cede sovereignty when they signed the Treaty in 1840 is a case study in ignorance, cultural arrogance and political posturing.
“In my view New Zealand was one of the very few countries in the world that were settled peacefully. Maori probably acknowledge that settlers had a place to play and brought with them a lot of skills and a lot of capital.”
In less than a century, Maori lost access to 95% of their land and through a culmination of disease and war almost died off as a race. Add to this the injustices and violence of the musket wars, mass land confiscations and shameful blots on our history like Parihaka, Key's assertion that NZ was settled peacefully is wishful thinking at best and garden variety bigotry at worst.
The dominant culture that benefits from injustice, never examine that injustice. Culturally it becomes essential to gloss over the positions of social privilege and history needs to be recast as some distant sanitised memory that has no bearing on the inequalities of the present. What Key is desperately trying to do with this statement is quieten the angrier voices that have been raised from within National's voting base at the Waitangi Tribunal ruling.
This re-writing of history must be resisted and challenged. The myths that white people tell themselves about race relations in NZ can be boiled down to, 'Well, we weren't as bad as the Australians were to Aborigines so our hands are relatively clean'. That's not really much of an ethical benchmark.
This whitewashing of our history removes the need to do anything about the current injustices in society beyond mere charity. It sets up a narrative where there is no reason to be angry, no reason to move with pace on the consequences of those injustices, no reason to examine our past because we were peacefully settled.
To have the leader of NZ partake in such manipulations shows the power of this myth and is a reminder that 174 years have passed and our Political establishment have still learned nothing.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH PRIME MINISTER JOHN KEY AND TE HIKU O TE IKA STATION MANAGER PETER LUCAS JONES CLICK HERE
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjQzMzE=
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
Citizen A – Face TV Sky 83
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