Māori = Privileged citizens?

Don Brash’s notorious 2004 Orewa speech opened up a colossal size can of worms in terms of public feelings towards Māori. Besides bantering the Treaty and the then Labour government; Dr Brash proclaimed a so called ‘truth’ that in time people would come to believe – that Māori are privileged:

“We are one country with many peoples, not simply a society of Pakeha and Maori where the minority has a birth right to the upper hand”

Fast-forward to 2013 and the political noise has obviously gotten louder since the Orewa speech. Earlier this year, NZ First suggested that all Kiwis should pretend to be Māori in order to receive special privileges under NZ law; and recently former MP Bob Clarkson has condemned funding of $2.6 million for a small Māori housing project in Tauranga.

So…what exactly does Māori privilege look like?

Does privilege look like 39% of children living in high deprivation standards? Around 270,000 Kiwi kids live beneath the poverty line, and “just over half are Māori (59,651) and Pasifika (44,120)”. Does privilege look like 13.3% unemployment rate in the year to March 2012? Does privilege look like overrepresentation in crime, with 50% of all persons in prison being identified as Māori? Does privilege look like living 7.9 (female) and 8.6 (male) years less than other New Zealanders? If these features constitute the silhouette of privilege then I would hate to know what the lives of unprivileged Kiwis looks like.

Some people might say that these ‘privileged’ statistics are just indicators of social welfare, socio-economic dynamics, or maybe even laziness? I guess I’ll just be frank then shall I – the 19th century colonial vestiges of New Zealand’s era of colonisation remain stubbornly stained in Kiwi society. The systematic disenfranchisement of peoples from their economic and cultural cornerstones (land and language) created the generational loop that characterizes a majority of Māori ‘privilege’ today.

Others may tell me that Māori receive special privileges due to treaty settlements, but what some fail to comprehend is the difference between “rights and privileges”; and if you want an example of what Iwi and Hapū organizations do with their settlements, I challenge you to research what Ngāti Whātua o Orakei actioned once Bastion point and Ōkahu bay were given back to them.

The point of the matter is this – Māori are not privileged. Yes they have rights as do all New Zealanders; the only point of difference is indigeneity. Article 15 of the 2007 UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights, states that indigenous peoples: have a right to the “dignity and diversity of their culture”.

Believe it or not, but the Treaty is a key basis for New Zealand’s socio-economic future. It’s ironic that Dr Brash indicated that the “Treaty of Waitangi should not be used as the basis for giving greater civil, political or democratic rights to any particular ethnic group;” yet it is clearly obvious that since 1840 the majority group has indeed benefited greater than Māori.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trumpeting a pity party for Māori nor am I saying that people aren’t responsible for their choices; what I’m saying is that:
1. It is false to assign Māori as privileged citizens;
2. The 19th century colonisation of NZ severely stunted the socio-economic growth of Māori communities;
3. The 20th century urbanisation after WW2 further dug the whole deeper, as well as the strong social norm of ‘brown labour’ as the way to go for Māori and Pacific peoples;
4. The financial climate of the last 30 years has harshly impacted manufacturing and physical labour occupations.

So though treaty settlements have empowered a number of Iwi and Hapū organisations in the 21st century, it is evidently clear that Māori are not privileged.

ENDS

© Scoop Media