Benjamin Easton in Wellington, New Zealand.
Benjamin is our special Kiwi Collaborator on today's show 17, August 2010.
Written by Benjamin Easton
I was born on the 23rd of March 1960 in Wellington Hospital. I am the youngest of four children. Both of my parents are still alive. My father, Richard was born in Glasgow in Scotland and my mother Jane in Devon in England. I am the only one of their children or ancestors to have been born in New Zealand. I am proud to be a first generation New Zealand citizen, not withstanding an affinity if not loyalty for England.
I hope my story, my journey and its progress will be interesting and valuable.
In 2004 I walked from Auckland to Wellington. Wellington is south of Auckland. This was about a month after an earlier walk between Auckland to Waitangi. Waitangi is north of Auckland. Walking in this manner in the native language (te reo) Maori is called a hikoi. I consider my journey at present as a separated father from his children and as well as a political busker is better described as a hikoi.
Waitangi is where our nation's Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. There are two versions of the treaty. There is a Maori version called Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the English version called The Treaty of Waitangi. The "treaty" (which is an ambiguous term for two versions) is often referred to as the country's founding document. I contest this in fact. A lesser known document signed 5 years earlier, titled the Declaration of Inependence is considered by some Maori as the first constitution of the nation. It granted the indigenous people, collected as a group of northern tribes in ambition that any differences would be worked through in time.
My intention to take on this long walk was to bring the injustices done to Maori through colonial oppression to unity for a balance against the current and prevalent injustices performed on the citizenship through family law. My reason for taking on this difficult task was to directly challenge those injustices in practice through family law. I am still trying to create that unity against two highly protected cultures engaged in extraordinary regimes of practiced injustice. Obviously my own story of engagement with family law has driven my energy.
If I rely on my seven years of political as uneducated writing much of the material, especially that which is philisophical, will be difficult to read. I am challenged that my writing style is unique. For my part, I genuinely attempt to moderate my style to be more readible, yet stay defiant that if I vary too much from what I think, as to how it is written an original and particularly specific point can be lost.
Additional to the posts of my older writing and its consistency with the newer material, I will post from time to time cartoons. This year's Christmas cartoon is likely to confuse most, especially those not familiar with New Zealand politics.
Please feel free to contribute and ask me questions as you will or engage me in political debate. At the moment my politics are active challenging past and present practices in New Zealand law. As time progresses with our political climate those politics will develop into a consistency with religion and the Middle East. I hope you join me as my long and difficult hikoi advances forth into the Internet's timeless box of limiting silence.
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