Misinformation

I don’t quite know how to describe what I’m feeling right now. I suppose it is a powerful disquiet about the state of the world which includes what is happening in Ukraine and its possible ramifications and definitely the increasingly obvious effects of climate change along with the anger I’m feeling over the years of inaction despite the warnings and the warning signs that we’ve all had so much time to react to.

That alone is bad enough and cause enough for my unease but even those things ae not my main concern.

I’ve blogged on already about science denial, unfounded belief in pre-Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa and the lack of logic and verifiable fact that drives such thoughts, but until recently I hadn’t realised that those attitudes are just a small part of what seems like a growing number of people around the world and here in New Zealand have progressed into very dark places. Somehow they believe that main stream media, big business and government are working together to destroy us and are therefore hoping and plotting to bring it all down to be replaced by ?????

I used to laugh whenever someone in my presence or on the news viewed these ideas, never really believing that they could possibly believe what they said. I thought the anti-vax movement were just a few not very bright people who had somehow missed out on education. They appeared to be not even being aware that ‘freedom’ is never free and that lessons of history prove that time and time again or even knew or cared that people have had to forego personal freedoms for a time, even put their lives at serious risk and pay with them, to preserve freedom for all in the long run, if not themselves. I couldn’t believe that the anti-vax people didn’t know about viruses or the probable millions or billions of lives that have been saved by vaccines.

I found Donald Trump to be hilarious at first, then profoundly stupid, then the whole of the USA to become a laughing stock because their electoral system was so flawed as to elect such a man who was now in my mind downright dangerous and simply an awful human being who cared little for the truth, and treated minorities and women deplorably. I still can’t believe that he may even contest the presidency again even though he is under so much legal investigation for many crimes including insurrection. Worst of all though there are millions who will vote for him.

How the hell does that happen? Well it did in Germany in the 1930s but that was just one country then, without the internet.

It really scares me that the more the mainstream media or scientists try to show that they are telling the truth and their sources are legitimate and verifiable, the more it seems that those in the rabbit-holes see that as proof that they are lying.

That is profound ignorance and stupidity in my opinion. That may be putting it uncharitably because I don’t know how their lives have put them in such a vulnerable state that makes them such victims to misinformation and ridiculous algorithms but to be honest I don’t know what else to call it. I’m not going to say ‘there. there you poor things, how can we help you?” because this is serious and they are downright dangerous.

And you know what really hurts me is to hear these New Zealanders say that this country is a hell hole and that we have lost our freedoms to a fascist government.

Really??? I love this country for so many reasons but the main reason is because we are about the freest people in the world and we live in a great liberal and secular democracy that is working so hard to improve the lot of all of us and try to correct the mistakes of our past as much as we can. Do these people even know the meaning of freedom or even what it is?

And it is probably the most stable democracy in the world. In my lifetime of 70 years there has never been a reason to call an election outside of the three year cycle. I don’t know of any other nation at least in the English speaking world that has achieved that. I always vote Labour or Green but even when National wins I know that our liberal ways will still be respected by them because basically we are a centrist nation where extremes are not tolerated. That I particularly love and the fact that my neighbours vote National but we are good friends because we all believe just what I’ve said.

And those falling ever deeper into the rabbit-holes of dangerous and ignorant misinformation want to bring all that down.???

While verifiable truth and true democracy still exists I do feel some confidence that the problems facing us all can be solved but if it doesn’t. . .they won’t be!

It’s that simple. Reject this rubbish or we’re all done for. I’m sick of it!

Keith Tonkin 14th May 2023

Visual Art

I’m surprised with myself but in retirement I seem to have become a bit of a painter now too. Perhaps not too surprising because my mother was very good at it and I did dabble a little in my youth while at Christchurch Teachers College.

Anyway I’ve produced a few and now have sold six originals, three since I have become one of the local displayed artists at the Reefton Gallery on the West Coast of the South Island-New Zealand (Te Whare Toi o Inangahua – Te Tai Poutini -Te Wai Pounamu – Aotearoa) There I also sell prints and greeting cards made from a few of these.

