Post by Kiwi Frontline on Feb 1, 2019 5:51:36 GMT 12
Weekend Sun / Sunlive 1/2/19
CORRECT TERMINOLOGY
I wonder what P. Dey’s definition of ‘indigenous’ is (The Weekend Sun, January 25)?
David Round, a Canterbury law lecturer, writes: “The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that someone or something indigenous is ’born or produced naturally in a land or region; native to that soil, region. According to the dictionaries, those are the only two things this English word can mean; being born somewhere, or, having ancestors who have been there forever.”
Therefore in the former sense, all New Zealanders born here are indigenous, not just Maoris.
And in the latter sense, even Dey admits in the letter that Maoris arrived here from somewhere else around 1250AD.
Hence, ‘so-called indigenous’ seems to be the correct terminology to me?
G PARKER, Whangarei.
A HEARTBEAT IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
P. Dey is quite incorrect to claim that Maori are indigenous to New Zealand. All his quoted evidence only confirms when Maori arrived and nothing else.
He is sadly and badly misinformed. Maori are not indigenous, certainly according to various dictionary definitions, for example from Collins: “Indigenous people or things belong to the country in which they are found, rather than coming there or being brought there from another country.”
Maori are not indigenous to New Zealand because they migrated here from several Pacific islands, clearly confirmed by their own history.
By their own tradition, the spirits of Maori when they die return to Hawaiki, their original homeland, leaving from Cape Reinga. Hardly credible for a claim to being indigenous.
Aborigines in Australia are indigenous, as are the bushmen of South Africa, as are native Americans, having lived in their countries for many thousands of years.
Yes, Maori were the first migrants to settle here in numbers, although others were already here, possibly Moriori. The fact remains that as a people Maori are migrants, like all of us who have settled here. Yes, Maori arrived before others by several centuries - a mere heartbeat in the history of human evolution.
P HICKLING, Papamoa Beach.
UNDISPUTED SINCE 1840
P. Dey states that carbon dating proves that no settlement preceded the arrival of the first fleet.
This may be correct in the small area carbon dated, but over 500 chiefs representing about 75,000 of their people from all over the country acknowledged and accepted they were tangata Maori, and not tangata whenua or the indigenous people of New Zealand when they signed the Tiriti o Waitangi.
This must be more reliable than carbon dating from one small area.
While there was five hours of debate on the Tiriti o Waitangi on the February 5, 1840, there was no mention made that the chiefs and their people were not tangata Maori.
While just about everything about the Tiriti has been disputed, this has never been disputed since the Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840.
R BAKER, Palmerston North.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
CORRECT TERMINOLOGY
I wonder what P. Dey’s definition of ‘indigenous’ is (The Weekend Sun, January 25)?
David Round, a Canterbury law lecturer, writes: “The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that someone or something indigenous is ’born or produced naturally in a land or region; native to that soil, region. According to the dictionaries, those are the only two things this English word can mean; being born somewhere, or, having ancestors who have been there forever.”
Therefore in the former sense, all New Zealanders born here are indigenous, not just Maoris.
And in the latter sense, even Dey admits in the letter that Maoris arrived here from somewhere else around 1250AD.
Hence, ‘so-called indigenous’ seems to be the correct terminology to me?
G PARKER, Whangarei.
A HEARTBEAT IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
P. Dey is quite incorrect to claim that Maori are indigenous to New Zealand. All his quoted evidence only confirms when Maori arrived and nothing else.
He is sadly and badly misinformed. Maori are not indigenous, certainly according to various dictionary definitions, for example from Collins: “Indigenous people or things belong to the country in which they are found, rather than coming there or being brought there from another country.”
Maori are not indigenous to New Zealand because they migrated here from several Pacific islands, clearly confirmed by their own history.
By their own tradition, the spirits of Maori when they die return to Hawaiki, their original homeland, leaving from Cape Reinga. Hardly credible for a claim to being indigenous.
Aborigines in Australia are indigenous, as are the bushmen of South Africa, as are native Americans, having lived in their countries for many thousands of years.
Yes, Maori were the first migrants to settle here in numbers, although others were already here, possibly Moriori. The fact remains that as a people Maori are migrants, like all of us who have settled here. Yes, Maori arrived before others by several centuries - a mere heartbeat in the history of human evolution.
P HICKLING, Papamoa Beach.
UNDISPUTED SINCE 1840
P. Dey states that carbon dating proves that no settlement preceded the arrival of the first fleet.
This may be correct in the small area carbon dated, but over 500 chiefs representing about 75,000 of their people from all over the country acknowledged and accepted they were tangata Maori, and not tangata whenua or the indigenous people of New Zealand when they signed the Tiriti o Waitangi.
This must be more reliable than carbon dating from one small area.
While there was five hours of debate on the Tiriti o Waitangi on the February 5, 1840, there was no mention made that the chiefs and their people were not tangata Maori.
While just about everything about the Tiriti has been disputed, this has never been disputed since the Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840.
R BAKER, Palmerston North.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers