Yet again my disadvantage came to the fore in 2022 when I had six large trees cut down. Once felled, it was my job to cut them, chop them, chip them and do something useful with the timber.
The problem is that I am left-handed and yet every piece of machinery I operated was built specifically for right-handed people with their comfort, strength and safety in mind.
Chainsaws are built to be started with the right hand with the chain pointed away, rather than the awkward angle when a left-hander starts it.
The starter cord for the chipper was on the right hand side, as was the lawnmower, weed-eater, and hedge-cutter. The drop-saw is right-handed, the electric plane threw the shavings down my front rather than away from me and, when trying wood turning, all the machines rotated the wrong way.
A tutor tried to twist my body to the correct stance, but ended up almost pushing me over because my stance is unnatural. Then there’s the usual complaints, scissors are ergonomically made for right-handed people, tape measures are upside down, pencil sharpeners and guitars are the wrong way around. Thank goodness for ambidextrous computer mice.
While these may be considered minor inconveniences, I would like to know the ratio of left-handed chainsaw accidents, as the instructions for my chainsaw state that it is unsafe to operate it in a left-handed manner.
However, the purpose of my drawing attention to this is not to right the world (or left the world), but to point out that someone can live their whole life and be totally blind to the fact that their life is one of privilege. That society and the world has been constructed by people like them for people like them. My brothers are privileged, but would object to be considered so.
I would like to compare this to the application of equality.
America has the Statue of Liberty because of its love of freedom and, according to US political scientist Leslie Lipton, if New Zealand built a statue it would be the "Statue of Equality".
In 20th century New Zealand we would often hear of New Zealand’s dream of the "egalitarian society", where all people are equal and therefore have equal rights and opportunities.
Where all deserve a "fair go", where "Jack is as good as his master", where everyone has opportunity only limited by their hard work and abilities. Therefore, apart from bad luck with illness and disability, the belief is that inequality comes from poor choices or a lack of discipline and so is usually the responsibility of the individual, rather than something that is built into society’s structure.
When politicians use the terms "equality" or "equal rights", or "equality before the law" it elicits different responses from different people.
For some it is almost patriotic in nature and invokes the pride of being a New Zealander. However, there are others in this country that hear this and reply "Yeah right, when has that ever happened?" Many of us don’t believe those politicians because it is something some of us are yet to experience.
Equality has been for Pākehā first and foremost, where the existence and purpose of the New Zealand government was "of the settlers, by the settlers, for the settlers" (apologies to Abraham Lincoln).
Inclusion of Māori has been applied begrudgingly at times. It is why Apirana Ngata described the sacrifice offered by the Māori Battalion as the "price of citizenship" — not that it was needed for us to become citizens, but that the sacrifice was required for Pākehā New Zealand to start seeing Māori as potential equals.
There is considerable inequality that is a residue of a society that privileges some and disadvantages others in ways that Pākehā society often does not see. The laws, language, culture, and values of the state and its institutions are privileged in a way that seems natural, only because the society is run by them, primarily for them.
Having said that, decade upon decade, as a society we are certainly improving. But it grates for politicians to talk about equality and equal human rights when at the same time they and their ilk have ensured that they maintain their advantage and have been content for generations to allow huge inequality to exist in our access to health, education, employment, welfare and housing.
We all believe in equality. Whether we believe we have experienced it or not is another matter.
— Dr Anaru Eketone is an associate professor in the University of Otago’s social and community work programme.
