ASHIKA CHAND

Colonisation in New Zealand

1) What is colonization? 2) The impact of Maori people in Newzealand 3) The impact of colonization in Newzealand

Colonisation The Wikipedia (ND) defines Colonisation as the establishment and maintenance of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Like many other countries,Europeans colonized New Zealand.The Tourism Guide New Zealand (ND) tells us that it was the British who colonised the country even though,it was first discovered by Abel Tasman a Dutchman in 1642.

The Encyclopedia (2010) tells us that Maoris (natives) are the decendents of Polynesian people who came by 1300AD.Before the arrival of Europeans,Maori culture and tradition were oral.By the time the Europeans came,Maoris were well settled in the land,they had already shared the land within each tribal group. th th It also states that during the 19 and the first half of the 20 century life in New Zealand was dominated by British culture and it was Captain James Cook who successfully navigated and mapped New Zealand after which he led two more expeditions before he was killed on Hawaiian beach in 1779. Furthermore,a mural in Whakatane shows the coming together of Maoris and Europeans (pakehas). Moreover, The New Zealand Tourism guide (ND) informs us that before 1840, New Zealand was mostly visited by whalers, traders and missionaries. These settlers were known by Maoris, especially by the ones who used to live in the coastal areas. They used to trade extensively and some of the Europeans lived among the Maoris. During this time, there were about 2000 Europeans (Pakeha) in New Zealand; most of them were living in the Bay of Islands. Intertribal Maori warfare due to the arrival of guns which Maori traded from Pakeha made it deadly at this time. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 and New Zealand became a British Colony. This lead to the arrivals of many British migrants to New Zealand. Land disputes with Maoris increased as more migrants arrived and more land was needed for them.These turn into a large scale war in Northland in mid 1840's while the war reached of the rest of the country in 1860.New Zealand was helped by some British troops as well as some Maoris during these conflicts.Maori tribes were victorious on many occasions but the number and size of colonial forces ended up in the defeat of Maori tribes at the end of New Zealand wars.Soon afterwards the Government captured most of the Maori land including the farmland of Waikato and Taranaki.The major loss of land and the introduction of diseases lead to a major decline in the population of Maoris by 1900,it was decreased to about 40,000. It further tells us that the Maori language which is the most official language in New Zealand now.During the census in 2001 it was seen that only one in the four Maori could speak their language.There were various implementations done to conserve Maori culture.Some of the implementations discussed in the Encyclopedia (2009) are: Many Maori schools and institutions were built to teach Maori to Maori students and even in preschools. Tribal structures and councils were strengthened.

The establishments of Maori radio stations and TV channels. The presence of Maoris in government,there should be 16 Maori representatives in the government(it's compulsory). Tribally owned assets are recaptalised.

The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (2010) elaborates that in 2001, Maoris only comprised of 15% of New Zealand's population,it is expected to increase to 16.6% by 2021.In the year 2004 Maoris were greatly dispersed then any other time in the history,64% of the Maori population came in the urban areas while 16% in the rural areas.Many of them moved to Australia and Britain. Now New Zealand has its own strong identity,being a member of commonwealth and maintaining its closeness and friendliness with USA,it has a very good foreign and trading policy.The colonial settlement of New Zealand was mostly based on the ideas of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. New Zealand has been a nuclear free zone since the mid 1980s.Its army forces are focused on the peacekeeping in the Pacific region. When British came with them they brought many plants and animals,which grew very well but at the expense of the native plants and animals.They introduced firearms such as guns and alcohol without thinking about the future,together with diseases,which killed nearly half of the population.And under the name of religion and god,they taught Maoris Christianity which destroyed there own religion,culture,art,language,leaving them a void. (Burgoyne M,1993) Douglas(ND) said that when Maori and Pakeha first met,encounters were nearly fatal for Maori,they were faced to a wide range of infectious diseases,to which they had no prior immunity.The common cold,influenza,whooping cough,diphtheria ,scarlet fever,chicken pox,measles were all killers.Numbers of maori fell from around 250,000 at th the beginning of the 19 century to almost 42,000 at the beginning of the th 20 century but have recovered since.The Maori eventually deveopled immunity to most infectious disease,but poor living conditions made for very high rates of suffering.Some medical conditions such as tuberculosis,were aggravated by poor housing and sanitation and continued to take a heavy toll of maori until the 1960s.By the beginning of st the 21 century the maori population have recovered by more than 10times. The Wikipedia tells us that some of the diseases brought by the Europeans

