Attention Editor
This is an open letter from the Green Party MPs to the Race Relations Commissioner offering the Party's support for the
issues raised in his recent speech. Please feel free to either publish in full or quote from.
This letter was faxed to the Commissioner's office at 4pm this afternoon.
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6 December 2002
Joris de Bres Race Relations Commissioner
Tënä koe e te kaikawe I te punga o tënei waka,
The Greens extend to you our support at this challenging time. We understand the purpose of your speech and endorse your
right, indeed responsibility to raise the issues that you did. In our view you were simply encouraging New Zealanders to
think about and consider our own colonial history in an open way.
We are similarly distressed that it remains so difficult to talk openly about our history in this country. Mäori
cultural values are readily criticised but a public assessment of the facts of our colonial past is considered divisive.
We believe that until there is a willingness to address the wounds of the past we cannot move forward as a nation. This
will require all New Zealanders acknowledging our history, without guilt, but with a genuine understanding of the
provisions of Te Tiriti O Waitangi and a respect for different cultural values.
We wish to reaffirm our support for you in the position of Race Relations Commissioner and your raising of these sorts
of issues.
Na Mätou
Signed: Jeanette Fitzsimons Rod Donald Metiria Turei Nandor Tanczos
Sue Kedgley Sue Bradford Keith Locke
The Greens