Life of a Maori Slave 1827
1832 – Earle, A.
A Narrative of a Nine Months’ Residence in New Zealand, in 1827

The scene I have just described brings into consideration the subject of slavery, as it now exists in New Zealand. That slavery should be the custom of savage nations and cannibals, is not a cause of wonder: they are the only class of human beings it ought to remain with. Here slavery assumes its most hideous shape! Every one they can effect a seizure of in an enemy’s country becomes the slave of the captors. Chiefs are never made prisoners; they either fight to the last, or are killed on the spot, and their heads are preserved (by a peculiar method) as trophies. Children are greatly prized: these they bring to their dwellings, and they remain slaves for life. Upon the number of slaves a chief can muster he takes his rank as a man of wealth and consequence in society; and the only chance these wretched beings have of being released from their miseries, is their master getting into a rage, and murdering them without further ceremony.
“On entering a village, a stranger instantly discovers which portion of its inhabitants are the slaves, though both the complexion and the dresses of all are alike. The free Zealander is a joyous, good-humoured looking man, full of laughter and vivacity, and is chattering incessantly; but the slaves have invariably a squalid dejected look; they are never seen to smile, and appear literally half starved. The beauties characteristic of a New Zealander are his teeth and hair: the latter,
in particular, is his pride and study; but the slaves have their heads half shorn. The male slave is not allowed to marry; and any intercourse with a female, if discovered, is generally punished by death. Never was there a body of men so completely cut off from all society as these poor slaves; they never can count, with certainty, on a single moment of life, as the savage caprice of their master may instantly deprive them of it. If, by chance, a slave should belong to a kind and good master, an accident happening to him, or any of his family, will probably prove equally fatal to the slave, as some are generally sacrificed on the death of a chief.
Thus these poor slaves are deprived of every hope and stimulus by which all other classes and individuals are animated; no good conduct of theirs towards their master, no attachment to his person or family, no fidelity or long service can ensure kind treatment. If the slave effect his escape to his own part of the country, he is there treated with contempt; and when he dies (if a natural death), his body is dragged to the outside of the village, there to be made sport of by the children, or to furnish food for the dogs! but more frequently his fate is to receive a fatal blow in a fit of passion, and then be devoured by his brutal master! Even the female slaves who, if pretty, are frequently taken as wives by their conquerors, have not a much greater chance of happiness, all being dependent upon the caprice of their owners.”

http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document?wid=300&page=0&action=null

I don’t know which planet this woman is from. She can make these statements without any hint of irony or humour.

Wherein the head of Auckland University’s Department of Maori Studies not only redefines the meaning of racism, but goes on to say:

She said New Zealand still belongs to Maori and other people are here as welcome guests.

Maori should have the right to decide who comes in, and they did so when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, she said.

But she denied her views are racist.

As Muriel Newman says,

With so many New Zealanders being completely unaware of what is really going on, it has become relatively easy for governments to slip through legislation that will seriously impede the future progress of this country – not to mention deepening the racial divide – with barely a ripple of concern! And now that customary rights claims are going to be used by iwi as a new tactic to get their hands on even more public resources – as foreshore and seabed claims have already demonstrated only too clearly – the problem can only get worse.

Given my current relationship with “climate science”, I think they might actually have a point.