The Maholian Way - Part Four: Honouring & including first Maholians

The Latuans are the first people of Maholia. They have a proud history stretching back to the time they migrated from Polynesia, variously estimated to be between 600 and 1200 years ago. Over those centuries they fed, clothed and sheltered themselves, treated their sick and injured, reared and educated their children, celebrated the wisdom and contributions of their elders, and created and passed on art and stories and song that expressed how they understood the world and what they valued in it. They maintained a balance within nature, taking from it what they needed and allowing it to replenish itself.

The European onslaught

Then the Europeans arrived. Given their superior weaponry and the fact that, for long periods of time at least, they did not need to live off the land but could bring all the necessities of life with them, they were able to range across the land at will and without having to understand it. In the process they killed Latuans, infected them with their diseases, gave them their alcohol and tobacco and trinkets, forced them back onto the lands of other tribes (causing inter-tribal strife) or drew them into lives of servitude within their own society. Faced with this onslaught, Latuan society began to disintegrate. Over time, its worldview was shattered, the authority of its elders undermined, its economic base stripped away, and its routines, laws and rituals unravelled. The Europeans talked of treaties but continued to take land, talked of laws but these were not laws that made sense to Latuans, talked of cooperation but only on their terms.

The Latuan population declined as a result of disease, demoralisation and violence (both among Latuans and between them and Europeans). Some were drawn into white society, some lived in shanty settlements on its margins, some on church missions or state-run reserves, while some Latuans in remote areas maintained a semi-traditional lifestyle. Those working in white society were often paid in rations of tea, flour, sugar, tinned beef and tobacco, or they had their paltry wages ‘managed’ for them by whites. Then when equal pay was introduced in the 1970s most who had jobs lost them. All this meant that, until recently, Latuans had a life expectancy about twenty years less that other Maholians, as well as very high rates of poverty, unemployment, early school leaving, violence, imprisonment, child abuse, alcoholism, infant mortality, and ‘lifestyle’ conditions like obesity, hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.

Turning the tide

In the past two decades there have been some very positive changes, although there is still a long way to go. Policies to enable Latuans to improve their lives have of course been guided by relationalist principles, but they have also been built around three elements:

• recognition of and apologies for past wrongs, and restitution for these wrongs
• encouraging, assisting and expecting Latuans to fill as many roles and occupations in their communities as possible
• preparedness to be guided by the evidence of what works.

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