Liberty, Fraternity and Equality: New Zealand Wonders Where you have Gone

This Tangata Whenua thing will be the death of New Zealand. I understand it fair enough - the idea that Maori are the people of the land, owners of the land, indigenous people of New Zealand, with all the legal rights and intracacies that this now entails. I have a question though: why can't I be tangata whenua? I've lived here practically all my life. I've been away from New Zealand for less than one full year and I am now 22 years old. I consider this country my home more than anywhere else. But it's not really my home because someone else has more claim to it than I? Why can't I be tangata whenua?

Because I wasn't born here? Neither were the first generation of Maori people. They ventured here in water-bound vessels just like all British after them. And according to scientific discovery and Maori tales, they weren't even the first people to do so. There were people in New Zealand before the maori arrived from Polynesia. And just in case there is any confusion, yes, that is indeed where you are originally from. You didn't just grow out of the land. Maori immigrated here, just like everybody else.

The fact that there were people here before the Maori also discounts the idea that they have more connection to the land because they have been here longer. The Vikings were in North America well before any other peoples - does that mean that North America belongs to them? At least the American Indians and the Aborigines can recount their history back for thousands of years - and New Zealand's Maori are much better off than either of those peoples.

Also, if the idea of tangata whenua is for Maori people only and does not apply to Europeans, does that mean that nobody can consider themselves tangata whenua? Because there are no full blooded Maori in New Zealand (or anywhere else for that matter). None whatsoever. Surely there are some Maori people with a majority of Maori blood, but I highly doubt that anyone can trace their ancestry all the way back to the 1200s or whenever Maori arrived, and see not a scrap of "foreign" blood. It's like white people don't count. Like we are not as good as Maori or like some Maori want special rights that white people can't have.

As a side note, I might just add that Mr. Hone Harawira, who is so against his children dating Pakeha *cough cough racism cough cough*, has Pakeha blood running through his veins. I wonder if he feels tainted at all.

I am not anti-Maori, I'm not racist, I'm not being rude for the sake of it. I think Maori culture is cool. Your language is neat. It's cool that you can have something that can be said to be uniquely yours. It's this bloody foreshore-seabed issue again that has me worked up. However, something that everybody must share (and should share) like the beaches of New Zealand should never be specifically owned by anyone. The fact that anything is "owned by the Crown" doesn't actually mean anything. It doesn't mean that Maori or Indian or Chinese or whoever cannot use it because they are not British. "The Crown" basically represents the government, which thus represents New Zealand and its people. But what does Maoridom represent? Does Maoridom represent all of New Zealand and its people or does it just represent the interests of the Maori? Or some Maori, beause those I've talked to think that this issue is a big fuss about nothing. So a legislation that acknowledges the true owners of New Zealand's beaches as the Maori serves Maoridom and not New Zealand as a whole. That seems a little separatist doesn't it?

And then in comes Mr. Racist Hone Harawira. Dear Mr. Harawira, did you know that racism goes more ways than just white to black? Were you aware that minorities can be racist too? That's right, when somebody calls me Honky or Palangi or white trash or whatever, and that same somebody considers white people as trash or less than them, they are being racist whether they are a minority or not. So as much as I believe Rodney Hide is an overweight conservative with politics that are outdated, insulting him and then refusing to talk to white reporters can be seen as racism. As though our white politicians and white reporters are less than coloured politicians and reporters?

All Rodney did was put in the word free, which I think is a very good addition. I'm not saying that we would have had to pay to go to the beach, but I wouldn't put it past anyone, least of all Mr. Harawira to charge for something that should be everyone's right. And the minute the word free came into play, suddenly the whole idea was off. Suddenly, Harawira no longer wanted to play with anyone. How dare they put the word free in there, as though anybody could come wandering onto a Maori's land without paying the proper respect? And if that respect should come in New Zealand dollars, then all the better.

Perhaps ol' Harawira should learn from Paul Henry's mistake. It's not what you look like or where your parents come from that decides whether or not you can call yourself a New Zealander. It shouldn't be your race that decides whether or not you can call New Zealand home.

And as beautiful citizens of the human race, we should be able to stand up and denounce racism wherever we find it. I'm denouncing you, Hone Harawira.

I plan on going to the beach tomorrow. Takapuna beach in fact. Hopefully I can walk on it as a New Zealander, rather than as a white person.