The New Zealand "Race"

[Prowd_Keewee]

Ki Ora!

I see myself as a New Zealander. I mean in terms of race when asked what ethnicity I am I simply reply 'New Zealander'. I am of Maori and European descent but I believe that if we are to move on together as one nation we have to identify ourselves as one people and forget the ties that have separated us from each other. I know that doing this may not be as simple as I have put it but I believe that in order for New Zealand to move on as one nation the people have to be together and as one. It is clear that many people may not want to be seperated from their culture especially from a Maori point of view but the combination of the two cultures of Aotearoa and the bringing out of the best of these two peoples will bring greater equality to the people New Zealand. I also believe that the so called 'Europeans' of New Zealand have to get rid of this title. The word 'European' identifies a person that is from Europe. Why should the white people of New Zealand connect themselves to Europe merely because of the fact that they can trace their ancestry back to Europe. New Zealand is where they were born and it is their home. Therefore they can at least just identify themselves as Pakeha New Zealanders or White New Zealanders if not merely just 'New Zealanders'. Soo if you have anything to say in reply to my views please email me or post a reply on this message board and could I please just add that I am a 16 year old school boy so i apoligise for any spelling and grammar errors.

[Cam_NZ]

its KIA ORA
not KI ORA

[kiwi_ashley]

I completely agree - i'm a kiwi (i was born in Aukland), but because most of my family were born in Europe most people assume that i cant be a new-zealander. Its nice to know that some one agrees with me! I'm a 15 year old girl by the way.

[Prowd_Keewee]

Heyyyyy!

Where are your European Ancestors from? I am part Maori, a quarter to be exact and i have been told by my father that his family originated in Norway and on my Mothers side, England and Ireland.

It is pretty interesting researching your family history, finding out where you orginated and all that.

Catch you later.
Aaron

[athenean]

Originally posted by Prowd_Keewee
Heyyyyy!

Where are your European Ancestors from? I am part Maori, a quarter to be exact and i have been told by my father that his family originated in Norway and on my Mothers side, England and Ireland.

It is pretty interesting researching your family history, finding out where you orginated and all that.

Catch you later.
Aaron

I must clarify this because I see people are confused when they mention the word race.
Race refers to the racial group you belong eg European,Polynesian,Negroid,etc It has nothing to do with the country you were born, a Polynesian may be born in New Zealand, He is still a Polynesian, a NZ Polynesian, he can not change that. You may change your countries but you can not change your race. A European born in NZ or anywhere else is still a European. He can not change that.
What you can change is the country of residence and your citizenship. You may become a New Zealander But this does not change your race.

Regards
From Athenean

[Prowd_Keewee]

Gdayyyy...

Technically you can change your country but can you reallyyyy???

Im not discriminating against asian people in any way when i say this but, say a New Zealander was too travel to China and decided to become Chinese.. Technically this is possible but would people really respect you as a Chinese person? Countries with, you could say short historys such as Australia, America and New Zealand seem to be the ideal countries for people from around the world to come to and start calling themselves one of the countries own.

On many forms, for example the census you are asked what Ethnicity you are. Is ethnicity the same as race?? You are asked if you a Chinese, Indian, Dutch, with no regard to your skin colour.

So all in all, many people have different interpretations of the word "Race" and what is technically true is not always regarded as true by everyone.

Regards
Aaron.

[Kimba]

To me its important to be a member of the Human race as there are so many important issues that transcend petty bickering, pollution is rife in NZ thru the farming and forestry, there is research available now that links the huge amount of pollution by pesticides, animal run-off, sileage stack run-off, dips and sprays etc etc to the high suicide rate in our country. People and especcially the susceptible young are being exposed to the mind-altering effects of these chemicals and pollutants. the greeness hides all this . We think we are clean to go along with the green!!! the quicker the farms revert back to bush and the quicker our forestry industry folds the better for all of us, black, white or brindle. . .Maori, Pakeha, Asian etc

[Ngeruita]

>>I see myself as a New Zealander. I mean in terms of race when asked what ethnicity I am I simply reply 'New Zealander'. I am of Maori and European descent but I believe that if we are to move on together as one nation we have to identify ourselves as one people and forget the ties that have separated us from each other.<<

Well, Pakeha have long wanted that attitude to be adopted by Maori - well done you are assimilated. But it is in fact an ideology that is racist in design. Because the fights that have been between Pakeha and Maori are mainly been issues of Justice and fair play - not race. Race has just been an excuse. If you think people becoming 'one' will fix the problem that you are very ignorant of the effects of colonisation and history of the world.

