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Article: Maori topple the white totems Great white totems fall to Maori Maori trump white totems Maori raise ante to new pitch
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- February 12, 1996
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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It seems hardly credible to hear the words "civil war" and "New
Zealand" in the same sentence. But wars tend to begin with deeds
done in the night, with attacks on other people's symbols, and then
the word itself slips quietly on to the stage.
The Maori disruption last week of New Zealand's annual national
ceremony of Waitangi Day was foreshadowed in the middle of an
October night last year. The sound of a chainsaw drifted from the
top of One Tree Hill in the middle of Auckland's suburban sprawl. A
37-year-old Maori called Mike Smith had climbed the hill to fell a
Scots pine, the lone tree on the summit and one of Auckland's few
natural landmarks.
The attack had a kind of logic. The original ...