Post by Kiwi Frontline on Feb 6, 2019 6:15:32 GMT 12
NZ Herald 6/2/19
WAITANGI DAY GOLD FOR OUR IDENTITY
Thank goodness we have Waitangi Day in all its messy, muddy, shouting and dildo-throwing glory. Long may we have such a public space to debate who we are rather then some bland “New Zealand” holiday that morphs into the likes of the “Queen’s Birthday”. Waitangi Day looks forward, not backward to a province in the Netherlands. Waitangi Day is pure cultural gold.
For once we step out of our bland, postcolonial rut to hear the likes of Hone Harawira, Don Brash, a Maori housing panel and a debate on 1080, all in the same space. How on earth are we to know who we are as a people without some mud and feathers flying? It holds a priceless opportunity to define ourselves, our culture and the issues that underpin our successes, our failures and our identity.
The show has already begun when the two greatest blowhards, Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki and MP Shane Jones, eye each other up for some serious mud wrestling. Maybe the Auckland Pride festival should invite Tamaki to ride his Harley topless in it as an act of defining what that particular parade is about as it struggles and collapses.
This year’s biggest Waitangi disappointment is the cowardly and controlling prohibiting of mainstream media from “The People’s Forum” tent. That runs contrary to its very naming.
RUSSELL HOBAN, Ponsonby
‘NEW ZEALAND’ FINE
New Zealand is our name and should remain. Abel Tasman used it referencing Zeeland (Sealand) in the Netherlands on or about 1645. Aoteoroa may or not have any special meaning. There are several explanations for its source, not least that it applied only to the South Island, that it may have been Kupe’s canoe, the “Land of the long white cloud” may well be a somewhat romantic meaning used in colonial times.
In reply to your correspondent, Riro Marett, Zeeland exists as the westernmost province of the Netherlands even now.
There is enough confusion overseas, especially as we render two versions of our anthem during sporting events or other ceremonies.
BRYAN FROST, Morrinsville.
HANDOUTS
It must be great for Jacinda and Shane to trip around the country handing out taxpayer money like it grows on trees. New Zealanders need to stop and think where that money came from and how hard they worked for it.
The average income in New Zealand is around $50,000. This amount attracts $10,000 in tax, which an average Kiwi has worked hard all year to pay. So where did the $100 million for Maori come from? Ten thousand average hardworking New Zealanders, that’s where.
JOHN OLIVER, Remuera.
NZ Herald 6/2/19 (Short & Sweet)
ON TREATY
When asked on TV what Article 1 of the Treaty says, Jacinda Ardern had a vague idea but Kelvin Davis and James Shaw hadn't a clue. One has to wonder about the competence of our leaders.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga.
Why don't you print the Treaty of Waitangi in full so everybody has an easy opportunity to see what this extremely short document actually says?
JEANETTE GRANT, Mt Eden.
ON OFFENCE
If I were Graham Steenson I wouldn't be too concerned about the term Pakeha. In my English-Maori dictionary the word simply means foreigner.
L. H CLEVERLY, Mt Roskill
Dominion Post 6/2/19 (In a few words)
The entitlements given in the Treaty of Waitangi do not apply exclusively to Maori. The Maori version of this document is clear that the provisions apply to ... all the people of New Zealand. Care must be taken to ensure that Maori rights do not infringe on the rights of everybody else.
KENNETH WARD, Woburn
The Press 6/2/19
THINE EAR
Perhaps the opening line in Tuesday’s editorial about Don Brash’s visit to Waitangi "to listen" and that we could all do with talking less and listening more, was inspired by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet?
While researching the abuse of charitable trusts, mainly by certain religious interests in New Zealand in the 1800s, I came across the following quotation above an editorial on the topic in the New Zealand Herald in 1869: "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all – To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
As I well know. Listening but also speaking out to challenge the status quo in New Zealand is a risk indeed, and one pays a price for doing so. It is encouraging then to see that there are some Maori who, like Brash, are prepared to listen.
