tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780195553484630768.post7118669199401747602..comments2019-07-25T17:58:25.599-07:00Comments on Tolerant Leftist: Ihumātao: The class conflict in Māori politics opens upAlex Birchallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03599907393446514542noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780195553484630768.post-9793442424459301522019-07-25T17:58:25.599-07:002019-07-25T17:58:25.599-07:00True Chris, in many ways, except that the class an...True Chris, in many ways, except that the class and financial conflict aspects, are being conflated/ manipulated by Fletchers, who are seeking to ensure that NO light gets through the crack of which you write. By offering money to a small number of Maori within this grouping, and encouraging conflict, Fletchers is setting one iwi grouping ,against the majority of the iwi, as was done by Muldoon at Bastion Point. It's the cynical, calculated tactic of the unethical. It's done in order to confuse those who don't look deeply enough in to the Ihumatao situation, to confuse especially politicians who just want to spout some 'quick fix' one-liner for ZB breakfast corn flakeys, and further, it's done to intimidate the true leaders like Pania Newton who have been brought up to respect the elders, but who now thankfully see that those values don't work when their respect is not offered back in return by what is in effect a small group of elders ( from a distant branch of the iwi) ,who have played on aspects of their Maori lineage within the iwi, while creeping off to nestle in to bed with Fletchers once the iwi trust was given to them. I have spoken to other elders out there who are strongly, vehemently against this mis-named agreement, which was forged in some cesspit with Fletchers without full discussion with the iwi. But those elders do not get the air time given to what I would call the traitorous ones . And they are traitors - no less than Judas - taking their 30 pieces of filthy lucre to sell off these life-giving lands for personal gain, and at profound emotional cost to the rest of the iwi - who hold a deep and abiding and unshakeable Aroha and care for their whenua. They truly WILL risk death in front of the bulldozers. I have seen that in their eyes, when they talk to me about it. Their land and the tupuna whose spirits reside there for them, are far too precious for them not to give this resistance their all. Fletchers would be well advised to do one decent corporate deed - to forgo their huge profits for once, and hand the whenua back IN FULL out of respect to the true owners from whom it was stolen in the 1800's, and out of thanks for all the other New Zealand lands they have been allowed to gobble up. Can they not give this one precious parcel back to these powerful ,and deeply courageous, wahine who are making a stand as Mana Whenua? Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03401657888627661328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780195553484630768.post-67064689605294111252019-07-25T17:05:11.008-07:002019-07-25T17:05:11.008-07:00With you all the way, Alex, but I would caution ag...With you all the way, Alex, but I would caution against downplaying the role of colonisation - both in the past and the present. The entire purpose of the nineteenth century colonisers was to obliterate the world of the indigenes and overlay it with their own. Yes, this required the opportunistic buying-off of those elites willing to be bought-off, but that did not, necessarily, entail them becoming a part of the capitalist enterprise. Capitalism and its class conflicts can only come into play after the destruction of the indigenous world. Not much of that world is left in New Zealand, but Ihumatao remains. Keeping it alive is about more than class conflict within Maoridom, it is about keeping open a crack in the monolithic colonial edifice for the light of Te Ao Maori to find its way in.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5780195553484630768.post-76464092446911678862019-07-25T14:31:15.677-07:002019-07-25T14:31:15.677-07:00Great analysis! The MSM don't know what to mak...Great analysis! The MSM don't know what to make of this stoush.Graham Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14653073277493805476noreply@blogger.com