 The
Island Broken in Two Halves: Land and Renewal Movements Among the
Maori of New Zealand by Jean Elizabeth Rosenfeld
Why
should anyone outside New Zealand be interested in Maori history?
Because it is rich in documents that recapitulate five hundred
years of European imperial expansion and the responses to it by
indigenous peoples. British humanitarians tried to avoid in New
Zealand the tragic mistakes the Crown made in Australia, where
aboriginal tribes were nearly exterminated in some cases and severely
marginalized in others.
The Maori
"history of struggle" is unique only in its relative
success. The British enterprise of colonization and Christianization
stimulated the formation of Maori renewal movements to hold fast
to their threatened land. The study of these movements elucidates
how human beings in general use the sacred to bridge the abyss
between old and new worlds during the trauma of invasion and why
people turn to religion as a paramount means of salvation from
despair.
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