White Privilege: Van Ride

"New World" structures alongside the native Maori flora they continue to oppress in order to be there.

White privilege permeates political, physical, societal, and economic spheres.

Western/colonizer frameworks are often reinforced by actions done on autopilot, actions people don't question because it's what they're used to. It's become normalized for indigenous or other oppressed peoples to learn the colonizer way or life. The indigenous has been categorized by colonizers as an "other". Not as an other to work side by side in collaboration with, but as an inferior. There's often a colonizer amnesia surrounding the histories they've taken place, tied to the autopilot functioning.

How has the conservation movement perpetuated white privilege and indigenous oppression in New Zealand and the U.S.?

excerpts from "Principles of Action: A Credo for Working in the Maori World" by Ritcerie, a credo on how to respect Maori partners, coworkers, friends, etc. you're working with by thinking within the Maori worldview...

Te Ao Tawhito-Te Ao Marama
Prescriptions for the future were written in the past.
Respect a parallel decisionmaking process that draws on ancestral knowledge. There's no point in reinventing the wheel but good reason to put new wine in old bottles.

Te Hara
The infliction of Western cultural values on the people has done enormous damage to their cultural integration. Never forget the harm that's resulted.
It's not personal, but if one is part of the systems which perpetuate the pain, one has complicity. We are all deeply implicated in this matter. None of us should deny that, even if we're not able immediately to provide alleviation of correction. But we must not compound the harm or increase the pain by any personal action, or by any collective one that we're able to influence.

Te Ohaki
Deal with the dreams of the people with the utmost generosity that's within your power to manage or control.

Whakakitenga
Never presume to understand.
Ask questions when necessary, don't place it on others to tell you everything you need to know. There have been times, during my life working in the Maori world, when the process of disintegration seems to me to be too great and the survival of Maori culture by no means assured. Yet here we are in another renaissance. So even when you think you know or understand, there may be new processes, new developments, new reasons, new alignments. The task of understanding is never complete.