I absolutely think you should do it and I absolutely think you should post it, or at least excerpts from it, here as well. We're a sheltered people and we won't learn unless we are challenged and educated. The insidious thing about any kind of privilege is that it's subconscious; we don't recognize it in ourselves because it's "background radiation" to those who possess it.

There will be people who push back on this site and say awful things because you even brought this up, and I certainly don't wish that on you, so I understand if you choose not to do it - but you'll have this Princess' support, at very least.

I think I will work on it, though I'm not sure when it'll happen or if it'll happen in a coherent way, since I am really bad at writing these kinds of things and I've got school coming up where I'll be writing these kinds of things for not-fun. Though it might help if I'm writing it for a non-professor audience that I genuinely care that I think would care about the topic, even if it's just to yell at me.

Mostly I want to do this because if one good thing can be said of the whole fiasco, it's that it got me interested in and thinking about language rights and indigenous issues, which is what I'm studying now and hope to be an effective ally for. The Maori may not be my area of expertise the way that Native American tribes are, but they've gone through similar experiences. But Bionicle's played a part in that, weirdly enough.

I've never had any issue with the Maori and find that their claims against Bionicle are legit, even if those names did give Bionicle a more epic feel in the beginning years. Only problem I can think of is the one time they hacked the site, but that was years ago and we've gathered a whole other set of angry people since, so water under the bridge.

Anyway, I would be interested to see what you have to say, because I like history and archaeology and such, and I don't really know enough about the Maori culture. And I echo that history can be depressing. I like the US and all, but when you learn about our history and just what kind of claims we were making and all... kind of hard to be supportive of it.

So yeah, post it if you have the chance. And if somebody complains... well, this is BZP, everybody goes off the deep end over little things, no biggie.

Please write this thing. Please write this thing. This kind of stuff needs to be said and we need to be able to evaluate why this is a terrible thing that was done and be able to have open and clear communication on both sides. Please write this thing.

I wouldn't say I agree with it right now, but who's to say I won't after I read it? Not everything to me is just political correctness to me, and I'd be glad to read something that states the Maoris point of view considering I haven't actually read anything that supports them.

Of course, considering BZP's mascot is still named Hapori Tohu, you might have a hard time convincing everyone that the Maori controversy was wrong on LEGO's part. It'd be like trying to convince Fighting Illini fans that Chief Illiiwek was wrong, and as an Illinois resident, I can say that it's unlikely that anyone will convince them for maybe a couple decades. Of course, I don't think many people on the site know that Hapori Tohu's name is Maori.

If you've actually found points about why calling the Matoran "Tohunga" was bad apart from the fact that copyrighting foreign words probably shouldn't be legal, I'd be interested in reading them.

From the summary you linked, though, it seems to me like calling the Matoran "Tohunga" was if anything a nod to the Maori people -- after all, the Matoran were oppressed by a big entity across the pond just as, according to my interpretation of the article, the Tohunga were. Am I missing something?

I have never known how much I wanted a thing before it existed then I do at this moment.

Yeah, I was around for the Maori hackers. I laughed at the subsequent hackers because it was like "Oh, you're being so oppressed by the administrators of a website about children's toys. Waaaaaaah."

They kept a lot of Maori names. Most of the Turaga were named after Maori words. They just weren't super loaded words like Tohunga that brought up old wounds. LIke Whenua means earth, but it's not a sacred thing that has to be earned, being earth.

Yeah, I'll need to do more research, because I myself don't know enough about the Maori myself, but I'm sort of excited for this now. I know they're pretty world standard for language revitalization, which excites me because language revitalization makes my kokoro go doki-doki, so yeah.

It has convinced me to pick up a little of the language, just because I don't know an Austronesian language and I have this hypothetical goal to speak a bit of a language in every major language family.

Of course, considering BZP's mascot is still named Hapori Tohu, you might have a hard time convincing everyone that the Maori controversy was wrong on LEGO's part. It'd be like trying to convince Fighting Illini fans that Chief Illiiwek was wrong, and as an Illinois resident, I can say that it's unlikely that anyone will convince them for maybe a couple decades. Of course, I don't think many people on the site know that Hapori Tohu's name is Maori.

Consider the difference in scope between BZPower and the Lego Group and the massive difference in audience. Now also consider that BZPower is a private entity, using that name for private purposes, whereas TLG was appropriating the Maori culture & language to make a profit (and claiming a copyright to it). I'm not saying BZPower necessarily gets a complete pass, but these are decidedly different scenarios.

I think I will work on it, though I'm not sure when it'll happen or if it'll happen in a coherent way, since I am really bad at writing these kinds of things and I've got school coming up where I'll be writing these kinds of things for not-fun. Though it might help if I'm writing it for a non-professor audience that I genuinely care that I think would care about the topic, even if it's just to yell at me.

Well hey, if you want a professional editor to look over it pro bono, hit me up.

Yeah, I recognize the difference. It was just a thought that came to me. Personally, I don't much care for a lot of trademarks companies try to acquire. Particularly sports that have "Official Products" which are the only companies allowed to refer to important games, the most prominent being the Super Bowl.

But that's a different issue also.