Privilege in Perpetuity Quotes

“Since 1840 native policy had swung from ‘the privilege of protection’ to ‘the privilege of free trade’. Proponents of either position based their arguments on article three of the Treaty of Waitangi, or at least their interpretation of it. Yet time and time again, no matter the policy, Māori were invariably dispossessed of their lands.”
― Peter Meihana, Privilege in Perpetuity: Exploding a Pākehā Myth

“The Colonial Office maintained that land speculators such as the New Zealand Company were a threat to Māori, hence the need for the Crown pre-emption clause of article two. However, rather than protecting Māori, Crown policy based on pre-emption became an effective means of divesting Māori of their lands. Indeed, during Crown colony rule and under the Liberal government, millions of acres were acquired for Pākehā settlement. The privilege of protection was not just about protecting Māori land rights, it was also about amalgamating Māori into settler colonial society. It was envisaged that English law would eventually supplant Māori custom. At first the Crown sought to do this gradually through ‘official’ privileges such as the Protectorate of Aborigines (to ensure Māori interests were taken into account in land transactions) and the Native Exemption Ordinance (to utilise the authority of chiefs in disseminating British law). Pre-emption, the Protectorate of Aborigines and the Native Exemption Ordinance were in essence tools of amalgamation.”
― Peter Meihana, Privilege in Perpetuity: Exploding a Pākehā Myth

“Why has the idea of Māori privilege been so durable? In the first hundred years of colonisation, the idea of Māori privilege aided and abetted the taking of Māori lands and resources. This loss was framed as a ‘privilege’, a necessary step towards amalgamation and the innumerable benefits it would bring to Māori. In the latter half of the twentieth century and the early decades of the twenty-first century, Māori privilege has again been put to use. Notions of privilege, first used to dispossess Māori, are now being redeployed to consolidate the ill-gotten gains of the previous centuries.”
― Peter Meihana, Privilege in Perpetuity: Exploding a Pākehā Myth