Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 17, 2023 14:51:35 GMT 12
David Lillis: SORRY, PROFESSOR MUTU – YOU DO NOT CONVINCE!
Can we Possibly Cooperate?
Recently, we have seen numerous articles and heard interviews on colonialism and historic repression from people such as Professor Margaret Mutu. We agree with Professor Mutu that colonialism brought negative experiences for indigenous people and that historic racism has left a legacy that is felt to this day. However, as Professor Mutu knows, indigenous communities were not themselves innocent of repression and exploitation of others. Just as various oppressors across different parts of the world at different times were guilty of murder and theft of property and lands, so too did indigenous societies engage in warfare, enslavement and cannibalism – behaviours that were not unknown before the arrival of Europeans – even here in New Zealand.
Professor Mutu and others, such as Professor Jacinta Ruru, who sees co-governance as an “opportunity for New Zealand” and He Puapua (Charters, 2019) as “super-exciting for every one of us in this country” (Ruru, 2022), should remember that we live in the here and now - and that 1840 belongs in the distant past when the world was much less complex and New Zealand was very different from the cosmopolitan nation of today. Clearly, Professor Mutu and Professor Ruru stand strongly on behalf of their people and no one should criticize any person for remaining strong on issues of genuine concern – issues relating to inequality in New Zealand, for example. But they go further than that, and this is where they and others should review what they are doing to this country. Matters are indeed developing in a negative direction that looks very ominous indeed for New Zealand.
Here I comment on two articles that are based on interviews with Professor Mutu and address her in the second person......
breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/05/david-lillis-sorry-professor-mutu-you.html
Can we Possibly Cooperate?
Recently, we have seen numerous articles and heard interviews on colonialism and historic repression from people such as Professor Margaret Mutu. We agree with Professor Mutu that colonialism brought negative experiences for indigenous people and that historic racism has left a legacy that is felt to this day. However, as Professor Mutu knows, indigenous communities were not themselves innocent of repression and exploitation of others. Just as various oppressors across different parts of the world at different times were guilty of murder and theft of property and lands, so too did indigenous societies engage in warfare, enslavement and cannibalism – behaviours that were not unknown before the arrival of Europeans – even here in New Zealand.
Professor Mutu and others, such as Professor Jacinta Ruru, who sees co-governance as an “opportunity for New Zealand” and He Puapua (Charters, 2019) as “super-exciting for every one of us in this country” (Ruru, 2022), should remember that we live in the here and now - and that 1840 belongs in the distant past when the world was much less complex and New Zealand was very different from the cosmopolitan nation of today. Clearly, Professor Mutu and Professor Ruru stand strongly on behalf of their people and no one should criticize any person for remaining strong on issues of genuine concern – issues relating to inequality in New Zealand, for example. But they go further than that, and this is where they and others should review what they are doing to this country. Matters are indeed developing in a negative direction that looks very ominous indeed for New Zealand.
Here I comment on two articles that are based on interviews with Professor Mutu and address her in the second person......
breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/05/david-lillis-sorry-professor-mutu-you.html