Elizabeth Ann Cook
Mary Egan Publishing
Otago Daily Times, July 19th 2025
“If the lives of Māori are to improve, non-Māori need to alter their assumptions and daily practices…there is not a ‘Māori problem. Rather, there is a ‘white people problem’.”
This is the challenge sociologist Elizabeth Anne Cook seeks to address in her brief but hard-hitting analysis of the attitudes and power structures that marginalise Māori in their own county and relegate them to the bottom of our social, economic and health indices.
Central to her thesis is that we, as pākehā in a world shaped by and for the white majority, unthinkingly accept our ways of knowing and doing as the ‘universal norm.’ This, Cook argues, is white supremacy in action. As such, it is an ideology practiced as much by the ‘colourblind’ liberal/left as the alt right, and until we can move beyond this mindset, any attempt by Māori to enact the partnership promised in Te Tiriti will be perceived as an existential threat.
This is extremely challenging assertion, particularly for those who consider themselves supportive of Māori rights and aspirations, and Cook spends some time exploring how we can decentre our ‘white’ identity, reposition ourselves alongside Indigenous perspectives and experiences and “stop drawing attention back to [our]selves.”
At an intellectual level it involves, among other things, learning about the history of British colonisation and its ongoing impacts on Māori today; understanding what Māori who signed Te Titiri (and not all did) actually agreed to; recognising racism as operates in our everyday lives, institutions, and political structures; challenging the cruelties inherent in our patriarchal, individualistic, and exploitative capitalist system; and engaging in a meaningful rather than tokenistic way with Te Reo and Te Ao Māori. Unsettled Bliss provides a good starting point for this re-education. In addition to proving an overview of key issues, its extensive endnotes and references – which make up nearly half of its 200-odd pages – are a rich resource for further exploration.
The other half of the equation is emotional and involves finding a way of putting oneself in another’s shoes. Whilst Cook suggests some ways of finding empathic connection (for example using our discomfort as outsiders at Māori-centric events to gain insight into the everyday lived reality of Māori in a society designed by and for ‘white people’), her primary purpose is to “reveal and clarify the daily assumptions and practices of ‘whiteness’ that contributes towards [their] oppression.”
Although the book’s general tone and use of emotionally charged terms such as ‘white supremacy’ and ‘cultural genocide’ may alienate readers, its confrontational approach is a deliberate (and brave) choice. Cook points out that “identifying cruel practices is not violence”, and until we recognise and name our privilege it remains unseen, unquestioned and unchallenged. It is not the responsibility of Māori to fix the problem of ‘whiteness’, but our own. As she so eloquently puts it: “I am not a mouthpiece for Tangata Whenua….I am a pākehā writing about pākehā, specifically for pākehā in no uncertain terms”. It is up to us to listen.