MICHAEL GOUSMETT, Rangiora
Otago Daily Times 6/2/19
OUR CHOICE TO BE KNOWN AS A NEW ZEALANDER
THE current attempt to get the addition of ‘‘Aotearoa’’ to the official name for New Zealand via a nonbinding referendum seems rather premature when all official documents have, under the ‘‘ethnicity choices’’ column, European (Pakeha).
The only place to write ‘‘New Zealander’’, listed at the bottom of all the choices, is ‘‘Other’’.
In my experience, I found that young people completing enrolling documents for such things as industry training, all, without exception, chose to put ‘‘New Zealander’’ in the ‘‘Other’’ choice box.
Even my local GP wrote ‘‘New Zealander’’ in his annual registration form, only to get it returned changed back to ‘‘European’’.
Surely the first change to make, in this 21st century, is to edit the plethora of bureaucratic documentation and place in the ethnicity choices column (as the first choice) ‘‘New Zealander’’ (heritage).
This will allow my grandchildren, for example, who genetically are 50% Scottish, 25% Irish and 25% Maori, to decide if they are actually New Zealanders, for they certainly are not Europeans, or Scottish, or Irish, or Maori.
The same situation applies to the myriad other genetic combinations that now make up the citizenship of the New Zealand population.
The whole thrust of such documentation seems to be dominated by statisticians obsessed by trying to keep trace of where everyone has come from and forgetting about the relentless ‘‘diverse genetic enrichment’’ resulting in a nationhood of New Zealanders.
STAN RANDLE, Alexandra
Northland Age 5/2/18
GENTLY GENTLY
Re Dominion Post February 2, Petition ‘Should we be Aotearoa?’
Why do we need two names for our country? Who is wanting to change the name of New Zealand and include Aotearoa? In the treaty New Zealand was called Nu-Tirani.
It was Turi, as navigator of the Aotea, who brought the Moriori to New Zealand over 300 years before the Maori. It was the Moriori who used the name Aotea after their craft landed, meaning ‘the dawn’ or ‘Where we have landed’.
About 1890 a couple of European writers used it as a fanciful name for New Zealand.
Aotea is not a Maori name, the reason behind adding Aotearoa to it is that further down the track the words New Zealand will be removed.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
WAITANGI DAY GOLD FOR OUR IDENTITY
Thank goodness we have Waitangi Day in all its messy, muddy, shouting and dildo-throwing glory. Long may we have such a public space to debate who we are rather then some bland “New Zealand” holiday that morphs into the likes of the “Queen’s Birthday”. Waitangi Day looks forward, not backward to a province in the Netherlands. Waitangi Day is pure cultural gold.
For once we step out of our bland, postcolonial rut to hear the likes of Hone Harawira, Don Brash, a Maori housing panel and a debate on 1080, all in the same space. How on earth are we to know who we are as a people without some mud and feathers flying? It holds a priceless opportunity to define ourselves, our culture and the issues that underpin our successes, our failures and our identity.
The show has already begun when the two greatest blowhards, Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki and MP Shane Jones, eye each other up for some serious mud wrestling. Maybe the Auckland Pride festival should invite Tamaki to ride his Harley topless in it as an act of defining what that particular parade is about as it struggles and collapses.
This year’s biggest Waitangi disappointment is the cowardly and controlling prohibiting of mainstream media from “The People’s Forum” tent. That runs contrary to its very naming.
RUSSELL HOBAN, Ponsonby
‘NEW ZEALAND’ FINE
New Zealand is our name and should remain. Abel Tasman used it referencing Zeeland (Sealand) in the Netherlands on or about 1645. Aoteoroa may or not have any special meaning. There are several explanations for its source, not least that it applied only to the South Island, that it may have been Kupe’s canoe, the “Land of the long white cloud” may well be a somewhat romantic meaning used in colonial times.
In reply to your correspondent, Riro Marett, Zeeland exists as the westernmost province of the Netherlands even now.
There is enough confusion overseas, especially as we render two versions of our anthem during sporting events or other ceremonies.
BRYAN FROST, Morrinsville.
HANDOUTS
It must be great for Jacinda and Shane to trip around the country handing out taxpayer money like it grows on trees. New Zealanders need to stop and think where that money came from and how hard they worked for it.
