Kapai's Corner - Column

One of the big bonuses with working on any book project, as I am, is you spend hundreds of hours strolling back through the corridors of time researching who did what and when to who.
Along the way you pick up the odd gem of a pukapuka that sheds new light on old thoughts and it changes your thinking as I did when I read The Bible & the Treaty by Keith Newman.
I must declare an interest in Keith's writing, firstly he is an ageing hippy like me, with a passion for rock n roll, religion and the healing waters of the Haumoana River mouth, and secondly we were both guest speakers at the same venue in Rotorua recently.
Keith was in town last week giving a lecture on his lifelong beliefs on how the early missionaries were often used as a convenient cover-up when it came to the injustices exacted on Maori, and to this day the clergy cloth has carried an aura of unfair blame for what happened during the times of the land wars in the 18th century.
Here in Tauranga Moana Arch Deacon Brown copped his share of blame for what I now believe were rightful intentions that turned out really badly for tangata whenua when they lost their lands.
What blew me away with Keith's book was the revelation that Maori didn't practise any form of forgiveness until the keepers of the faith showed up. Up until then it was either aroha or utu with no grey area in between, and the act of utu or revenge was a cornerstone of Maori culture that could be exacted for the smallest or largest of indiscretions.
I guess none of us are exempt from playing the blame game and perhaps in these tough times when the planet seems to be more unstable than ever it is a good time to visit our own backyard when it comes to finding forgiveness.
Sure the scriptures say to turn the other cheek or in earlier times our old Maori woman would bare theirs in times of disgust but that's not always appropriate or easy to do, but somehow there has to be a part to play by each of us when trying to turn the world into a better place by forgiving when we can.
So let me start.
I forgive Graham Henry for losing the World Cup last time and know I will not need to do the same this year as Sonny Bill Williams will make sure of that.
I forgive my phys ed teacher at Mount College in 1969 - the same year as Woodstock, for giving me horrendous haircuts known as kina cuts for showing up at school with hair over the collar. (Now I can't even keep it covering my head)
I forgive Mother Earth for burping and don't blame her for the damage the earthquakes have done as she was here many millions of years before we showed up.
I forgive the kiwifruit industry for saying their sprays were harmless to humans and know they will do the right thing in the future by notifying their neighbours 24 hours beforehand.
That's four on the forgiveness floor straight off the bat, now it's your turn.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said "The weak can never forgive as forgiveness is the attribute of the strong" and I think like all great peace icons of the planet he was right on the rupee.
In our times perhaps the greatest peace icon ever is Nelson Mandela, who in his brilliant book wrote "forgiveness paves the way for the long road to freedom".
Easy to say I can hear many saying, but we have two simple choices on this one. Stay in grievance mode and play the blame game for another 10 generations or do what no other country has done and that is living by forgiving.
Some say forgiveness is the sweetest revenge because it may not change the past but it does enlarge the future by opening up horizons never dreamed of, and right now we need every horizon of hope there is.
broblack@xtra.co.nz