Māori are no better off now than before two world wars
New Zealand's oldest, surviving member of the legendary 28th Māori Battalion believes the sacrifices he and his comrades made in World War II achieved little for Māori back home in the years that followed the war.
Sir Robert Nairn Gillies (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Kahungunu) says the racial discrimination and inequities his people suffered before the war were unchanged after it, and for that reason - if he had his time again - he would have refused to go.
"If I had my time over again," Gillies tells Te Ao with Moana, "I'd have been a conscientious objector."
It's a comment the old soldier makes in his Statement of Evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal in the Military Veterans Kaupapa Inquiry in 2016.
Link to article: Surviving Battalion soldier says Māori are no better off now than before two world wars - NZ Herald
