Backbencher

Native Peoples: Aborigine and Maori

The first lecture shows the two sides to two different 'native' people, and ultimately, two cultures. The Aborigine (AB) lived in Australia and the Maori (M) lived in New Zealand. The M have been in NZ for a lot less than the AB have been in AUS. The big difference between the AB and M is that the M got legal claim to their land, and the AB did not. It seems to me that the small size of NZ held some sway in the M getting legal claim. We also talked about the differences in cultures and how each group of people lived and survived. We talked about race relations in AUS and NZ, and it seemed like people in AUS got the raw end of the deal. Again I think the size of both continents shaped the outcome of race relations. Also, European contact played a huge role in shaping both continents and peoples, mainly, diseases that the native peoples had never been exposed to before. Fatal contact? Possibly.