Culture shock
I am sure all Ka¯ piti News readers are aware of the devastating effects that slavery has had on various people throughout the ages. In some ways our whole world is being restructured to combat the effects that this terrible practise has had on humans.
No one could argue that slavery is anything other than a barbaric practice.
Which is why I was shocked to read on page 46 of the Ka¯ piti News, Feb 5, that apparently Pa¯ keha¯ , who were enslaved by Ma¯ ori, “often got what they deserved”.
In a book review by Peter Shand of the book entitled Pakeha Slaves, Maori Masters ,by Trevor Bentley, Peter Shand makes a mockery of the fact the Pa¯ keha¯ were enslaved and often eaten by Ma¯ ori. He also had the audacity to mock the practice of cannibalism, suggesting that Pa¯keha¯ didn’t taste all that good, and that Negro American sailors tasted like tobacco. As if murdered dead people with varying amounts of melanin in their skins taste different from one another when cooked.
It’s hard to imagine anything more racist than Mr Shand’s comments that often Pa¯keha¯ deserved to be enslaved, except perhaps the closing remarks of his book review, “Some of it is pretty brutal, but if you’ve watched or read, say Game of Thrones then you should be able to handle it.”
Imagine that sort of insensitive remark being applied to the brutality of the Jewish Holocaust.
We live in such a PC country today that if anyone recounts that a Ma¯ ori, who are apparently a minority group today, was so much as mistreated in the 1800s, then a court case will immediately ensue, usually resulting in reparations and an unelected seat in local government for the descendants of the poor soul. Not so if you are a descendant of the enslaved and eaten Pa¯ keha¯ though, who were a tiny minority group in New Zealand at the time.
I believe that we are beginning to see the results of successive governments forced indoctrination of our young. That is that colonialism, the state of moving from the chaos and violence of slavery and cannibalism to driving a Toyota and settling back to watch Netflix, was a terrible thing for Ma¯ ori, unleashed on them by Pa¯ keha¯ . The shocking result being that Pa¯ keha¯ were, and still are the enemy. It is ok to single them out, mock them publicly in the media and even to enslave and eat them, if you can put up with the bad taste.
ANDY OAKLEY RAUMATI BEACH