Suzanne Williams

Thank you, David Wicks, for your thoughts on Māori wards (Beacon, Friday, July 25).  I think that most reasonable people feel similarly to you.

D Dawson, regarding Moriori as tangata whenua, I believe that they lived in mainland New Zealand for a relatively short time, then migrated to Rekohu in the Chatham Islands, where they existed for hundreds of years as hunter/gatherers.

In 1835, two Taranaki Māori tribes, dispossessed and bored, decided to invade the Chathams. They consequently massacred and ate most, then enslaved the remaining population. which then died out as a people.

Moriori had developed a pacifist culture, refusing to fight, which meant that they welcomed all comers, gifting them land so that they may live alongside them.

There has never been an apology for this atrocity.

This brings to mind the terrible present-day genocide in Gaza.
Then, closer to home, the Tūhoe hierarchy, condoning the destruction of our huts in Te Urewera.

Have we not yet learned any tolerance towards others?

Māori are not perfect in their dealings with others; nor are any of us.

But they are the closest to tangata whenua that New Zealand has.

Those who identify as Māori make up nearly half of Whakatāne’s population and we need Māori wards, for a balanced viewpoint.

For an interesting, clear, well-researched, award-winning, readable and very, very sad book, I recommend Moriori by renowned historian Michael King.