UN Alarms New Zealand: Colonialism Still Racist, Apparently
The Guardian covers a UN report expressing “serious concern” that New Zealand’s government is weakening Māori rights by ditching their health authority and cutting Indigenous services. The surprise here isn't the policy, but that the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination took this long to formalize what Māori have been fighting for 180 years, since the Treaty of Waitangi was
signed and subsequently, ah, 'reinterpreted.' Governments cutting funding for Indigenous programs isn't a new strategy; it's a feature, not a bug, of settler colonialism. One might wonder if the UN sees a pattern here, or if each instance of a government chipping away at Indigenous sovereignty is treated as a novel, 'alarming' development rather than business as usual. How many more 'concerns'
before they call it what it is?