I recently had a series of emails from someone who clearly didn’t like my opinion that no-one ever settled in New Zealand before Polynesians. It very quickly became apparent to me that we had no way of convincing each other of our respective beliefs making the whole conversation pointless and very frustrating. I should not have continued but I wasn’t surprised by the attitude which was similar to others I’ve met who don’t want to accept Maori as Aotearoa’s first people.
I will make this comment however;
If you think that Australian Aborigines, Melanesians, Indonesians, Micronesians or any other Pacific people may have found their way here before Polynesians but didn’t manage to settle and prosper. . .then that is possible although as yet there is no verifiable evidence of that.
However if you think ancient Celts from the opposite side of the world not only got here but did settle and prosper to actually meet and influence Maori (before Maori finished them off) you must understand that that is so unlikely as to be considered ludicrous. Even just reaching here is as close to impossible that Darwin was totally wrong about evolution.
So if you continue to quote ‘evidence’ that is as easily debunked as all ‘evidence’ to the theory that I have so far heard of, then. . . well what’s the point? You need to come across something that is really beyond all other explanation before anyone can take the idea seriously enough to consider the possibility.
I’ll stick my neck out enough to say “That isn’t going to happen!”
So I can only conclude that the idea of ancient Celts in New Zealand is an emotional argument that appeals to people’s sense of wonder and sadly in some cases (though I stress not all who believe it) racist attitudes.
I personally am proud to live in a country that is proud of it’s first people who were the greatest ocean navigators at the time of their arrival here. I’m proud to think I am part of that historical connection whether or not my ancestry is genetically connected. I’m also proud of my Cornish Celtic roots on my father’s side who had great skills in dealing with the world they lived in. They were far in advance of Polynesians in many ways but I have no problem in accepting that their sailing skills were not one of them.
Keith Tonkin 