I merely pointed out that no other country that I am aware of makes the speaking of the language of it’s ‘indigenous’ people compulsory, including the United States, where the UN is based. If the basis of making Te Reo Māori compulsory in schools is because it is an ‘official’ language, then we should also apply the same rule to making the learning of sign language compulsory. It too is an official language in New Zealand. Do you support making learning sign language compulsory at school too?

I’m not sure where the plagiarism accusation comes from; Just because it’s been said before doesn’t mean it’s been plagiarized. I certainly quoted and linked to all points of reference in the article. The Moriori were ‘conquered’? All but obliterated appears to be closer to the truth. These days we have a word for that; genocide.

I do rather resent the accusation that I have a problem with “races”. What I have a problem with (and I’m pretty sure I’m far from alone here) is the culture of ongoing victim hood. I understand that there are inconsistencies in the English and Māori versions of the treaty and as a result, there have been real issues which needed to be addressed.

But even a rough count of the financial compensation paid since the first publicly acknowledged land claims raised after the Bastion point protests, pretty quickly gets measured in billions. A nation of around 4 million people simply can’t afford to keep stumping up this volume of cash, to assuage some outmoded sense of post-colonial guilt. Furthermore, ongoing compensation does nothing to settle grievances, promote national harmony or even move us any closer to any form of mutually acceptable settlement.

Aside from financial compensation issues, New Zealand as a country has made a greater effort to preserve the culture of the Māori people, than pretty much any other nation has made to preserve the cultures of it’s own indigenous peoples. It’s far from perfect and mistakes have undeniably been made, but I’ve traveled to virtually every continent on the planet and nowhere else have I seen the living culture of a distinct indigenous minority so actively integrated into the mainstream of the majority culture and society. In almost every other country, the indigenous minority have been marginalized to a far greater extent, sometimes to the point where the general population don’t even know they exist (an example would be the Ainu people of Japan).

And finally, whether I’ve lived here or abroad, this is my country as much as anyone else who was born here. I will therefore continue to express my opinions and if you don’t like it, then ‘hard shit’ yourself!

Different idiot, same bullshit strategy. Every time anyone dares to question the treaty status quo, the race card gets played with the use of words like racist and bigot. Whats bigoted about their opinion? As far as I can see all the guy(?) has done is point out a few inconsistencies in the UN argument and lampoon some some silly bugger who gets his face slapped on TV.

Moriori were conquered; Maori were not. Do Moriori still own their land? I think they do.

If the UN says Maori are indigenous and someone who has just ‘come back into the country’ doesn’t like it, then hard shit. Seriously, you’d be happier staying away but my guess is you’d transfer your problems with other races to the other country. Such is the nature of bigots. Paora FTW!

This is also precisely my point; This terrible event is also in the distant past. I’m not saying it should be forgotten, but just like the wrongs done to the Maori by some European settlers (who in turn had probably been wronged in some way – it wasn’t lords and ladies that emigrated here after all) it has to be forgiven if we are to move on as a nation.

Until we can put this stuff behind us, we will never find our true identity as New Zealanders.