pn828. Is Nothing in Māori Knowledge Scientific?

 

The argument that a Māori view can legitimately be included in the teaching of the sciences continues to be denied by writers in the Listener "Letters" pages. In this week's bumper holiday issue, three writers applaud the views of Oxford don Richard Dawkins. DSc, FRS,  in the previous issue. 

One wrote of "the vacuous claims of Māori 'knowledge' bearing some nebulous kinship with science"; another denied "traditional (Māori) knowledge equivalen(ce)" with science, and all three supported Dawkins in condemning the NZ Royal Society for supporting the inclusion of Māoritanga or a Māori view in our schools' science curricula.  

Hobson's Pledge and Dr John Robinson should get real: Letters to the Listener (pn689)

Hardly a week  passes without regurgitation. I'm tired of reading Hobson's Pledge's ( "a society in which all citizens have the same rights, irrespective of when we or our ancestors arrived") spurious and misleading claims about us "becoming one people." The Treaty of Waitangi, the Treaty Commission and subsequent legislation are now law. We are one nation, two and more people with shared and dissimilar cultures. Get real! Do not confuse nation with people or sameness with equality. 

The latest  call is by amateur historian Dr John Robinson's letter to the NZ Listener (6 Feb.) "Becoming One People".  With his Maths doctorate he attacks Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon for being a racist by supporting "a veritable history ...of inherited guilt on one side, with feelings of loss and demands for entitlement on the other ... justify(ing) an ever-widening racial divide; we are no longer one people" (As if we ever were!)