Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jan 5, 2020 15:25:41 GMT 12
SPURIOUS REASONS FOR MAORI RIGHTS TO WATER
Bruce Moon writes > Here are the Waitangi Tribunal's "reasons" why Maoris have special rights to water with my brief comments on them following the ‘dash’ -.
1. The water resource has been relied upon as a source of food;- but this is exactly the same for everybody
2. The water resource has been relied upon as a source of textiles or other materials; - ditto
3. The water resource has been relied upon for travel or trade; - ditto
4. The water resource has been used in the rituals central to the spiritual life of the hapū; - as in Christian baptism
5. The water resource has a mauri (life force); - mumbo-jumbo
6. The water resource is celebrated or referred to in waiata; - so singing about it gives Maori a "right" to it?
7. The water resource is celebrated or referred to in whakatauki; - i.e. proverbs, e.g. "you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink", snap!
8. The people have identified taniwha as residing in the water resource; - mumbo-jumbo (*)
9. The people have exercised kaitiakitanga over the water resource; - and sent untreated sewage into streams
10. The people have exercised mana or rangatiratanga over the water resource; - nonsense
11. Whakapapa identifies a cosmological connection with the water resource; - more mumbo-jumbo
12. There is a continuing recognised claim to land or territory in which the resource is situated, and title has been maintained to ‘some, if not all, of the land on (or below) which the water resource sits’. - If so, the same rule applies to all other non-Maori landowners in New Zealand.
Apparently we are expected to take all this rubbish seriously, having, as taxpayers, paid the Waitangi Tribunal handsomely for having provided it to us.
(*) A belief that “taniwhas” existed in dangerous places like whirlpools might have had a place in the Stone Age society of pre-European Maoris. For a body as influential as the Tribunal to suggest that this confers rights of any sort on their descendants today is an absurdity.
Bruce Moon writes > Here are the Waitangi Tribunal's "reasons" why Maoris have special rights to water with my brief comments on them following the ‘dash’ -.
1. The water resource has been relied upon as a source of food;- but this is exactly the same for everybody
2. The water resource has been relied upon as a source of textiles or other materials; - ditto
3. The water resource has been relied upon for travel or trade; - ditto
4. The water resource has been used in the rituals central to the spiritual life of the hapū; - as in Christian baptism
5. The water resource has a mauri (life force); - mumbo-jumbo
6. The water resource is celebrated or referred to in waiata; - so singing about it gives Maori a "right" to it?
7. The water resource is celebrated or referred to in whakatauki; - i.e. proverbs, e.g. "you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink", snap!
8. The people have identified taniwha as residing in the water resource; - mumbo-jumbo (*)
9. The people have exercised kaitiakitanga over the water resource; - and sent untreated sewage into streams
10. The people have exercised mana or rangatiratanga over the water resource; - nonsense
11. Whakapapa identifies a cosmological connection with the water resource; - more mumbo-jumbo
12. There is a continuing recognised claim to land or territory in which the resource is situated, and title has been maintained to ‘some, if not all, of the land on (or below) which the water resource sits’. - If so, the same rule applies to all other non-Maori landowners in New Zealand.
Apparently we are expected to take all this rubbish seriously, having, as taxpayers, paid the Waitangi Tribunal handsomely for having provided it to us.
(*) A belief that “taniwhas” existed in dangerous places like whirlpools might have had a place in the Stone Age society of pre-European Maoris. For a body as influential as the Tribunal to suggest that this confers rights of any sort on their descendants today is an absurdity.