Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 18. July 24 1978
Raglan and the Maori Land Land Struggle
Raglan and the Maori Land Land Struggle
It would be true to say that in the last year or so Maori land grievances have surely come to the fore. The stand at Bastion Point and the struggle over the Raglan golf course have clearly shown this. This takes place against a background of mounting protest against many aspects of the present social system.
The stand that Maoris are taking says simply this: that during the past 150 years, the Maori people have seen their 66 million acres of land systematically stripped from them by deception, division, and to this very day, force. Added up, that leaves two million acres Nothing has changed in the way of acquiring Maori land, as far as the powers that be are concerned.
So, understandably, Maori anger and frustration is being expressed in a protest that is uniting more and more Maori people and winning many Pakehas. This can only horrify the people responsible for the land robbery, since they sponsor the idea that this is a Maori versus pakeha problem, there by deepening this division, that enables them to carry on exploiting and stealing Maori land. This is the policy of "divide and rule", or, as Bastion Point has shown, "divide and grab".
Even with over one hundred years of representation in parliament, nothing has been done to stop the theft of Maori land.