".....Can you please ask the do-gooders to stop insulting those of us who know ?..."

Lol!

Some interesting and informative posts on this thread.
I thought I knew a bit about New Guinea but I have to bow to the knowledge evident in many of the posts.
My stay there goes back a bit and I recall it as a pleasant and interesting time, I enjoyed the country and its people.
Take it easy.

SD

Dear Paul
You wrote of your Maori partner "However she is very much aware of past history but is most forgiving for wrongs perpetrated against her personally, and her people, she has absolutely no animosity towards the Pakeha (white man) what so ever"

I wonder does she know if the Moriori people are also so forgiving. Does she know them. Please ask her. I think she will remember. They are the ones that her ancestors invaded their land, without permission and began to brutally kill nearly every single one of them " like sheep" if I remember correctly. Your partners people, the Maori, tried their best to just exterminate a race of people who believed in harmony and peace. I wonder if they are so forgiving.

I would be interested to hear her response. Has she and her people apologised to them.

Ozzie, what I know of T's tribe the Ngatihine from Northland they represent about 1/3 of all Maori and the ancestors were not too friendly. In fact they sided with the British during the Maori Wars.
What about King Kamehameha I of Hawaii, he didn't muck about, had 700-800 people pushed off a cliff. In Fiji the chief would have you bumped off for stepping on his shadow. Interesting.

Paul, I see your point. However the last time I was in NZ just a few months ago ( beautiful Country) I could see that the Maori seemed to have a lot of special privileges as the white man was made to feel sorrow for what they had done. I was asking you in my last post, what kind of apology or similar, your partner and her people had made to the Moriori for their brutal and racist treatment of them. Please ask your partner. thanks.

Ozzie, "T" does not know a great deal about the Moriori people and the ancestors, she is not certain they were in Aotearoa but there were other Maori there when her ancestors the Ngatihine arrived. The Nagatihine were war like and forced others off the lands in the north.

Here is a link to the Origins of the Moriori people from the encyclopedia of NZ. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/moriori/page-1

"Maori seemed to have a lot of special privileges as the white man was made to feel sorrow for what they had done."
My partner is not aware of any "special privileges" she ever received growing up. If you call being belted at school in the 1950's for speaking her native language and being given a European name to replace your birth name amongst other things "special privileges". If you call having your family disposed of their land by trickery and then seeing your home burnt down by the Pakeha as "special privilege". To this day European farmers still hold "T" family land and they have as yet been unable to get it back through the Maori land court. Put simply her father was illiterate and was conned into signing over the land, thinking he was leasing it, for about $500 worth of store credit. then the homestead along with many others were burnt down so the people couldn't return. The present day owner has offered about 10 acres as a gift, as he doesn't feel he should pay for the past.

The occupation of Aotearoa by the European is unique by the fact the Maori were never defeated by the British and the occupation today is based on the Treaty of Waitangi