|
|
Article: Waitangi's wisdom: New Zealand. (the indigenous people, the Maori hope to get reparation from the whites for their stolen resources)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 24, 1991
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
THE Maori are a people who fell from grace. Until shiploads of European migrants began arriving 150 years ago, they accounted for virtually all New Zealand's population. Now they make up less than a tenth of the 3.4m people and hold only 5% of the land in tribal ownership. They contend, like the dispossessed native peoples of America, that their land was stolen. What is novel is that they expect to get it back.
Their hope stems from the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the Maori chiefs and a British government influenced by Christian sentiments. The Maori exchanged sovereignty for guaranteed ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other ...