“Sun Through Fog Near Crushington” – June 2020

Here, about 5km from my home, there was once a gold mining town . The place has some fame as the birth place of Dr Jack Lovelock the 1500m Champion of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jack had blue eyes and blond hair and Adolf Hitler was delighted that at last an “Aryan” won a major event after being annoyed that the African American Jesse Owens was taking too many honours.

“On Broadway” – Reefton 2020

Broadway is actually the name of my town’s main street but it has nothing to do with Manhatten. It was named after the town’s first judge in the 1870s -. Warden Broad. He lived here and made the business’s shift to his street after a flood along a parallel street (The Strand) beside the Inangahua River destroyed many of the first commercial propertys. Everything then had to be done Broad’s Way.

“Porters” –

A view from State Highway 73 crossing the Southern Alps from the West Coast to Canterbury at Porters Pass just after climbing from the Canterbury Plains.

“R 28” – Reefton

This is an old locomotive on display in Reefton. I’ve imagined it working its last days retired from mainline duties and on the short coal mine branch that once ran from the Reefton Station

“Future Dough in Reefton’ – 2021

My regular…The Broadway Cafe

Afternoon Sun. Murray Creek Track

Just a few hundred metres from home on an old miners track

Bushsteps

View along another old miners track near home

From the Rahu

A view from the road about 25km from home on the Rahu Saddle on State Highway 7

Morning Light – Blacks Point

This is also just a few hundred metres from my home in Blacks Point

North Beach – Westport

About 80 km from home on the Tasman Sea coast at the town of Westport

Top Track Blacks Point to Reefton Along yet another old miners track along a high ridge about 1km from home

Mokihinui Dusk

Along the coast north of Westport

Looking Up

As you do when walking in a forest

Black Ferns

Whoops..this photo of my latest is a bit blurry. I’ll replace it soon. Anyway the name is maybe a bit of a homage to New Zealand’s world champion women’s rugby team one of whom (Ruby Tui) comes from this part of Aotearoa

More Logic

Ok. . .another comment about the ancient Celt thing. It is incredible to me that anyone can believe this stuff but they do ??? Anyway here’s a piece of logic that I hadn’t previously thought of but is really obvious.
During the time period that those who believe Celts came and settled in New Zealand they were already adept at finding, mining, smelting and using metals (iron, tin, gold etc) to produce among other things weapons and armour. No-one would ever venture to a new territory without taking with them the most effective weapons at their disposal. . in their case swords, daggers, bows and iron tipped arrows and armour. On reaching their new destination an important priority would be to locate local sources of such metals, of which New Zealand had an abundance, and mine and manufacture more swords etc…the process once discovered is really simple, the Vikings of Newfoundland who were only a few in number managed it but because they were not the first there they couldn’t prevail against the well established natives and lasted only about ten years before retreating to Greenland. Here in NZ without competition Celts would’ve prospered and grown to large numbers of people…powerful and very well armed….Polynesians, great ocean sailors as they were, wouldn’t have had a chance against them. Quite simply they wouldn’t have stayed here. And of course the evidence of these Celts existence, even if by some huge catastrophe they somehow disappeared, would be huge and unmistakable
The Polynesian arrival would’ve also signalled to these Celts (who would’ve also been great sailors, greater than Polynesians because they’d sailed right around the world, and probably colonised Australia too) that there were other lands to conquer and followed the Polynesians back to the islands. Of course then by the time Abel Tasman and later James Cook arrived the Pacific would’ve been teeming with Celts brandishing far more deadly weapons than Taiaha and Mere let alone all the other items of technology enabled by the use of metal
I therefore doubt that New Zealand would now be mostly peopled by descendants of Europeans who arrived only 200 years ago.
You have to be logical.
PS regarding the spiral art forms. . . an artist and scholar has just messaged me that Maori spirals don’t exist in other Polynesian cultures because the Native fern fronds in NZ don’t exist in other parts of Polynesia and they are the inspiration. Also Celtic spirals are based on the intricate patterns of water flow and totally unrelated to Maori spirals. Both are examples of the Fibonacci Sequence which is common in many cultures throughout the world because of it’s simple and logical mathematics that is so common in nature and pleasing to the human eye.

