Deep impact and the tail of colonialism

Abstract

Colonialism hit the indigenous world with the destructive force of a massive comet, and its impact will be forever etched in the cultural memories of its entire people. The impact has left a crater, within the indigenous world, so deep and enormous that indigenous peoples are still fighting to ascend from the crater floor. Despite their best efforts, to ascend, they are being hampered by the tail (residual colonialism) of the comet which continues to distribute its toxic elements within the environment of the indigenous world. While the impacts of this catastrophic event are profuse, these impacts must be individually identified and defined by indigenous peoples, to help them ascend. The intention of my research is to analyse the impacts of colonisation on te reo Māori (The Māori Language) and Māori ideology. This will be achieved, in part, through an examination of the whakapapa (genealogy) of te reo Māori. The second part of my research is to apply the critical theories of thirteen chosen kaiariā (theorists), to further define the impacts of colonialism on te reo Māori and Māori ideology. For example, Niccolo Machiavelli’s theories of leadership define the rules of encounter when colonising a people. Machiavelli’s notion that the end justifies the means, is one illustration of how colonialism has and continues to be justified. Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony describes a colonising tool that is invasive and attacks the fundamental nature of indigenous ideology.