New to Facebook. I was always wary about joining what with NSA and the 5 Eyes program - Now it doesnt matter, the source of the problem has now been identified as the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. In short - it looks something like this: Discovery Forced to attend white man’s schools, indigenous people are denied access to their own true history by educators. Both Maori and Pakeha are cheated out of true history, and consequently, we have all been imprinted to accept a foreign and colonial point of view. Blinded by the illusion of European superiority, Papal authority became the basis for Crown power over the indigenous people though this is not generally understood, even by indigenous lawyers. Westminster borrowed from the Papal Bulls the essential theological legalism needed for “civilised government” over indigenous peoples. The Christian discovery Doctrine has never been overruled and remains the philosophical foundation for the Crown over the lands and natural resources and territories of Maori peoples. The Papal Bulls is the Laundromat for all European philosophical and legal foundations. No lawyer or court acknowledges that the land and natural resources was claimed by simply transplanting colonial law: rather the entrenched Doctrine of Christian Supremacy is now simply “assumed”. This fundamental theological/legal precedent and historical basis for policy and law is the Doctrine of Discovery, the idea that Christians enjoy a moral and legal right based solely on their religious identity. Papal Bulls, Royal Charters and court rulings, called for non-Christian peoples to be invaded and to have their possessions and property seized by Christian monarchs. Englands King Henry VII followed the Papal pattern of domination by instructing John Cabot and his sons to locate, subdue and take possession of the islands, countries, regions, of the heathens and infidels previously unknown to Christian people. Thereafter, for example, English, Portuguese and Spanish colonization in Australia, the Americas and New Zealand proceeded under the Doctrine of Discovery, as Europeans attempted to conquer and convert Indigenous Peoples. Consequently, the current situation is the result of a linear programme of legal precedent, originating with the Doctrine of Discovery, and now masquerading as contemporary national law and policy in New Zealand. This Doctrine, mandated Christian European countries to attack and kill indigenous peoples in order to acquire all of their assets. The Doctrine of Discovery is imagined to be law in every settler society around the world today. In a nutshell, the Doctrine of Discovery gives the nations of Europe not just the right, but the God-given duty, to take over any unoccupied lands (the Latin phrase is Terra Nullius) they discover and bring to them the “benefits” of a “Christian civilization.” For white settlers and their successors, this has meant: a) clearing and cultivating the land; b) imposing rule over any indigenous people encountered; c) converting them to Christianity; and, of course, d) grabbing for king and country, all the resources that could be stolen, cut down or dug up. Imperial England brought the Doctrine of Discovery to Aotearoa. It was a process of “legal” racism that all European leaders have over the years continued, even today. The Doctrine of Discovery is still being supported in legal decisions. The colonial parliament itself, (transplanted by Westminster) is the child of the Doctrine of European Discovery. The Doctrine of Discovery which is “five hundred years of European thought” is now held up to be a legal reality in New Zealand and is evidenced by firm application of existing colonial law. (Vested in the Crown?) Wherever you see a denial of Maori rights that is the Doctrine of Discovery in action. When natural resources are said to be possessed by the “Crown” and not the Maori people that is the theological destruction of the economic and political rights of the Maori people concerned. Unfortunately, Maori have also internalized the Doctrine. The results are clear: poverty (economic and spiritual); the ongoing, intergenerational cycle of abuse and family violence (physical and emotional); violence against women and children; high rates of suicide; substance abuse and related tragedies; disease (diabetes, heart disease, etc.); gangs and high incarceration rates; mental illness; and passivity and despair. Maori suffer from: a colonizer mentality; an internalized sense of white superiority, racism and stereotypes that separate them from us; a stratified society where only some are powerful and wealthy and the rest live in a climate of fear and scarcity. Moreover, the Pakeha sector of society, carry on this injustice by denying historical reality and blaming Maori that they have victimized. Colonial States (such as the colonial parliament in New Zealand) and their created legal entities search for legitimacy and seek to establish it by various forms of reasoning and justification, from the divine right of kings to democratic votes; but any competent epistemologist knows that here, the self-reference problem always poses a deadly circular argument, pretending that no definitive answer is possible. Yet the gun and monopolizing the use of force, is the most widespread means for enforcing the theological Doctrine of Discovery, no matter what else is said. The fairy tale called the Doctrine of Discovery vested indigenous lands properties, natural resources, territories and jurisdiction in European nations 300 years before the Treaty of Waitangi. Of course these things have never ever belonged to Europeans to claim, or to issue title, permits or licenses for or to simply seize, to use, and exploit as if it self-righteously belonged to Pakeha. Perhaps it would be best for Pakeha to use diplomatic skills, rather than having to rely on this Doctrine of Entrenched Racism and a Foreign Colonial Statute to claim a fictitious supremacy over Maori, their respective territories, lands, waters, forests and natural resources. This Doctrine of Discovery, as colonial law, continues to treat the Maori as uncivilized, subhuman, without rights to any land, natural resources, territory, nation and still remains in effect today. Knowledge is for everyone and not to be monopolized by the select few.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 11:43:47 +0000
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