18 Comments
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Sunshine's avatar

What about perpetrating a genocide, does that help you recognise one when you see it? When the government paid out a settlement to Moriori and apologised for allowing Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga (of which Labour MP Willie Jackson is a descendant) to occupy, enslave and kill them, while neither tribe even offered an apology, he said: "I've always said... I couldn't be held responsible for the acts of some of our tupuna, some of our ancestors." Either everyone gets to put the past behind them, or we all have to pay for what our ancestors did in perpetuity, in which case I guess I'm fine with Debbie Ngarewa-Packer complaining about her reopened wounds, but if remorse for the acts of ancestors is to be on the basis of race, then she can just shut up.

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

Exactly. You can’t have one rule where some groups get endless grievance rights over history, while others are told to move on. If accountability for ancestors is the standard, then it has to be applied fairly across the board... not selectively.

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Katrina's avatar

Great comment Sunshine. The hypocrisy of Willie Jackson’s words is mind boggling!

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lee's avatar

Not surprising really jackson is only interested in jackson

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Joanne Bedford's avatar

Yep - another issue for TPM to complain about but not actually do anything constructive. Great for gathering “likes” from other activists around the world on social media. Shallow think.

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

I agree completely - it’s all for clicks and outrage politics. When Irish Deb claims she “survived a genocide,” I can’t help but wonder if she’s confusing it with the Irish Potato Famine, An Gorta Mór (1845 to 1852), a true tragedy where over a million died and millions more were forced to emigrate.

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Michele Bishop's avatar

If the partly maori wanted to really be taken seriously and become a force in NZ, working on eliminating child suffering and death should be their No. 1 priority

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

Too right. They will always refuse to confront the neglect in Māori homes or the horrific number of babies being murdered, because that would mean doing the hard work of fixing real problems here in New Zealand - or should I say “Aotearoa.” It’s far easier for them to virtue signal about Palestine than take responsibility at home.

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Rear Admiral's avatar

Actually Michelle, I'm quite happy for their current moronic behaviour to continue - I'd hate to see them gain any more traction in the polls. They're the most racist, divisive party in parliament so I'm happy to see them languishing around 3%!

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

If Māori actually made the effort to get out and vote, they could probably pull more than 3 or 4 percent. The problem is, too many of their potential voters are either too hungover or coming down off meth to even bother turning up - and besides, voting is a colonial construct!

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Rear Admiral's avatar

Right on the mark Matua! I'm really enjoying your substack.

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

Cheers Admiral! It's great to have you here and contributing.

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Michele Bishop's avatar

I totally agree with you and their 3% supposing to represent all maori. Just made the comment knowing it will never happen with this lot. With a true maori party - it should. With this lot - never!

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WTF's avatar

If they fix the problem here they won’t be able to ask for so much money to ‘fix the problem’.

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Matua Kahurangi's avatar

Exactly, they avoid doing too thorough a job, or they risk making themselves redundant.

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Mick Wilson's avatar

Not a truer word spoken.

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Susan's avatar

Well said, shameful

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lee's avatar

Im sure she has never spoken about the blatant murder of maori babies simply because she knows it will never stop until their dna is bred out of them. Its a culture of violence and intimidation always has been.

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