Posts by Heather Gaye
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Yet Maori culture in any recognisable form is extinct in that branch of the family.
Actually, that's something that interests me - I doubt throwing a poi around would make me feel any more Maori, but probably learning the language would.
But...how much practise of traditional "Maori culture" would make me *coff* more Maori, & how much do the Maori people dictate "Maori culture" by just happening to be Maori, and...err...doing stuff? As far as I see it, the most relevant aspect of "Maori culture" seems to be active family/iwi affiliations. I know things like the legends & the waiata are significant, but they seem to have kind of degenerated into historical niceties. So which aspects of Maori history/culture should be retained (& developed) as a current, relevant defining feature, and which can be safely relegated to social studies lessons?
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...I guess that wasn't really a question - just I'd be really interested to get some feedback while the smart people are checking in on this thread...
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This thread is great. I'd like to address the issues raised by Jeremy & continued by Tom about "lost Maori" from my own perspective as a pakeha of Maori descent. I'd feel utterly disingenuous calling myself Maori - don't really have anything to do with my iwi, don't speak the language, and I think I suffer a sort of survivors guilt having never had to deal with the negative aspects commonly associated with being Maori, like poverty or racism - but I strongly identify with my family origins; although far more with one hapu than the other.
While I'd love to share the deep spiritual connection of which Manakura speaks, I can't help thinking that the significance I place on my ancestry is more influenced by societal conditioning, and simple history lessons in the form of fascinating anecdotes about this one particular side of the family.
There does seem to be a difference between my attachment to my country as a New Zealander, and to this very specific slice of my ancestry. Someone earlier took offence at the distinction between "spiritual" & "material" attachment, but that phrase rings true to me, just not with the negative implications of materialism... The New Zealander side of me feels strongly "this is where I live, and this is how I live my life", and I can point to immediate family, stories from my upbringing, the places I've lived, even places I've visited where my ancestors lived that have shaped me - in that sense it's material. However, there's an aspect to the Maori side that feels more like a sort of collective memory from a distant past that I never really experienced. My dilemma is two-fold - 1) I don't really know if it's just a glamour, and 2) I can't work out how it has relevance to the dominant New Zealander part of me, although I really really want it to.
Did any of that make sense?
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"white/black/brown/yellow/coffee-coloured/offwhite"
That's exactly what I thought when I found out what MELAA means. We've got white kiwi, brown kiwi, white not-kiwi, brown not-kiwi & yellow (plus optional probably-white-kiwi-kiwi). I can understand that it's convenient to group ethnicities into meaningful sizes for easy comparison on a graph; my main peeve is that the graph reflects & propogates this idea that the colour of one's skin is the single most significant factor in determining what kind of "different" someone is, highlighted by the distinction between "other" and "MELAA".
From the demographer link, but not really related: the idea that maori have "more leverage" because they're the largest minority is kinda laughable given that they're still outnumbered by kiwi pakeha by a factor of 5. Also, notwithstanding treaty obligations (which I'd like to think still offer not-insignificant leverage to Maori as the original habitants), it seems perfectly sensible that other growing ethnic groups in NZ should get growing leverage. Perhaps the article didn't mean to imply that they shouldn't, but all in all it just sounded a little like shit-stirring to me, suggesting that Maori should feel threatened by the asian invasion.
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3. What is meant by the expression "This is all looking very Fijian"
Ah, perhaps it's not observation, but intent. Could be Cameron's contriving a currency coup. Commercial crisis! Carnage over Christmas cash!
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Interhate n. A form of hatred of anonymous posters/users/customers/etc exclusive to the Internet.
That sorta fits in with my desire to see more of the -nator suffix.
Interhate - as above.
Internator - troll; practician of interhate. Alternatively, someone that expresses disdain for net users in general. -
This website also removes my double-spacing
That's just how html is rendered - unless you specify an html non-breaking space character, it'll condense any run of multiple spaces into a single space. It's to my perpetual dismay, as yet another conscientious pupil of fourth-form typing.
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When National launch an investigation into which insiders gabbed to Nicky Hager, they should definitely call it "chatterbox".
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If you are looking for a guide to my political philosophy then I suggest you look no further than the core values and principles of the National Party.
Wow, I aced Mr Slack's Key test by answering how I'd expect a stereotypical national party member to vote, & now it sounds like Key's saying as much - that he's just a passenger.
That's kinda reassuring; I'm a bit tired of personality-cult (or anti-cult) party leaders. I'm not a National voter & I doubt I ever will be, but it'd be nice if we began to hear about predictable ol' National in the news rather than one lunatic individual.
HOWEVER, aside from the usual verbiage about mainstream values, I'm still not sure What National Is. Surely it's Key's job to tell us? He's just begging the question, really, isn't he?
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extreme toothpaste
Maybe it's just normal (orange flavoured) toothpaste for extreme teeth?
Wouldn't that be extreme-tooth paste?
Extreme is a good suggestion though. My gym just introduced "Extreme Fighting" which just means that now I get to punch people.
...underlining does kind of suck as a means of emphasis
I dislike underlining now because of what Che mentioned earlier - I instantly lose track of the context to look up the hyperlink, even if there is none. It happens when I'm reading hard copy as well. That's probably a bad sign.
Oh, has anyone mentioned "smoking gun" yet? I know it's two words, but it seems to be suddenly popping up all over.