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  "description": "I don’t think I am ever going to behold this ‘monument’ with any sense of sympathy or warmth. ",
  "path": "/this-is-brown-optimism/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-02T20:30:30.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
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    "author’s blog"
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  "textContent": "I visited the new Wellington Library today, unprepared for the towering inscription, rising through almost three stories, which has been installed on the west face.\n\nThis is the text of the poem depicted:\n\n_Brown Optimism\nWith dust of labour on a summer’s day\nThey slouched with careless stride of people come\nFrom nowhere, going nowhere, smiling, tired,\nAnd cursing with a laugh the pakeha\nVeneer. For them life is a childish farce\nTo paint in white the brown which stains their lives.\nTheir ancient world is gone, and in the pa\nThe death of past traditions of a once\nProud race is mourned by age with mumbling gums\nIn soft tones of despised melodious tongue._\n\n_You seek your future in the white man’s joy;\nYou sing your songs to ape his foolish tune;\nYou change your rhythm to the jazz band’s beat;\nAnd slave and sweat for coin so easily spent;\nYou play a losing game with loaded dice\nAnd know no rules to help you win a chance;\nWhile pakeha stands quietly waiting with\nA smile, to move you at his will across\nThe draughtboard of his policy and faith._\n\n_A child went past; neglected, poorly clothed\nIn imitation of the white man’s dress.\nHard feet on hard road running in the heat\nTo spend the white man’s money in the white\nMan’s store. And what is there for you, oh child\nOf Maori pride? Will you be swallowed in\nThe rising tide, and mingle blood till all\nYour heritage is gone?_\n\n_This shall not be._\n\n_For brown must learn from white, the rules to make\nHim equal partner in the game they play;\nAnd white must cease to trample underfoot\nThese dark leaves of the Polynesian tree.\nWhen this is done, and each the other’s worth\nHas found, from union will spring a new\nRace keen, with courage strong to face the world\nAnd find at last its place and aim in life._\n\n_J C Sturm 1947_\n\n _Born Te Kare Papuni 17 May, 1927\nTaranaki & Te Whakatōhea iwi_\n\nReturning home, I looked up the poem, read it through multiple times and learned about the author – “one of New Zealand’s first Māori woman graduates” – who was raised in a European family then later reunited with her paternal Māori relatives.\n\nWhat is your reaction?\n\nFor me it insults Māori and Pākehā alike. When it was written, Māori and European had long worked, lived, prayed and played together. But it was written by a young person, kicking against perceived injustice and naively believing in happily-ever-after endings.\n\nI don’t think I am ever going to behold this ‘monument’ with any sense of sympathy or warmth. The history of European and Māori melding is far more nuanced and reciprocal than a casual reader of this poem would appreciate.\n\nThis article was originally published on the author’s blog.",
  "title": "This Is ‘Brown Optimism’",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-02T20:30:29.623Z"
}