This phrase has been attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, but we could be forgiven for thinking about it when we hear Statistics New Zealand telling us who they count as Māori in New Zealand.
Many decisions are made by the government and others in New Zealand based on race/ethnicity. Whenever the government divides us up into various piles it seems to have decided that ethnicity is the thing we most want to be defined as.
Stats NZ, the government department charged with carrying out our official census, has struggled with the reliability of census data recently.
There are also particular issues with making use of the official census data around ethnicity in New Zealand provided by Stats NZ.
One source of unreliability comes from filling in the gaps where the census was not filled in by everyone. This is done using what they euphemistically call "administrative data".
We have no idea of the circumstances around the use of the information used for administrative data.
A second source of unreliability of data comes from what is done with the answers in the census around ethnicity.
We were advised when filling in the 2023 census we could choose more than one ethnicity if more than one applied. While the ability to choose more than one ethnicity produces more accurate information on who we really are, Stats NZ have decided this produces too complicated an answer.
So they have decided to get rid of this messy issue by making a minor reference to some people having more than one ethnicity then quickly moving to describing us in a singular way as having only one ethnicity.
They have then counted 887,493 people (17.8% of the population) as Māori, and 861,576 (17.3%) as Asian people for example.
The number of people who described their ethnicity as only Māori was 366,015 out of the total population of 4,993,923.
The number who described themselves as European/Māori was 409,401, with another 50,000 or so describing themselves as of other mixed ethnicities including Māori .
Therefore those who described their ethnicity as only Māori are less than 7.4%. Those who are of mixed (including Māori) ethnicity, are in fact over 9% of the population.
Stats NZ, it would appear, has taken all of the people who said Māori was at least one of their ethnicities as only in the Māori category.
For Stats NZ to put out information which denies people part of their ethnicity is, to be very charitable, misleading.
It is particularly unhelpful when we have in good faith answered census questions allowing for answers showing mixed ethnicity which have been ignored.
To add insult to injury, this government department has decided which of the ethnicities we have chosen as the one they will allocate to each of us.
The organisations using the information provided by Stats NZ are, in many cases, attempting to target help and support to those who need this most.
Instead there is an emphasis on whether people or groups of people are Māori and should be supported on the basis of their ethnicity. Or as it turns out part of their ethnicity.
If we are looking for where polarising racist information is coming from, this may be a better place to look rather than blaming an attempt to get to the bottom of what the Treaty means.
Inaccurate ethnic statistics will make it more difficult to sort out whether medical issues relating to ethnicity or race are as a result of genetic differences or social ones.
Such singular descriptions cover up the difficulties in blaming colonisation for everything that is wrong. The blaming works best if it does not involve blaming some of your ancestors for failings by others of your ancestors.
There are 366,015 people who describe themselves as only Māori, but more (about 450,000) are of mixed ethnicity.
For those looking at statistics to understand how our history shapes us, it may be more helpful to compare those of mixed ethnicity with those who describe themselves as of only one ethnicity. Or with those of people who look like they are of a particular ethnicity and who may not be receiving the help they deserve because of the way they look.
Whatever we are trying to achieve, we would do better to stop the potentially racist and misleading statistics which are being relentlessly produced under the guise of official statistics showing each of us as being of only one ethnicity.
It cost $316.3 million to run the 2023 census. Before we gear up for the next census, we need some straightforward thinking about how to acknowledge, support and appreciate our mixed ethnicity.
Then we could get back to the more important issues of supporting and giving a hand up to those at the bottom of the heap whatever their ethnicity.
• Hilary Calvert is a former Otago regional councillor, MP and Dunedin city councillor.