‘Evidence’ of Ancient Celts

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.

Science Denial

A little while ago I wrote about the belief that some people have about Ancient Celts living in New Zealand before Maori arrived. When I did that I’d briefly heard about that belief before but had put it aside as, well to be honest, totally bonkers. But I did write it when I did because at that time I’d come across a number of people who held that belief who weren’t apparently ‘totally bonkers.’ So I became fascinated on how they came to those ideas.

Interestingly some of those people also strongly held the view that 1080 poison used by the Dept of Conservation to control introduced predators in New Zealand was wrong and doing more damage than good for indigenous species.

Even more interesting?

Then I came across an article concerning “Science Denial” (Science in the Time of Post-Truth. . .Dave Hansford, New Zealand Geograpic Nov-Dec 2016) The author noted the growing numbers of people worldwide who feel greater comfort in finding a new kind of spiritualism in this concept in which intelligent men and women are prepared to ignore research, data and facts in favour of a more mystical, emotional approach to life. Something in which they can take back some power and control. A tribe to belong to with whom ‘it matters not whether the incantation is true or correct: it’s the act of recital that gets the endorphins up.’

Hansford believes that these ideas may be traceable to the advent of the internet in which any belief can be continually reinforced by linking directly to others of the same belief. Especially on Facebook where there are no fact checks by proofreaders and editors. The more anyone searches for “Ancient Celts in New Zealand” “Ban 1080” “We never went to the Moon” “Climate Change is a Hoax” etc, the more their own computers will find collaborating evidence and ignore anything else on the subject and help convince that these things are the truth.

I believe in the science. Not because I want to but because it’s impossible to not believe in it if you read it and talk to people who know. (scientists relevant to the subject) However I understand the others who are possibly not deliberately in denial. After all no-one knows what they don’t know and we all follow our interests (with a passion especially if you are curious and intelligent in that way) whatever they are. I know artists and musicians who have little interest in science because their lives are full enough without it. At some point many people may hear or casually read something about “Ancient Celts in New Zealand” and perhaps put in the back of their minds as ‘interesting’ but give themselves no time to follow it up. At some later point they may come across someone who really believes it and therefore captures their interest further etc etc. They may never have a conversation with an archaeologist.

I also believe that the scientists need to be more aware of this problem. I think many may totally ignore it because they can’t believe that intelligent people would ever fall for such ideas. Many can’t be bothered with attempting to rebut or even talk about such things. They are out there extending knowledge and truth and have no time for ‘nutcases.’ So I think their arrogance is a problem. Not because they could be wrong –they aren’t, but because their ignoring science denial is putting everything they have worked for and given us all at risk.

Example….there is a belief that in the US thousands of children are being killed by immunisation?? Even if only one parent in New Zealand (or anywhere) believes that and refuses to allow their child to be immunised then they are putting other children at real risk. Not necessarily those who are immunised but those who suffer from leukemia and other immunological conditions And do they actually want diptheria or smallpox back that really did kill thousands of children. Immunisation eliminated those diseases.

So….Ancient Celts in New Zealand? Just read the facts. What the internet can hide, it can also reveal.

And here’s something it did reveal to me after reading Dave Hansford and checking his facts.  The eggs and chicks of over 25 million native birds are eaten by introduced predators every year, not including females who are killed as they try to incubate those eggs. After fifteen 1080 drops over eleven years only 13 dead native birds were found. All of these were autopsied and only two were found to have died from 1080 (both tomtits)   DOC has acknowledged the unacceptable deaths of two dozen kea since 2008 and is doing everything it can to prevent a repeat of this, but it was not a holocaust as so many anti-1080 protesters claim.  DOC’s reason to exist is to protect our wild heritage and the reason many work for them is because they are passionate about that. It goes way outside of reason to think that they would ignore science and actually do anything to oppose that aim.

The Renaissance did happen. Science freed us. I want the world to stay that way.

