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Post by Kiwi Frontline on Apr 3, 2022 10:16:11 GMT 12
ONE PEOPLE WITH THE ENGLISH
P H writes > The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi meant that all Maori (including the chiefs) became not "partners" but subjects of the Crown. As missionary, Henry Williams, who drafted the Treaty and clarified its provisions to the chiefs at Waitangi, explains:
“We gave them [the chiefs] but one version, explaining clause by clause, showing the advantage to them of being taken under the fostering care of the British Government, by which act they would become one people with the English, in the suppression of wars, and every lawless act; under one Sovereign, and one Law, human and divine.”
“One people with the English” meant the language and culture of the public square became the English language and the Western post-enlightenment culture brought by the settlers. Subcultural associations [including but not limited to Maori language and culture] -- expressed within the law -- became private matters for those concerned.
Nobody is denying the right of someone of mixed European-Maori descent to affiliate to a Maori kin group and identify with Maori culture -- in their own time and on their own dime.
It's when utu-seeking radical 'parts' start trying to aggressively thrust Maori language and culture in the public square where it doesn't belong and demanding political and financial patronage out of all proportion to their value as productive individuals the rest of us have the right to tell them to FO.
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