during the colonisation period were the introduction to measles,chicken pox,tuberculosis and syphilis (sexually transmitted disease).From all of the above diseases measles was the most dreadful one,it resulted in many deaths.Even alcohol was introduced during that period and it caused so many problems both social and economical and fights.

The Impact of Colonisation on Traditional Medicine . The effect that colonisation had on the practice of traditional Mori healing was Profound. In part this was due to the introduction of diseases that tohunga had not experienced before, and therefore found themselves powerless to counter. It was felt that the foreign atua responsible for these illnesses were not susceptible to the tohungas karakia. While at this stage of its development Western medicine was also relatively ineffectual, this still had a major effect on the confidence of Maori in their tohunga and in their social, cultural, medical and religious systems .
(Lawson-Te Aho, 1998)

Most recently, in a background paper on Maori youth suicide strategy, Keri Lawson-Te Aho claimed that any attempt to explain Maori Health inequalities by way of a culture of poverty . . . fail to recognise That the cause of Maori disadvantage is the impact of colonisation.27 In a section headed Culture and History: Colonisation and Its Effects, Lawson criticised colonial constructs of inferiority and dominance, Claiming that Maori realities are not considered valid when weighed Against dominant cultural realities. (Lawson-Te Aho, 1998) The perception of health and individual well being by the colonizers indigenous hardly welcomes the idea of hospitalization or even occasional visiting to hospitals as well as taking modern medicine, but rather visit traditional community herbalists and healers who make use of traditionally made medicines (Lockwood, Victoria 1993) The colonization and subsequent settlement by the Europeans was also accompanied by the introduction and influx of foreign diseases, some of which were highly communicable and contagious. These diseases were initially non existent among the indigenous Australians. With the on set of these diseases therefore, the Aboriginal people had little immunity to the diseases (Thomas, Nicholas 1994).

Maori in their tohunga and in their social, cultural, medical and religious systems. (Lawson-Te Aho, Table 1: Size of the Maori Population:from 1700 to 2011 Years Maori Population (000's) 1769 120 1800 130 1850 80 1900 60 1950 120 2000 210 2011 230 Source : Te Iwi Maori,Past,Present, And Future (chapter 11) Table 2: Percent of Total population who are Maori from 1840-2011 Year Approximate Percentage (%) 1840 100 1860 40 1880 10 1900 4 1950 6 2000 12 2011 14 Source : Te Iwi Maori,Past,Present, And Future (chapter 11)

Bar Graph 3: Graph showing Percentage of Maori Mortality by Different Diseases from 1800-2011

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 8 0 0 -1 8 5 0 18 5 0-19 00 1 9 0 0 -2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 -2 0 1 1 % M a o r i M o r t a lit y b y d is e a s e s

Source: Hauora: Maori Standards of Health IV

Bar Graph 4: Graph showing Percentage of Maori Language used from 1800-2011
1 2 0

1 0 0

8 0

6 0

4 0

2 0

0 18 0 0 1 8 5 0 -1 9 0 0 1 9 5 0 -2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 -2 0 1 1