Keith Tonkin 13/1/18

Hekenukumai Busby – Master Navigator of Aotearoa

In April 2017 I had the great experience of another Duffy Books (Books in Homes) tour  and this time, unexpectedly, to the very far north. I say unexpectedly because I live in the South Island and that was as far as they could send me, although the Chatham Islands would possibly be further and a place I would love to visit.

In rural schools and in Kaikohe, Kaitaia and Opononi, I spoke to children about the value of reading, about their developing interests and of my passion for New Zealand history before reading to them a selected chapter from my book ” ‘Avaiki Tautau – Homeland Beneath the Stars.” I had to field many great questions before handing out to them their free books provided by the Duffy Foundation.

In Kaitaia I was told about a local man, Hekenukumai Busby, I was encouraged to meet, who had started a school of celestial navigation at his home in Doubtless Bay. I had known of him and because I had to spend the weekend in Kaitaia, I decided to contact him.

I had a great Sunday afternoon with him and now wish I had met him before writing ‘Avaiki Tautau as his knowledge would’ve added considerably to the narrative. On his property are two double – hulled waka  “Te Aurere” and “Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti”  that he has carved, built and sailed on replica ocean voyages, using the ancient celestial navigation skills he has and has taught. “Te Aurere” sailed to Hawaii, The Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Norfolk Island. “Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti” to Rapanui (Easter Island)

On Hekenukumai’s property is a huge compass which is a huge circle of 32 star points constructed on a level field 50 metres or so from his house. Each point is represented by a carved figure on a post with the tops of their heads perfectly levelled with each other. From a swivelled seat at the exact centre of the circle, the tops of each head appear exactly level with the ocean horizon beyond to the north. To the south there are hills but the headtops in that direction indicate clearly where the ocen horizon would be.

The prospective wayfinder / navigator can sit in this circle and learn to memorise each of these points and the stars that are associated with them at different times of the year and at different times of the night. The wayfinder can also imagine standing behind the mast of a waka and knowing which of the points should align themselves on either side if the vessel is on the desired heading.

I sat there for some time trying to get at least a sense of this. It was inspiring to say the least.

What Hekenukumai, who is now in his eighties,  has begun to engender in Aotearoa is very impressive and his knowledge will continue and spread and the great art will not be lost.

But he himself owes this to another man who may have been the last master celestial navigator in all of the Pacific – Mau Piailug of Satawai in the Carolinian Islands of Micronesia.  Hekenukumai Busby was inspired by this man’s voyage, navigating the “Hokule’a” from Hawaii to Tahiti in 1976.

Check this out….it is a really impressive story

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Piailug

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5996/hekenukumai-busby

Keith Tonkin 7/6/17

PS Hekenukumai Busby has now passed away but not before he was honoured with a well deserved knighthood presented by the Governor General not in Welllington as the Viceroy had planned but in Waitangi as Sir Hekenukumai requested because he knew those large grounds would be needed to cater for the large crowds that would wish to attend. He was right, a huge crowd gathered including all the top dignitaries of Aotearoa – New Zealand including the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Maori members of her government.

This features on a recently completed documentary on Sir Hekenukumai Busby’s life “Whetu Marama -Bright Star” available on You Tube.

Keith Tonkin 6th May 2023

Ancient Celts in New Zealand????

I awoke this morning feeling compelled to write this.

A friend gave me a book the other day. A good and gentle friend who means well in everything he thinks and does. A talented friend who writes beautiful poetry but who has experienced things in life that sometimes he’d rather forget. In his past thrust into worlds that I believe he’d rather didn’t exist.

I therefore deeply respect him and I hope in some measure, understand why he believes the premise of the book he wanted me to consider.

Perhaps reasons similar to my friend are why others are drawn to the thoughts expressed and because of my friend I can no longer regard those who do believe in this book and others like it as ……lets just say sadly uninformed.

Some react by labeling them as ‘blatantly racist’   I do not. I understand that there are those who are only racist in that they are misinformed and therefore unintentionally so. My friend would recoil in horror if he were given such a title.

