COVID-19 has been a test for Maori, on a par with the Second World War. But, at this stage of the Covid War, it is difficult to say that they are winning. Over the course of the next few weeks, that may change. Maori may yet prove as resourceful and cool under fire as their forebears in the celebrated Maori Battalion. The Maori elites will certainly be hoping so because a tremendous amount is at stake. A political and cultural agenda of unparalleled radicalism stands on the threshold of fulfilment – an agenda that a Maori failure to rise to the Covid challenge could place in serious jeopardy.

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...