Word: maori
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...epicenter is the Treaty of Waitangi, a 150-word document as obscure as it is brief. Since the 1980s, when a tribunal was set up to hear Maori claims for redress, successive governments have invested the treaty with near-constitutional mystique. So far, of a thousand claims registered, only a quarter have been heard. The claims process has given rise to a wealthy Maori elite of lawyers, politicians and cultural consultants. Some have grown adept, Brash says, at interpreting the document to suit their own purposes. "This generation of New Zealanders recognized that there were wrongs in the past," says...
...Leanne Wilson doesn't care: the treaty's done nothing for her, she says. Three years ago the single mother bought a takeaway food shop in the tiny Coromandel town of Waitakaruru. "I did it all myself," she says. "I don't get anything from the iwi (tribes). The Maori Development Ministry gave me advice, but that's it. I stood on my own feet." For some New Zealanders, like Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, the treaty is more about standing side by side. It "created the partnership between two peoples of this country - one the colonizer, the other...
...what's wrong with that? says Hamilton lawyer Angeline Greensill, a leader of the Mana Maori Movement. After all, Maori have lost most of their land: "We started with 66 million acres and now we're down to 3 million." This and other wrongs mean New Zealand's half-million Maori "are not doing as well economically and socially and in health terms. You've got to have policies that address that and bring them up to the same level as white New Zealanders...
Talking of "one group of people called Maori and another called non-Maori" helps neither side, argues Brash. In any case, there's no clear dividing line. Of those who called themselves Maori in the last census, almost half ticked a "non-Maori" identity box as well. Half of Maori children have a non-Maori parent. Maori in need, Brash says, would be better helped as Kiwis than as members of a racial group. "The simple fact of being Maori doesn't necessarily mean people need assistance," whether it's financial aid or lower university entrance marks. In Tauranga, fireman...
Lawyer Greensill scoffs at the idea that Maori are just part of a multi-ethnic New Zealand. "The ideal under the Treaty was a partnership. Pakeha were welcome to come here to our country and share it. Mr. Brash wants us to become New Zealanders. But the British when they came here referred to Maori as New Zealanders. I'm sure he doesn't want everybody to become Maori. I personally don't want to be like him." Shop owner Wilson is more easygoing. She doesn't like Brash: "He's just trying to grab votes." But she thinks...