Aotearoa

What if the descendants of Costanoan Indians lived among us in Santa Cruz? What if they drove buses, broadcast TV news, taught school, and also got together to strip and paint themselves, wave clubs and spears, and perform a dance-chant, Haka? What if all public communication were printed in two languages, English and Native? Then it’d be like Māori in Aotearoa. They are integrated into all levels of society and are only distinguished culturally by, say, wearing sacred rocks around their necks where a crucifix might go. I’ve watched the fascinating Māori channels on TV by wresting the remote away from my spouse — who had vowed to keep watching cricket until he understood the rules. I’m impressed with the commitment to native islanders; none of this annoying lip service to Land Acknowledgement that we are subjected to. I’m often greeted with Kia Ora and wished strength in Māori.

What I know about Māori is that they are descended from Pacific peoples, thus related to Fijians, Tahitians, Tongans, Samoans, Hawaiians, who outrigger-canoed to NZ between 1200 and 1300 CE. Because of Aotearoa’s remote location, those Europeans who could infect the native population with contagious disease either died or recovered by the time they landed. So unlike the Costanoans decimated by smallpox and measles brought by Spaniards, the Māori mostly lived side by side with European settlers, warring against each other as much as against Whites. The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840, constituted a peace treaty between the British Queen and the Māori King. It is celebrated with a national holiday each 6 February. Maori fought on both sides of the New Zealand Wars, 1843-1872. When the overwhelming force of thousands of British soldiers could not defeat the Māori rebels in traditional siege warfare, the British governors passed laws against them and starved them into submission.