% Language

Source: Hauora: Maori Standards of Health IV From the above tables we could clearly see how the Maori population was

in 1800 and how it depleted in late 1800's and early 1900's.Then how it started to increase or recover around 2000.As we can see that in the early 1700 and 1800's the Maori population was at its peak but it started depleting in 1800 and early 1900's and the reason for these were social disorganization (land issues) and Maoris were exposed to new diseases and viral disorders which they were not immune to and this increased the mortality rate during that time(Bryder & Dow,2001) .Then around late 1900's and till today Maori have become immune to the diseases due to the health systems being improved so much, land disputes is also settled so that increased the population growth again. By looking at graph 3 we could clearly see that between 1850-1900 due to the introduction of new diseases the mortality rate increased then later when the Maoris became immune to the diseases and the health system improved. And on the other hand graph 4 illustrates the percentage of Maori language used over that period of time, we could also see that between 1950-2000 the language was very little used, it was between this time when Maori language was completely banned. And later in 2000 this language was made official again and implementations were also made (discussed above) so the language is preserved and is passed to the coming generations. Where are we today,New Zealand in 2010.In my opinion,urbanisation is not the only factor for changes but it is also accompanied by modernisation and westernisation now.Which has resulted in the changes in household stuctures and organisation in many Maori communities.Since Maories have become modern and urban,many aspects of their lives has changed.Their education level,changes in technology levels and access to information through the mass media has greatly affected their life today.In terms of medical,Maoris are well aware of different diseases and there prevention are available now since New Zealand is very advanced in medical terms now.

Fiji Travel Guide (No date) tells us,Fiji Islands was discovered accidently by the Dutch explorer (Abel Tasman) in 1643.Colonisation in Fiji was abit different then in New Zealand.During colonisation period in

Fiji,ccannibalism was practiced but it quickly disappeared as missionaries gained influence. When Ratu Seru Cakobau (Fijian Chief) accepted Christianity in 1854, the rest of the country soon followed and tribal warfare came to an end. From 1879 to 1916 Indians came as indentured laborers to work on the sugar plantations. They were beaten and were treated like slaves in those days, as we can compare that with New Zealand nothing like that happened over here with Maoris. After the indentured system was abolished, many stayed on as independent farmers and businessmen. Today they comprise 44 per cent of the population.After 1874 when Fiji was ceded to Great Britain an epidemic nearly wiped the population, everyone thought that the natives were doomed. The colonial government took its side and implemented health campaigns, land sales were forbidden and the population picked up again. Fiji got its independence on 10th October, 1970.Moreover it tells us that the 20th century brought about important economic changes in Fiji as well as the maturation of its political system. Fiji developed a major sugar industry and established productive copra milling, tourism and secondary industries. The economy is strengthened and improvements were made in the public works, medical services and education. Furthermore the country's central position in the region has been strengthened by recent developments in sea and air communications. Today, Fiji plays a major role in regional affairs and is recognized as the focal point of the South Pacific. Colonisation period has brought devastating changes into the lives of Maoris who are present today,which are discussed above and it has resulted in the many changes that we see today in a Maori whanau or marae.

References 1) Colonisation (No Date),Retrieved on 22nd of November 2010 from http://em.wikipedia.org/wiki/colonialism

2) Fiji Travel Guide:History and Culture (no date),Retrieved on 17th of November 2010 from E:\Fiji Culture and History information.mht 3)Marissa Burgoyne (1993) Maori Culture,The Destructive Effect of European Colonisation,and Keri Hulmes "Bone People" (Abstract),retrieved on 20th November 2010 from www.postcolonialweb.org/nz/nzmaori5.html 4)Te Are - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand( updated 6-Apr-10),Te Ahukaram Charles Royal. 'Mori - Pre-European society', Retrieved on 21st Novemvber 2010 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori/2 5) Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand ( updated 3-Mar-09) Te Ahukaram Charles Royal. 'Mori - People and culture today',Retrieved on 21st November 2010 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori/1 6)Linda Bryder & Derek.A.Dow (2001)Introduction: Maori Health History, Past, Present and Future (Abstract) Retrieved on 20th of November 2010 from www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/3.1/bryder.pdf 7) New Zealand Colonization by the Europeans (No Date) Retrieved on 18 th November from www.tourism.net.nz/new-zealand/...new Zealand/colonisation.html 8) Edward te Kohu Douglas (No Date) Demographic Changes And Their Social Consequences For Maori, Published by Victoria University Press, 1972 Wellington (NZ)