Liam here from the twitter thread that's been discussed here a fair bit. I've been linked to this chat a few times in the last few weeks and saw a lot of speculation around my intent etc and at least one post saying I'd be welcome so I figured I'd join to clarify a few things for peeps in good faith. Ill do this by answering some of the common comments I've seen come up. Ill do my best to adhere to the one rule, though its kind of a political topic in a way. But I'll do my best to remain objective.
Who am I and what gives me the right to say this stuff anyway?: I am Māori who whakapapa's to Ngāti Kahungunu ki te wairoa and via Tamatea Arikinui to the Takitimu waka that made its way here to Aotearoa some 5-6 centuries ago. Professionally I am a principle advisor for a large public agency advising on implementation of policy and governance in a culturally appropriate manner, ensuring we adhere to our commitments and obligations to Tangata Whenua and the broader public. Outside of the day job I free lance as a cultural advisor, TTRPG creator and podcaster under my brand Toa Tabletop. What I don't do is speak for all Māori, nor have I claimed too. And I especially don't speak for all Polynesia because no one can.
Why did I make the post: Initially I wasn't going to, as publicly calling out companies isn't good for business as a consultant. But my mana demanded I do it in the end. When works are made about us but without us they invariably cause harm, so it was important I look at it for the sake of people who follow me to know if it was safe or not. I received a lot of comments asking about my thoughts so a public thread made the most sense. Also, I was aware that some other voices were calling it out without really giving good cause, as is typical for twitter. If I was going to say a book has issues I wanted to present those issues clearly and as objectively as one can in the circumstance. Wasn't interested in just calling for a mob as is the twitter way.
Did I do it for clout?: Considering the way twitter is going at the moment, going for clout over there is a rather pointless endeavor huh
But like I said, it was a mana thing, and that doesn't really care what the broader public thinks for better or worse. Considering the amount of abuse I've worn over it I would say it isn't worth any clout it could've given.Why is the post so long: My initial goal was sort of a live reaction, page by page. I was dealing with writers block at the time so appreciated the distraction from my work. As time went on and I found more and more flaws I realized it would be a good chance to show how easily some of the mistakes made could've been avoided with some proper collaboration with the cultures being represented. So the first day of posts was this sort of live reaction page by page and demonstration of the value of consult.
Two days later I picked it back up and found the table where it effectively mono-cultured every body and made comments about each culture. The comments on Moriori gave me a bit of concern so I searched for Moriori in the PDF and read the section about the history between Moriori and Māori. At that point I shifted entirely as it shared a 100 year old white supremacist myth. So it went from "this book is misguided and making some simple but passable/excusable mistakes" to "This book is perpetuating harm". Thus I focused on that and closed the thread out as I was done with it.
What's all this about Moriori anyway?: So I have seen one user here especially get a bit mixed up with the Moriori stuff I raised. For clarity I need to talk about the mythical Moriori genocide and the very real one.
Moriori are a separate people's from Māori, though its likely some of them descend from Māori who migrated to their islands around 500 years ago. They developed separate from Māori and adopted a culture of non violence and pacifism. In the 1830s, two Māori tribes that were displaced due to a conflict known as the musket wars, had heard about the Chatham islands and made their way there to establish a new home. This ended up being a violent encounter and the pacifist Moriori were brutally dealt with. Very few of them survived, first the initial genocide and then the lack of care from the colonial govt who allowed this injustice to carry on. This whole thing took place between 1835 and 1870. This is dark moment in history that Moriori are still recovering from today.
A couple of decades later some European ethnographers proposed that Moriori were inferior to Māori, and that they lived on the mainland prior to Māori arrival. They preposed that the Māori supplanted them due to their racial superiority and conquered the lands. This was popular for two reasons. One, there was a strong belief that Caucasians were superior to Māori, so the idea of another further inferior people aligned with this worldview. And two, it undermined Māori claim to the land, and excused or justified European annexation of the lands and intended cultural replacement of the inferior Māori. If they conquered for the land then so could the empire. This was picked up and taught in schools for awhile from around 1900. It was disproven as early as 1920, but prevailed until the 1960s in schools. To this day this myth is expressed by people who typically want to undermine Māori and justify or ignore colonial injustice. Moriori suffer for this myth too, as it often states that they are extinct or were physically and intellectual inferior to Māori and by extension Europeans. It also takes attention away from the real atrocity they experienced in their history. These days the only people who openly share this narrative are white supremacists or very old people who learned it in schools and aren't up to date. Its a highly offensive part of our ongoing colonization.
If you want a more in-depth look at the history I recommend this video as an easily accessible way to get a good overall look
But if it was taught at schools then it must be in a text book, so easy mistake to make right?: As I said, this was disproven a century ago. The amount of text that contradicts this narrative vastly outweighs the texts that say it is truth. So you pretty much have to go out of your way to read that history and believe it if you are researching in this day and age. Given its harm and implications that's not really good enough, IMO.
You got upset about the language change in the book, is it really important?: So this might not seem like a big deal without historical context. We have to fight to keep our language alive every day. For a long time we were actively discouraged from using it. My grandfather was beaten at school by his teachers for speaking it. Our language very nearly died until protests in the 70s forced our govt to recognize it and now we fight to make it commonly used. Most Māori aren't fluent, most schools don't teach it and so on. It is deeply tied to our cultural world view, so much so in fact that learning it is key to understanding so many of our cultural concepts. It is a Taonga, or treasure. So when our colonizers spent so much effort to try and deny us our language, seeing it changed for the sake of convenience for outsiders is a bit on the nose. Its hard not to be upset by it. So while it may not seem like much, it is pretty insulting.
This idea drives much more of the dislike of our culture being used in a book like this. Our culture has had active attempts in very recent history to stamp it out. I'm not talking about resistance to evolution here, there was govt policy with stated aims to assimilate us and destroy our way of life. When so much has gone into stopping your culture get destroyed for so long, seeing other people come along and profit off of it without involving your people is pretty on the nose. And its a constant thing. While this may seem like just one book, its another part of a bigger tide of appropriation and colonization. It may be easy for an outsider to look at it in isolation, but its very hard as the subject of the book. As an analogy, when you are constantly dodging cars threatening to run you over, whether the driver intends to hit you or not doesn't feel particularly relevant when they make no effort to avoid you. For most of our colonial history we have had to fight to be allowed to use our culture ourselves, so seeing it commodified by an outsider in a shoddy fashion really stings. This is where this book differs from others that deal with cultures that are either long gone, or not being actively colonized and marginalized.
Do you want a mob to shut down The Design Mechanism?: No not really. When I started the twitter thread I just wanted my followers to know about it really. Now I think TDM should do the right thing, pull the book. Keeping it up means that they are at the very least ok with a book of theirs perpetuating racist myths. Which is pretty stink, IMO. TDM can absolutely do the right thing here and pull a win, IMO. Even a statement would be of value. And if they must redo it, do so with proper involvement from indigenous experts. And for clarity, that won't be me as I have a policy not to work with people I have publicly critiqued. There is no mana in it and it feels like coercive solicitation. Its the same reason I do not reach out directly to people and offer to work with them; the onus to do the right thing is on them and reflects their mana, not mine. If people want my help I am available, but I don't go around trying to hoist it on others. It would be wrong to name and shame someone, so to speak, then take their money for myself.
I was going to preemptively answer a few more comments but this is already way to long. I am happy to engage in any further good faith discussion or questions etc. This way there's no need to guess about ifs, buts and whys of my post. I know a few of you have decided I'm a bad actor, which is fine I guess. I probably won't respond to trolly or disrespectful comments.