Hat Tip to: http://silentrunning.tv/ -who have asked that this message be spread.
ATTN: All New Zealanders February 27th, 2006
Did you know that New Zealand is pretty much the only place in the world that you can not actually be a New Zealander?
Whenever you fill out a form or survey in New Zealand you can tick the box to say you are Maori, Tongan, Samoan, Australian, European (or NZ born ofEuropean Decent), Asian, etc but there is no box provided to say “Yes, I am a New Zealander and I am proud to be one”
In Australia, you can be an Australian… In fact in Australia you can be aNew Zealander. Why is it that we can’t be New Zealanders in our own country? Most people are proud of their ethnicity, heritage and family origins and so will tick whichever box they feel applies to them, and they have every right to do so whether they are Maori, Pacific Islander, European etc
Many of us however consider that we, and our families, have been in New Zealand for long enough now that we should be able to claim that as who we are… regardless of where our ancestors may have come from many centuries ago or what the colour of our skin or shape of our face might indicate.
If you support us in our desire to be recognised as New Zealanders in our own country then there is only one way that this can be achieved… On the 2006 NZ Census form, when you are asked for your ethnicity, choose the option “Other” and state your ethnicity as “New Zealander”
If we can get enough people to do this then maybe, just maybe, we can get the powers that be to sit up and recognise that we are proud of who we are and that we want to be recognised as such, not divided into sub-categories and all treated as foreigners in our own country.
Please Copy and Paste into an email and Send this on to as many people as you can; friends, people you work with, kiwi’s you know who are overseas, anyone… No, you won’t receive amazing good luck by doing so but you will have the knowledge that you have done your bit to help us, as New Zealanders, fight for our right to be recognised as who we are in this proud and strong country of ours.
And remember… at census time… “Other - New Zealander!”
6 comments:
Pah. Tow the line and assume the vanity then.
REAL hard-ass New Zealanders show it by sending the Census to Hades!
Even penned livestock on an animal farm aren't forced to do the paperwork for their oppressor!
Burn.
I'm not a fan of this movement.
You *can* be a New Zealander... "New Zealander" refers to nationality, not ethnicity.
If I were to smuggle a Bengal Tiger from Asia into New Zealand, would it suddenly become a New Zealand Tiger? Magically morph into a "Kiwi"?
I realise that we, as humans, are considered to be at the top of the evolutionary ladder... but we haven't yet developed the ability to change who our ancestors were, where they came from, or the effect that they had on our genetic and social makeup.
So we are all friggin' Africans then?
Fuck that, I'M a Neww Zealander!
Conceeded ;-)
It really needs to be more well defined.
Could I (by the same logic) then declare my ethnicity to be "Aucklander" because I've been here for a couple of years??
Clould I declare myself to be Dutch because my mother and her entire family are Dutch - even though I am ineligible to become a Dutch citizen as they only recognize paternal bloodlines?
It really is a nebulous concept when you get down to the nitty gritty...
I'm more inclined to opt for something silly like "Jedi" ;-)
I thought the 'Aucklander' WAS a seperate ethnicity to 'New Zealander'
;-)
As I have posted above have always stated New Zealander of English origin Stuff what they say I know who I am and where Im from
gd
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