While councils are a crucial target in the iwi march into governance, radical claims are being made across the board.
Just last week, Dr Keri Lawson Te Aho of Otago University blamed colonisation for the suicide rate of Maori men being more than double that of non-Maori: “There’s a form of sub-clinical depression happening with our Maori men… It’s anchored in our history under colonisation. It didn’t begin and end in 1769 when Cook landed here. We have intergenerational trauma… now beginning to surface.”
If any historic link is to be made it should be one of relief that colonisation brought with it the rule of law and an end to the devastation caused by inter-tribal warfare.
While Dr Te Aho’s claims should be dismissed, her call for activism is disturbing: “I believe there is a lot of underestimated influence and power in engaging our men in activism, in stepping up and taking leadership roles because it gives them confidence.”
But activism is part of the problem – one in six Maori now live in Australia, largely to escape the chains of tribalism and to gain the freedom to pursue their own pathway.
Some activists are now blaming colonisation for Maori crime. A new report from the left-wing ActionStation and Otago University states the over-representation of Maori in prisons is the result of colonisation and structural racism.
They make the ridiculous statement that crime is the result of poverty and a need ‘for survival’, and they blame the British justice system for creating racial inequity.
They claim that ‘tikanga’ – Maori cultural practice – will redress the racial imbalance in our justice system: “As the people who judges lock up the most, Maori views should take prominence in the justice debate.”
Jacinda Ardern’s new Chief Justice agrees. Dame Helen Winkelmann outlines how she wants to see the “development of an indigenous law of New Zealand” including the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. She wants more Maori judges and judges trained in tikanga: “Knowledge of tikanga Maori is essential knowledge for judging in New Zealand”.
With such changes part of a cultural revolution that is underway throughout the public service, Antonio Gramsci would be well pleased with how his life’s work is playing out almost 100 years later – on the other side of the world.
We take for granted that individual freedom and the market economy have produced one of the most prosperous times in the history of civilisation. But we have become complacent.
Our freedom and democracy are under attack by radicals firmly entrenched within our institutions. They are using biculturalism to divide our society and undermine national unity.
New Zealand is in desperate need of champions: not only to stand up for freedom and the right of individuals to express their views, but to reject the insidious creep of bicultural Marxism and restore New Zealand as one nation under one flag with one set of laws.
So well done Andrew Hollis for speaking your mind – and thank you to those who were brave enough to support him when he came under attack.
And shame on those activists who called for his resignation – and those Councillors who turned their backs on democracy and the right to free expression.