Dorothy – 10/11/00
If you are a Kiwi reading this article you are likely to be well aware of the controversial use of holocaust by two Maori Ministers of Government in
recent weeks.
If you are not a Kiwi you will need some background to the topic.
In August the Associate Maori Affairs Minister, speaking about Post Colonial Stress Disorder, compared the impact on Maori of the European colonisation of New Zealand with the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. The
use of a term with such strong connotations of planned genocide angered many New Zealanders who resented this slur on the early colonists and the
Jewish community who considered it was a very inappropriate comparison. Mrs Turia’s comment resulted in her being told by the Prime Minister, Helen
Clark, that she must not make this comparison again.
Last weekend the Minister of Conservation, Sandra Lee, used the term holocaust with reference to the decline in the Maori population in the nineteenth century after the arrival of the European colonists from 1840 onwards. As Ms Lee is a Minister from the Alliance Party, the coalition partner in the Labour-led Government, the task of remonstrating with her fell to Jim Anderton, the deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Alliance
Party.
The two incidents have led to much debate in political circles and in the
community. Estimates given by historians vary, but the Maori population certainly suffered at least a fifty per cent drop in population in the nineteenth century. The question being debated is whether it is fair to say that this was due to a holocaust.
Dictionary definitions This sent me to see how this word is defined in the dictionary and how it
has been used.
The Oxford Dictionary gives the following information about holocaust:
- 1. A sacrifice wholly consumed by fire, a whole burnt offering. Transf and fig. a. A complete sacrifice or offering b. A sacrifice on a large scale c. Complete consumption by fire or that which is so consumed, complete destruction, especially of a large number of persons; a great slaughter or
massacre. d. The Holocaust – mass murder of the Jews by Nazis in the war of 1939-45.
Also used transf. of similar fate of other groups.
The only definitions at all relevant to the present debate appear to be a
slaughter or massacre, or mass murder of people in a specific group. However, there appears to be little evidence of intentional genocide in New
Zealand in the nineteenth century.
Discussion in the press and on talkback Letters to newspapers and the frequency of talkback calls on the topic show
that New Zealanders are actively debating the issue of the use of this word. In today’s Press historian Harry Evison regrets that the debate is distracting people from considering the real questions which are why the Maori population declined and why the Maori people are still so bitter about events so long ago. Another correspondent defines as holocausts the
almost total destruction of some Maori tribes by other tribes, and points
out that while the Europeans supplied the muskets they were not actively involved in those killings.
Government assistance to Maori The New Zealand government plans to spend $500 million in the next five years to assist Maori to find solutions to their problems. Among the most
serious of these are the health of Maori people, the number of Maori unemployed, the number in prison and the development of appropriate educational curricula. The Government strategy is called ‘Closing the Gaps’. Assistance will be given to Maori to improve their health. One scheme is designed to help them stop smoking by funding Stop Smoking medication which people on low incomes cannot afford. There is also help
available for Maori to build strategies to help with their own development.
Where is the real gap between groups in New Zealand? Where most New Zealanders believe that there is an increasing gap is between the very wealthy and the low income households. Maori are over represented in the latter group, but there are also many non-Maori – both
pakeha and Pacific Islanders. Help targeted at one particular group can produce resentment among other groups.
Improved race relations a necessity Opinion polls show that over half of those interviewed believe that race relations in New Zealand have deteriorated during this year. It is of the
utmost importance that harmony among all sectors in New Zealand society be
promoted and the use of emotive terms like holocaust to describe European
settlement is counter productive at a time of increased sensitivity in the
relations between the different groups in society. Ministers in the Government might once have accepted their responsibility to give a lead in
promoting healing of the old wounds rather than opening them up once more.