I think there must be many reasons why many believe the assertion of the book “Ancient Celtic New Zealand” self published by Martin Doutre in 1999, that Celts settled in New Zealand thousands of years before the Polynesian ancestors of the Maori. Some of which I do think are blatantly racist but for many like my friend, because of the desire for a more magical and mysterious world that in today’s world is rapidly diminishing due to the stunning advances of science, including archaeology, climatology, oceanography, linguistics and geneology. These among other branches of the centuries old discipline bring about our greater understanding of the truth that Polynesians were the first and only settlers in New Zealand before the European discovery of these islands in the 17th Century (possibly a Spaniard, Juan Fernandez in the 16th Century)

Let me say why I am certain of this and appeal to those who have been attracted to Martin Doutre’s theory to try and connect with their rational selves.

I am not putting them down or calling them racist, stupid or any other negative term because I was once also attracted to the thought. Being deeply interested in New Zealand History from a very early age I jumped on anything that spoke of it and dreamed of a possible ancient heritage here. I eagerly read Barry Brailsford’s “Song of the Waitaha” and thought that there was some truth in it. After all he had written well researched books “The Tattooed Land’ and “Greenstone Trails of the Maori” Then I read some of his later novels and began to struggle with him. Eventually I met two people in North Otago who were Waitaha and who spoke derisively of him. Not so much in laughter but also with annoyance.

It was then I Also realised that the fact of ‘Avaiki Tautau – Aotearoa – New Zealand being the last habitable land in the world  discovered and settled by humans (apart from Rekohu – The Chatham Islands where Maori became the Moriori *) gave our islands a magical and unique history, where the art and skills of navigation in the ancient world reached it pinnacle. The last, loneliest and loveliest as other romantic writers have stated it.

Now I’m not a scientist, I’m an ex-teacher. My daughter has a degree in Archaeology from Otago and we have discussed this topic from time to time. I understand scientific method and find it bizarre whenever I meet someone who states that “Scientists know nothing” Let’s just leave that there. You don’t need to be a scientist to see the absurdity in that statement yet there are plenty who somehow believe it.

The scientific method requires extensive and exhaustive research including every known and possible way to disprove any proposed theory before that theory can even be considered to be approaching a fact. Take ‘evolution’ for example. For those reasons even Darwin wasn’t absolutely sure. But now after a century and a half of trying to find fault in it the method has only reinforced it to the point where it is on equal terms in certainty that the pope is a catholic.

The very same can be said about who the first people to discover and settle New Zealand. They were Polynesians from Eastern Polynesia (The Cook Islands, Tahiti and the Marquesas mainly)

So before picking apart the postulations in Doutre’s book, which have never been subjected to any scientific method, there’s quite a bit of logic that can’t be ignored.

Firstly there were no other people in the entire world that by the dawning of the second millenia (1000 CE) who had greater or even close to equal ocean navigation skills as did the Polynesians. Similarly no-one could survive living in Polar regions as well as Inuit, Chukchi, Evenk, Sami etc or who could cross great deserts as easily as Bedouin. Because of course that is where they lived and simply couldn’t survive without those skills and because they had to. Polynesians also had to keep finding new islands to cope with expanding populations.

Therefore it is far easier to imagine Polynesians discovering Europe than anyone from Europe at the time reaching New Zealand. The Polynesians had no reason to go that far and neither did the Celts and besides with their level of ocean technology, much smaller craft, the conditions they would have to encounter (including time and distance), required provisioning (the list goes on and on) there wasn’t even the possibility. They may have reached Iceland before the Vikings or even at a stretch North America but that’s not the South Pacific. In North America the Vikings lasted just about ten years in an isolated settlement in northern Newfoundland before local natives finished them off and they made only spasmodic visits to Labrador from Greenland for timber. No substantiated evidence has ever been found that they ventured any further.

Secondly there has been stunning advances in genetic science in recent years. It is now possible to trace detailed racial heritage from anyone’s DNA through a method using swabs taken from the inside of the mouth. Worldwide well over 100,000 people, mainly from wealthier nations (including New Zealand, Canada and the US) have done this including me. From this an increasingly detailed world map of human migration over thousands of years has been pieced together. No Polynesian (includes Maori) or Native American has ever been found to be carrying any mutation that originated in Europe that came from an ancestor other than one descended from known colonists of recent centuries. The red haired or blond strain that is sometimes seen in Polynesians is a mutation that has occurred independently within the Pacific (Austronesian) peoples.

