Affects of Colonisation

Since when it could be recorded, the history and actions of the early colonisers have proven to be devastating for all Indigenous Peoples The social and economic impact of invasion and control of Indigenous People has accumulated across generations and amplified by policies and practices that have systematically disadvantaged Indigenous People This history recognises the unequal position from which Indigenous Peoples are forced to negotiate Demeaned by their ongoing colonial status, Indigenous Peoples are forced to recognise the legitimacy of the government system that deprived them of their culture and lands in a country made wealthy through their dispossession We have remained in the shadows and under the control of the fictitious Servant Settler governments for too long We as Maori are here to lead by example and influence a more positive international engagement with Indigenous Peoples.

Now is the time to realise that enthusiasm for treaties at the state and territory level is misplaced Therefore, the legal, political and economic power to effect real change lay only at the grass roots level where Indigenous Sovereignty is asserted in the process Constitutional recognition cannot restore a moral and lawful foundation, so we propose to change the colonial ways to accommodate Tikanga and Indigenous Rights eradicating the one way flow where we are taught that western civilization is superior, and Indigenous difference is a deficit.

We must now look beyond symbols to restitution compensation, reparations and resource sharing Colonisers must be influenced in relinquishing their arrogance, rewrite the distortions of their history and follow in our footsteps where we’ve placed Indigenous interests at the forefront of social, economic and political concern