NZ Politics

Typical bullshit from Peters, trying to manufacture anti-Māori conflict.

Acknowledging both the Māori and European discoverers of New Zealand is good. Both discoveries are, themselves for their peoples, true.

IMHO the interesting fact is that not all iwi have whakapapa that asserts Kupe as the navigator who discovered Aotearoa. Some iwi have whakapapa that asserts that it was Maui*.

This isn't a problem. Both Kupe and Maui could have independently done so. The same way that one might argue that Cook and Tasman both discovered this land mass for Britain/Europe.

* if you're interested: Maui fishing up the north island is an allegory to seeing the island rise up over the horizon as if being lifted out of the water. Maui was a navigator/wayfinder of repute, as was Kupe.