Thread: Te Urewera

Originally Posted by XR500

If those few Tuhoe who wish to burn down huts to remove 'western influence' are true to their ideology, they better keep going and burn all their synthetic warm clothing, Their merino base layers, their quads, plastic boats, outboards, hiluxes, two way radios, satellite phones, cell phones, the computer they wrote that rant on, the freezer they store all their fish and pork/vennie in, Western food and medicine that has doubled their lifespan, the list just keeps going.

I'm a 5th gen NZer. My lineage goes back to Wales and Germany and Eastern Europe. There are several enormous shitfights dating back 500 years among my predecessors, but its 2022, not 1622 and I find it more of passing interest, than a battle that needs keeping alive for eternity to right perceived wrongs. Virtually nothing is gained by looking backwards, except high blood pressure.

During my military career I was posted to a number of Nations that had reverted to tribal rule post their Democracy (of whatever flavour) via a civil war. 30 years on, all of them remain basket cases, and their democracy is but a faded memory.

We dont know their reasons for anything, we are speculating, but I do think that the crown / Police raids of 2007 must still be quite raw and unhealed for Tuhoe.
There is a difference between colonisation and 'western influence' although this is getting off track, Maori had plenty of exposure to 'western influence' ( technology ) for fourty years prior to being colonised. They were growing wheat and potatoes and exporting these to Tasmania and California in their own ships having crewed on American Whale boats for many years. Maori supplied the settlers from the UK here with vegetables before the settlers were growing enough. So the argument could be made that colonisation actually impeded the take-up by Maori of western technology.