Also consider that if a human population large enough to survive for any considerable length of time existed in New Zealand before Polynesians arrived 8-900 years ago then easily detectable changes in out flora and fauna indicating their presence would be obvious to us today. Forest reduction species extinction etc…these things occurred when Maori arrived, not before. All over the world, outside of Africa where we evolved, it is possible to trace the time of the arrival of humans including New Zealand by this method. Cave Bears, Cave Lions,  Rhinos (in Eurasia), Mammoths, Giant Kangaroos, Huge Apes in SE Asia etc etc  all disappeared soon after human hunters first encountered them. As did the Moa right here. They were too convenient a food source for newly arrived, not yet adapted, people. Ancient Celts arriving here would’ve done the same thing. . . if they were here. Instead of course the Moa remained undisturbed until less than a thousand years ago and our forest cover intact until someone lit a fire or began to clear space for themselves.

As for some of the  ‘mysteries or unexplained anomolous artefacts’ said to exist in New Zealand. Archaeologists know of them. There have been many but over time and acrual of more knowledge they mostly begin to fall into place. If they haven’t yet they are eventually expected to. Remember the scientific method. . .you can’t just jump to a fantastic and unlikely conclusion about them.

Spirals in Maori art?? So. . . It’s a nice form. We’re all capable of coming up with that one. Greenstone is as sharp a carving tool as any metal to create really intricate patterns in the fantastic native timbers we have.

Great earthworks on hillsides??? Yes Maori needed them for defence. Fit young men over a period of just a few months could’ve dug them out.

Stone Circles??? where. The one Doutre displays on the cover of his book. . Waitapu, he admits wasn’t actually there. The stones were lying down. I grew up exploring the volcanic hills on Banks Peninsula. Those sort of stones were on many hilltops, exposed by natural erosion. They’re also on the Otago Peninsula..a totally natural formation as are the stone walls such as the one in the Kaimanawa Ranges and on the Paparoas.

The Stone city in the Waipoua Forest??? We already know that’s an early Maori creation. Maraes in Eastern Polynesia are made of stone. Particularly more ancient ones. Polynesians did that. Yes DOC doesn’t want people to go there. More archaeology is planned for the future. Archaelogists do this all over the world…they don’t want untrained people disturbing it….that’s reasonable isn’t it??

Collapsed stone houses?? . . . Hangi pits.

Thousands of bones of an unknown people found in caves??? I don’t know if this is true or not. However if a Maori chief in the 19th Century said they were not his people’s bones he may have meant that they weren’t his iwi. The idea that Maori were one people was not in the minds of Maori then..the word ‘Maori’ didn’t even exist before pakeha came. Also if the bones of another iwi were in his land then their people may be able to claim it according to custom and he wouldn’t want that. But if his people destroyed them then a case case for utu (revenge) could be mounted. However if pakehas destroyed them (as apparently happened) there would be no comeback.

Maori culture is so different from other Polynesian cultures that it must have Celtic influences???   All Polynesian cultures are quite different from each other. In isolation it doesn’t take long for that to happen. Even without much isolation British descended New Zealanders are already quite different from the British themselves. The Moriori became very different from Maori only after a few centuries. The available resources, the climate and the skill set limitations of the original settlers have a lot to do with that. Greenstone, obsidian and timbers such as totara, rimu and kauri enabled Maori to radically and rapidly develop carving skills divergent from their previous ‘Hawaiki’ (Homeland). The presence of those huge trees also changed their building skills and styles and made the construction of strong single hulled waka possible. The sheer size of New Zealand compared to their past islands also diminished and eventually extinguished the need to continue great ocean voyages. Their population was still increasing when James Cook arrived.

Besides there is still enough similarity with other Polynesians to see the directions of the cultural divergence and even track their developments through time. Among American Natives or Africans (not to mention Europeans) there is great cultural differences without any oceans separating their groups.

It goes on and on….assertions that easily explainable things are something else.

