Editorial #1: Self worth of Maori

In all the time that has occurred since I first found the cave entrance and all the things we have learned and discovered about New Zealand's hidden past, the unusual artifacts, the culture, the ancients...one thing really tore at me. This thing is something I want to change because most Maori elders seem incapable of doing it. And those receiving millions to teach culture are even worse at it while they earn money doing it...

It is to bring a new sense of self worth to Maori. Even when we finally prove they are not the true tangata Whenua, even when we prove they were not first, even when we prove a lie had been perpetuated for hundreds of years (that no one existed here before they did and they were of a stature that defies belief and is not Polynesian)... I still need to go the next step this process has led me - to somehow help Maori have a new sense of self worth by destroying the victim mentality many academics and activists (sometimes the same thing), perpetuate. I have many Maori friends, most of them are quite successful, a few very much so. Many stay at my house from time to time. Some are community leaders, some are quite poor. So I have seen both sides of the same people from the same neighbourhoods. One does well, the other does not. One blames others for his misfortune, the other blames no one and changes his own world and those around him/her.

I never thought I would get political in any way in this but my heart toward Maori is such that I am sick of them beating themselves up while waiting for handouts. Yes handouts are needed, but only ones that produce change. That mentality must be changed if Maori are to survive and not self-destruct into a plethora of self serving anger. I am sick of seeing Maori dominate the prisons and I am even more sick of those saying it is because of Europeans. Bollocks, it is 100% because their hearts are bad, they are victims of everything they have been taught by those who hearts are bad because of what they were taught. The young ones not in prison yet that learn to commit crime don't learn it from other races - they learn it from their brothers and sisters, while in the home. Home used to be a haven. A Maori home is Maori responsibility. But where is it? Outside of whanau responsibility, if you break the law you become the governments responsibility. Maori want their own programs to help with re-offending. I say if you offend against Maori, let them deal with it. If you offend against anyone else, let the State deal with it. You want to be dealt with by your own? Go rob your own! Yet that seldom happens because with theft, it's I want what you have that I don't!

I've heard Maori say "I do not respect you, your property, or your laws!"

So there is a deep seated problem revealed in words. But where did it all start? It began with the mistreatment of other tribes. There never was a Maori 'race' before Europeans arrived. They squabbled, fought, killed, took slaves and committed things we would deem atrocities. That same 'cultural' mentality exists now. Until the old wounds are cleaned, that festering sore will remain. I'm more interested in the 'heart' of Maori than the culture. The culture has done nothing to stop abuse within nor abuse without of Maoridom. That is not to say it is wholesale, but it is dominant in the news and on the streets and in the agencies.

Maori look for things to come externally but need an internal change. If they want to change levels and internal change is needed too. Stop blaming - it's just demeaning you. There are more disadvantaged people reaching this country ever year as refugees who go on to succeed without anything more than being allowed to enter, who see this as a land of opportunity. They get welfare initially, learn the language, get schooled and progress.

So, up-skill yourself, don't just learn how to speak Te Reo unless you plan to earn money from it or plan to teach it. Make it useful to the purpose of learning. Speaking Te Reo does not add to me as an individual at all. Nor does speaking my traditional cultural language. It's just a way of communication. Be nice, treat others as you would want to be treated in return - even if it doesn't come (that part is hard because 'culturally' Maori took physical violent action if offended).

For every downtrodden Maori you show me, I will show you another who has succeeded in this 'evil repressive colonial environment' many whinge about. Those Maori who succeed and rise above those around them are not victims. They are the true Maori warrior in a modern time. A warrior doesn't need to be fighting others, but he does need to be fighting perceptions and myths that he was taught when young (unless he was fortunate enough to be brought up in a family that had already overcome self imposed racial victimization).

Are you ill treated? Money can't change your circumstances if your your internal life is poorer and messier than your external circumstances. Certain academics just perpetuate the lie that change is anything but personal responsibility - they are bright enough to have a degree and yet stupid enough to miss the obvious (usually because of deep seated victimization they feed to students and which grows to become a monster).

Maori used to see themselves as great. Now they see themselves as cheap. Don't use the blame game like an angry academic recently did. Sit, think and know that in the early contact days Maori eagerly sought the new stuff to add to their lifestyle. They adapted new things to their lifestyle and chose to (not forced to) abandon their traditional ways because they saw a certain gain in it. Yet at one point Europeans were totally dependent on Maori to survive when their food ran out when supply ships failed to arrive. Maori helped and protected them - the missionaries especially.

Like many other human beings, Maori would abandon sacred things for personal gain. The sale of Mokomokai for gain or muskets was testament to that. Even today many would take family food money to buy a lotto tickets. That is not restricted to Maori but most lotto buyers are those who cant afford it without affecting things they need. The poor are the biggest buyers. But character (the self worth that is inside) will always determine whether a big win would profit them and the generations to follow - or ruin them.

Yes, from 1850 onward oppression came, personally I see it as a sort of karma (Maori have no word for that) for the way they treated each other and those here before them. Here's an analogy of karma. Kati Mamoe take Waiatahi land. Ngai Tahu take Kati Mamoe land. Europeans take Ngai Tahu land. Now overseas people buy up more NZ land. It constantly changes. Few lands have ever remained with a single people forever, but in this case it began with immigrants from the Pacific over-running those already here.

But what will bring an internal change to Maori? More importantly, what will take the victim mentality out? What will stop the blame game being used as an excuse regardless of race (and keep on mind that most who identify as Maori, are a greater percentage of another race than Maori). Belief is all it takes. Can Maori transfer belief? Not from where I sit they can't. Most just perpetuate the lie that Maori are weak, poor, depressed and disadvantaged. And every time one says they are I will point to a recent immigrant who had less available to him than Maori - but now has more. Ask why? For he didn't see anything but opportunity - he had self belief which transformed into self worth.

Many Maori parents raise children with a belief that they are victims and this then turns them into greater victims than their parents ever were because it becomes deeper seated in the psyche. Tell someone something enough and they will believe it. If you are Maori and believe you are disadvantaged - guess what? - YOU ARE! If you are Maori and believe the world is open to you - guess what? IT IS!

It will be whatever you believe it is. Stop listening to the twisted minds of racists and victims. Be the person you were meant to be, shaped by your belief not what someone with a twisted soul tells you you are! The below statement from a wise and wonderful woman says it all.

There are many who will make you believe that getting stuff given to you will change you. No it won't, it will just make you dependent on the stuff. Where is your self worth? Change your internal speak (that which is in your head about YOU). Retrain, work hard at your dream. You have a dream - we all have, even if it is suppressed by yourself or those around you. Maybe one day soon some real teachers within Maoridom will arise who will teach the young to dream, and to chase their dream, leaders who will never speak and teach of the past as something that holds you back but to shape your future because no one else will do it for you.

Those young Maori who will break into your car tonight or your house tomorrow, have no dream, they have no hope, they are victims of the same mentality spouted forth by certain unsettled individuals. That sense of hopelessness has been transferred by their parents and anger makes them take and the ancient culture contributes to that. When will Maori leaders take the unusual step of trying to change internal belief inside families instead of thinking money has any real effect. It was this chase of gain that destroyed the soul of Maori from 1810 onwards. It's not cultural, greed occurs with those who have money and those that do not.

Forget how you think of how others frame you or see you. Unless you see yourself as being worth something you will remain as nothing. Her'es the main point. Your race and colour has NOTHING to do with it. If you think it does you are a self perpetuating victim - a victim of your own racism.