>> I know that doing this may not be as simple as I have put it but I believe that in order for New Zealand to move on as one nation the people have to be together and as one.<<
No it needs to have justice and equity across the board regardless of race - based on agreements, your word and law. Many of the rights of Maori have been denied - laws that are recognised when applied to Pakeha - automatically are discounted when applied to "maori". Making something a 'maori' issue gives the dominant society a lot of leeway to step over the rights of others.

>>It is clear that many people may not want to be seperated from their culture especially from a Maori point of view but the combination of the two cultures of Aotearoa and the bringing out of the best of these two peoples will bring greater equality to the people New Zealand.<<
Sadly you obviously know little of history. Or you would know that Pakeha wished the Maori culture to be irradicated and everyone have a White culture. That in the main has NOT changed. Maori attitude of the tipuna was to integrate - to learn and share. Make families - grow. Maori cultures have never been static - Maori culture is a SEA based culture not a land one - trade, change and exchange was frequent. There are those things Maori do better which they will not give up - and these things are not only rejected by Pakeha culture but is in opposition to it. Allow people to live - it is only fear that makes people want to make everyone the same. Allow diversity - Pakeha's don't have all the answers and desperately need to get a clue for many of their thinking is destructive to all life on this planet.

>>Soo if you have anything to say in reply to my views please email me or post a reply on this message board and could I please just add that I am a 16 year old school boy so i apoligise for any spelling and grammar errors. <<

Ahh you're just a kid, well that's excuseable. I am not a New Zealander. Aotearoa was here long before New Zealand ever was. IF Maori were to adopt that which is taught in schools 'to be one' all that which has made a significant contribution to the world would never have been.

Were you aware that Mahatma Gandhi learnt from the first sit-ins and success of the Maori of Parihaka how to defeat the British. The small winning against the mighty. In this instince where the New Zealanders aim was to totally annihilate every Maori off the planet?

Were you aware that Maori were outnumbered by 6-10 but won many battles threw greater wit and inventing trench warfare. Which was than adopted (poorly) by the Brits in their Boer/first world wars?

If you get your education from school I doubt you know the many great things Maori are have done.

If you wish for peace and justice and progress it does not come from being all the same - because even within anyone race we are not all the same. It is a foolish and stupid teaching. The Native Americans if they become white are they then deserving of not having their women sterolized, used as guinea pigs for new drugs, the children by pedophile rings? Or do they have a right to be treated as human beings because they're human?

Be wary of what they teach you in schools - it is often a very very poor place to get an education.

[hiri28]

thankyou, I do agre schools are not the best places to learn about NZ / Maori history. Maori were simply more intelligent than the colonisers and this is born out in their forms of resistance, still continuing today, and in their past victories in our civil wars. As I read somewhere on this site the Gate Pa battle of 1864 has been described as the prime example of intelligence vs technology. The British had all the weoponry but Maori had the ultimate weopon, their minds and ofcourse won against huge odds! Yes to ouor previous poster as you so well put it we Maori have influenced many great leaders aroound the world.

[tino-che]

Race is a myth created in the enlightenment period of Europe and 17th century science...and verified by faulty biology. The idea of race was invented to give superiority to one group over another.

'It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; but no rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man.' (Huxley, l865, pp. 17-18).

These are some of the reason for the need for racial division. To allow for defined class of races, lower races and higher races.

The western world continues these ideas today based on the need for social division and assimilation.

A modern idea called race does exist, it is no longer a biological division as the racialist fundamentalists would have you believe, it is the one that is maintained on a social level to give superiority to the one group and suppress and oppress another, it is the same old biases system rapped in new skin...

Racism to me is not ones biased one-eyed attitude toward another person or group, it is believing and acting out ideas of race which cannot be maintained without inducing racialist ideas.

So be a proud Kiwi and/or New Zealander or whatever you want to be, but ask any docter, biologist, whoever...your blood is your blood, there is AO, AB- and other blood types, but there isnt such a thing as half/third/quarter Maori blood type...another myth..

Tino Che - http://www.aotearoa.maori.nz