Another absurd thing I’ve heard among  some of the Celtic believers is that they say that the Maori ruthlessly killed all the people they found living in New Zealand when they arrived therefore explaining why we find no relevant genetic markers in modern Maori populations. And yet, as I have just mentioned others claim that Maori artistic designs are of Celtic origin and that the occurence of red hair among Maori is proof of their ancient meetings.

So they must believe that the two peoples lived side by side long enough to make significant connections, effecting their genetics and culture. That has happened every known time that two peoples have been in significant contact. But part of the cross cultural exposure that has had that much effect has also always included language. So where in New Zealand Maori are the celtic language influences? Simply there are none. Every aspect of Te Reo (NZ Maori) has Polynesian roots, specifically Eastern Polynesian. So much so that Cook island Maori in particular is virtually the same language albeit with strong dialectical differences. Tahitian, Rapanuian (Easter Island) and Hawaiian are also very close. If there were even the smallest Celtic influences in NZ Maori they would be obvious to all other Polynesians and would’ve been the subject of  great linguistic interest as soon as New Zealand was rediscovered by Europeans in more recent times.

 

I believe that most people who believe that Celts were here before Maori have no racism in mind but I do believe that those who engineer such ideas do.

Ancient Native American sites have come under this sort of attack from those who couldn’t accept that they were capable of such things (even in Doutre’s book) It was even suggested that some Middle Eastern civilisation was responsible for Mayan and Aztec ruins.

I won’t say anymore except that Martin Doutre’s background and credentials should be considered. Read Scott Hamilton (PHd Sociology) on this matter. I imagine it will be an unpleasant surprise to many.

http://books.scoop.co.nz/2008/11/18/no-to-nazi-pseudo-history-an-open-letter/

 

* Many people still believe that Moriori were a race of Polynesian who lived on New Zealand’s mainland before the Maori. In fact the Moriori were Maori and became Moriori (because of cultural and language changes) after discovering and settling on the Chatham Islands from New Zealand. In the 19th Century Taranaki Maori used European ships to reach the Chathams and came into conflict with Moriori, severely reducing their  population although not entirely eliminating them. The myth that Moriori were on the mainland before Maori was reinforced by many publications, including the School Journals right into the 20th Century and was seen as a convenient excuse for Europeans usurping Maori because they had done that to the Moriori. . .which on the mainland they hadn’t because the Moriori simply weren’t there.

 

25/3/22 I’ve recently received and read a new book by K.R. Howe (Professor Kerry Howe of Massey University) who also wrote “Vaka Moana” which details Polynesian Migration and their navigation skills. This new one is “The Quest for Origins” that the New Zealand Herald simply states ” This is not just a good book, but an important one.”

If you read this with an open mind you will understand where and how the many different ideas of Polynesian origins came to be and how science and cultural bias has evolved to a much clearer understanding of the truth. (remarkably close to James Cook’s original ideas in the 18th Century) You will also be convinced that there simply was no previous settlement in New Zealand before Polynesians, ancestors of the Maori, arrived here less than 1000 years ago in spite of so called “New Age” ideas, many of which are reflections of “old age ideas” before science as we know it today stepped up to the plate.

“Pop” An ANZAC Poem.

The URL below is a video of my nephew D’Arcy Waldegrave reading my poem “Pop.”

Pop was my grandfather Charles Spearman (D’Arcy’s g-grandad) and the poem is about his experience at Gallipoli in 1915.

D’arcy is a radio announcer with Radio Sport. He recorded this on his blogsite ‘The Sauce’ the day before ANZAC Day in 2015

http://fb.m e/7dC4wgPDI 

 

Duffy Books

I’ve recently become a Duffy Books role model and have made a tour of eleven schools in Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast.

For those outside of New Zealand and/or those who are not familiar with it, Duffy Books is a foundation set up by Kiwi Author Alan Duff (of “Once Were Warriors” fame) to give books to children in low decile schools (those in lower socio-economic areas) and to thus help encourage them to read.

The CopyPress Nelson

Me, Dave McManus and some of the staff at the CopyPress in Annesbrook, Nelson who published ‘Avaiki Tautau.

 Dave is on the left and in the bottom picture.