by CORANZ researchers
A science paper written in 2015 by Nicholas Holm and entitled “Consider the Possum: Foes, Anti-Animals, and Colonists in Paradise”, points to a deep hatred within New Zealand culture of the possum
“The brushtail possum is not treated like other animals in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Publicly decried, officially poisoned, frequently shot at and intentionally steered towards, the possum is a despised animal,” said Nicholas Holm citing two other scientists with similar views.. “In order to be a New Zealander, it is almost compulsory to hate the possum.”
His article focuses on that hatred of the possum in terms of larger discourses surrounding colonialism and environmentalism in order to make sense of the ideological work of possum-hating.
Nicholas Holm argued that in New Zealand the possum can be understood as ‘anti-animal’ an animal that needs to be destroyed and therefore not protected in order to conserve nature.
“Hence, whereas environmental discourse normally foregrounds the protection of animals and natural environments generally, anti-animals represent the inversion of that logic whereby certain animals must be destroyed in order to conserve nature.”
The concept of the “anti-animal” is developed with reference to political theorist Carl Schmitt’s notion of the enemy/foe distinction, where the foe is an enemy who must not be simply defeated, but actively and personally hated and then eventually destroyed.
In the second part of the paper, Nicholas Holm argued that the possum’s status as anti-animal is a function of its existence at the crossroads of postcolonial and environmental ideologies. Commonly presented as an invasive and destructive entity, whose existence leads to the destruction of native wildlife, Nicholas Holm said the hatred of the possum tends to distract from the environmental destruction directly wrought by humans in New Zealand.
Bravo Nicholas Holm! This hatred is so disturbing the way so-called responsible teachers indoctrinate children with the mindset.
Young impressionable children were actively encouraged to participate in killing of drowning joeys in a bucket while parents watched.
Sick!
So much of the anti-possum hatred is being almost inbred through decades of educational establishment indoctrination. When schools can hold competitions for most possum carcasses or hold lessons in how to drown a joey, it seems inevitable that the hatred becomes entrenched.
Usually attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” but more likely the much earlier work of Henry Stephens Salt, nonetheless sums up how primitive New Zealander’s truly are.