Letters: Of course there were people living in Aotearoa before Māori

Parliament has passed the End of Life Choice Bill. Now the people of Aotearoa will be asked to decide its fate in a referendum next year.

Of course people were living in Aotearoa before Māori. During the Medieval Warm Period, voyagers from Rarotonga, Tahiti, Rangiatea and the Marquesas Islands settled here but considered themselves to be Rarotongans, Tahitians, etc.

Over the years they modified their tropical cultures and languages, intermarried and eventually became Māori. The later waves of these settlers were more militant than the first and pushed many smaller groups into fewer but stronger clans.

Austronesian explorers had visited Aotearoa before the Medieval Warm Period, but when faced with the choice of spending the rest of their winters either in Fa'anui (Bora Bora) or in Whanganui (Aotearoa) they always chose the former option.

Celts did not arrive in Aotearoa before the Austronesians: the Celts' cow-hide currachs could navigate the Irish Sea, but not the Atlantic and the Roaring Forties. The ancient Egyptians could have sailed to Aotearoa 3200 years ago, but their ships were turned back near the southern tip of India by the Tamil navy.

JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune

Early settlers

Really, D Partner? If I believe my Polynesian ancestors were the first humans to people Aotearoa, I am sinking in to a world of fantasy?

Well, think about the following: Our Māori ancestors were often referred to as savages, cannibals, primitives, lazy, dirty, etc. But way back in 1921 an ethnologist concluded that Polynesians were descended from Aryan or Caucasians of northern India, from whence they migrated around 3000 years ago.

I would dispute the chronology, but who were these people? Well, according to Adolf Hitler, the Aryans were the ancestors of his "master race", who were destined to rule the world and do away with all of us inferior beings.

But we all know now, or we should know, that there is only one human race and that no section, group or iwi is any more or less intelligent than any other. So pray tell me, sir: On what evidence do you base your assumption that we who deny your false narrative have sunk into a world of fantasy?

POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff

People's decision

After 2 years of korero at every level of society, in every part of Aotearoa/NZ, from Kaitaia to Bluff, NZ Parliament approved the End of life Choice Bill on November 13, 2019.
It is called the most extensively scrutinised and most considered piece of legislation in NZ parliamentary history.

National and international experts, including some of the most brilliant legal minds (eg, Catherine Marks and Andrew Butler) have combed through this act paragraph by paragraph, word by word, resulting in an act complying with international best practice standards.

During the extensive parliamentary process, eligibility criteria have been restricted and are now limited to a narrow group of terminally ill people.

They must be suffering unbearably, must be in an advanced state of irreversible decline, must be of "sound mind" during the entire process and capable of initiating and giving full informed consent during the entire process.

In case of coercion, the process is discontinued promptly. Safeguards to the act have been discussed and adjusted during the parliamentary process at length.

The people of Aotearoa will now be asked to decide on the fate of the act during a referendum to be held at the time of the general elections at the end of 2020.

It is to be expected opposers of this act will continue their crusade and shift their focus from opposing assisted dying to opposing and discrediting this specific piece of legislation.

They apparently are blessed with unlimited financial resources, enabling them to professionally spread their campaign of misinformation via radio, TV and newspapers, through fundamental religious institutions and social media.

Most people in Aotearoa/ NZ will see through this and will vote in favour of the End of Life Choice Bill at the time of the general elections.

They realise that if this act gets thrown out it will be a very long time before any politician will have the political will, intelligence, endurance and expertise to consider taking up this cause again soon.

ALIDA VAN DER VELDE
Waikanae

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