‘Decolonization’ Is Not About Equality

A protest by Māori members in the New Zealand Parliament recently went viral on X and TikTok.

I need this photo plastered everywhere across Aotearoa.

Look what happens when you try and rewrite history and diminish Maori.

Toitu Te Tiriti ✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/LVgn8HdW8W

— VaiTribe🇼🇸 (@VaiTr1be) November 14, 2024

Here’s what the Maori Party thinks of equal rights and democracy. pic.twitter.com/42Ssh2vipK

— ACT New Zealand (@actparty) November 14, 2024

704k likes pic.twitter.com/77zSBMAMM0

— Napoleon Bonaparte Appreciator (@NapoleonBonabot) November 19, 2024

A similar protest took place in Wellington.

Maori protest in New Zealand against a bill to give equal rights to citizens of all races: pic.twitter.com/8n6SWfoeV9

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 19, 2024

Over 40,000 people protested outside parliament to oppose a new bill that could reshape the country’s founding treaty between the indigenous Maori people and the British crown. pic.twitter.com/jrAy7jFUie

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 19, 2024

While some may argue this is about resistance to colonization, it is in opposition to equal rights. Despite these protests, a new bill that would eliminate some of the special communal rights that Māori enjoy under the Treaty of Waitangi has begun progress through the legislature.

A minor partner in the ruling coalition, the Act Party, introduced the law. As party leader David Seymour explained, the status quo gave Māori “different rights from other New Zealanders.” Mr. Seymour has also attacked the Solicitor-General for telling prosecutors to “think carefully” if a Māori person was to be charged for a crime, implying that Māoris deserve more lenient treatment. The Māori party “Te Pāti Māori” compared the Act Party to the KKK, and a member of the Labour Party called David Seymour a “liar.” The Labour member was forced to leave the chamber for breaking its rules.

The bill is unlikely to pass. The other parties in the governing coalition are lukewarm towards it, and it may not even get a formal reading.

Māori anger comes despite years of groveling to them. The government had commissioned a report to find out why Māori are arrested more often and, naturally, concluded it was due to “systemic racism.” Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern officially made a “long overdue” apology to the Māori. The government recognized Māori New Year as an official holiday in 2022. A statue of Captain Cook was removed after protests from local Māori. The Parliament even abandoned its rule requiring men to wear neckties because the leader of the Māori party said it was a “colonial noose.”

Not surprisingly, none of this led to reconciliation. Instead, Māori are demanding major changes, including abolition of prisons and changing the name of the country to Aotearoa. The haka dance, often defended as a ritual of welcome or celebration, is exactly what the original British explorers though it was: a war dance. To do it on the floor of Parliament is an outrage.

“Warrior culture” posturing and threatening gestures mix uneasily with complaints about exploitation or colonization. The Māori want it both ways: victim status and deference to a warrior culture.

“Decolonization” in the West is almost always this unnatural combination. From Chicano activists in the Southwest celebrating the savage Aztec heritage, to blacks putting up monuments to Nat Turner, to the behavior of many Muslims in Europe, non-whites always seem to be at whites’ throats or at our feet — sometimes simultaneously.

If the Māori find equal rights appalling, it is time to ditch the pretense of coexistence. Still, this spectacle confirms that almost everyone is a blood-and-soil nationalist — at least for the groups he likes. A solution would be to give the Māori territory and let them indulge in whatever silly rituals they want — on their own. There should be no aid, no special rights in New Zealand, and no citizenship in a Western country. Separation is the only solution for non-whites who claim that equal treatment is exploitation. And if the Aotearoans want to bring back the traditional practice of cannibalism, that will be their business. They should be entirely on their own.