August 17, 2015
Warrior race an excuse for millitary intervention
Meanwhile a University of Otago professor is undertaking research to find out why Maori peace traditions have been suppressed and ignored down through the years.
Professor Richard Jackson from the university's National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies says the image of Maori as a warrior race is misplaced and a colonial construct.
He says in New Zealand as in other countries it was used as an excuse for military intervention.
"If you could say the society we are entering is a warlike society of violent savages then the only way they can be controlled is through violent domination."
Professor Jackson who has a $600,000 grant from the Marsden Fund says history focusses on war and conflict and ignores the aspects of society which actually make it work such as co-operation and caring for others and passive resistance which were big factors in traditional Maori society.
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