The average income in New Zealand is around $50,000. This amount attracts $10,000 in tax, which an average Kiwi has worked hard all year to pay. So where did the $100 million for Maori come from? Ten thousand average hardworking New Zealanders, that’s where.
JOHN OLIVER, Remuera.
NZ Herald 6/2/19 (Short & Sweet)
ON TREATY
When asked on TV what Article 1 of the Treaty says, Jacinda Ardern had a vague idea but Kelvin Davis and James Shaw hadn't a clue. One has to wonder about the competence of our leaders.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga.
Why don't you print the Treaty of Waitangi in full so everybody has an easy opportunity to see what this extremely short document actually says?
JEANETTE GRANT, Mt Eden.
ON OFFENCE
If I were Graham Steenson I wouldn't be too concerned about the term Pakeha. In my English-Maori dictionary the word simply means foreigner.
L. H CLEVERLY, Mt Roskill
Dominion Post 6/2/19 (In a few words)
The entitlements given in the Treaty of Waitangi do not apply exclusively to Maori. The Maori version of this document is clear that the provisions apply to ... all the people of New Zealand. Care must be taken to ensure that Maori rights do not infringe on the rights of everybody else.
KENNETH WARD, Woburn
The Press 6/2/19
THINE EAR
Perhaps the opening line in Tuesday’s editorial about Don Brash’s visit to Waitangi "to listen" and that we could all do with talking less and listening more, was inspired by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet?
While researching the abuse of charitable trusts, mainly by certain religious interests in New Zealand in the 1800s, I came across the following quotation above an editorial on the topic in the New Zealand Herald in 1869: "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all – To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
As I well know. Listening but also speaking out to challenge the status quo in New Zealand is a risk indeed, and one pays a price for doing so. It is encouraging then to see that there are some Maori who, like Brash, are prepared to listen.
MICHAEL GOUSMETT, Rangiora
Otago Daily Times 6/2/19
OUR CHOICE TO BE KNOWN AS A NEW ZEALANDER
THE current attempt to get the addition of ‘‘Aotearoa’’ to the official name for New Zealand via a nonbinding referendum seems rather premature when all official documents have, under the ‘‘ethnicity choices’’ column, European (Pakeha).
The only place to write ‘‘New Zealander’’, listed at the bottom of all the choices, is ‘‘Other’’.
In my experience, I found that young people completing enrolling documents for such things as industry training, all, without exception, chose to put ‘‘New Zealander’’ in the ‘‘Other’’ choice box.
Even my local GP wrote ‘‘New Zealander’’ in his annual registration form, only to get it returned changed back to ‘‘European’’.
Surely the first change to make, in this 21st century, is to edit the plethora of bureaucratic documentation and place in the ethnicity choices column (as the first choice) ‘‘New Zealander’’ (heritage).
This will allow my grandchildren, for example, who genetically are 50% Scottish, 25% Irish and 25% Maori, to decide if they are actually New Zealanders, for they certainly are not Europeans, or Scottish, or Irish, or Maori.
The same situation applies to the myriad other genetic combinations that now make up the citizenship of the New Zealand population.
The whole thrust of such documentation seems to be dominated by statisticians obsessed by trying to keep trace of where everyone has come from and forgetting about the relentless ‘‘diverse genetic enrichment’’ resulting in a nationhood of New Zealanders.
STAN RANDLE, Alexandra
Northland Age 5/2/18
GENTLY GENTLY
Re Dominion Post February 2, Petition ‘Should we be Aotearoa?’
Why do we need two names for our country? Who is wanting to change the name of New Zealand and include Aotearoa? In the treaty New Zealand was called Nu-Tirani.
It was Turi, as navigator of the Aotea, who brought the Moriori to New Zealand over 300 years before the Maori. It was the Moriori who used the name Aotea after their craft landed, meaning ‘the dawn’ or ‘Where we have landed’.
About 1890 a couple of European writers used it as a fanciful name for New Zealand.
Aotea is not a Maori name, the reason behind adding Aotearoa to it is that further down the track the words New Zealand will be removed.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers