Another lecture on Maori...Yeah right..

Don Esslemont...

Don Esslemont took the opportunity of his Access Radio broadcast to yet again state his entrenched views on Maori, well not Maori actually, because in his view no Maori actually exist, what he means is part Maori.

To do this he took the present review of our constitution as his start point. And his explanation of it was in the best school masterly manner and I have no criticism of that part.

He stated that ‘No person in their right mind could claim that Maori exist because from 1940 [or some such date] all Maori are now part Maori”, or words to that effect.

In effect Don is suggesting that because no Maori now exist, issues like Maori seats in Parliament which are a part of our constitution should be removed from that constitution. Now if I hear Don correctly, he is not suggesting that we should ask those who consider themselves Maori if they wish to continue to do so…for Don has made that decision for them…so let’s now take that strange view one step further.

Just to set the scene; A Scottish settler fleeing persecution back home arrives in NZ back in 1940. He meets and falls in love with a young Maori woman; they marry and have two sons. The two sons in Dons view are now no-longer Maori, automatically and instantly because they are in his view Part Maori.

But on checking with the Father we find that because he married the woman of his dreams he wants to not only see his sons being Maori but he himself would prefer to be called Maori simply because his ill treatment as a part Scottish/English person who was so badly treated that he was driven out of his homeland and he is absolutely ashamed of his heritage. Now any logical and right minded person would see that: The Father could call himself a Scottish New Zealander and the Mother and Sons could call themselves Maori New Zealanders. That choice should be theirs…not Don’s.

Constitutions like the US model: meant little to the masses of human beings that were in the US even after the constitution was signed, because they continued to be enslaved, [authors of the constitution owned slaves], pushed off their land, raped and murdered in their thousands. If Don believes in One Law for all as he claims then he would accept the NZ model constitution that has served us well and has not led us down the track of race riots, slavery and or South African White style [English/Dutch] apartheid.

It was ironic that it was South African white racists who banned Maori from being a part of All Back teams. Didn’t they know that Maori didn’t exist during the 1950’s and 1960’s…they should have contacted Don before banning Maori; he could have explained to them the error of their ways. Have you noticed that Nelson Mandela didn’t ban whites from their national teams? A nice chap is that Nelson Mandela.