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I was watching a New Zealand film on tv. It was about Maori traditional beliefs (can't remember the title, but it was only mildly interesting anyway). When it came to an end, the continuity announcer, you know that person who talks between tv programmes, said "and we will join the world of fantasy again next tuesday....[or whenever]" and continued to talk about a movie that would be shown another day.

I couldn't believe it. Fantasy is not the same as religious / cultural belief and to dismiss faith and tradition like that reminds me of old colonial attitudes to native people. I really didn't think British people still had those kinds of hierachical attitudes to indigenous faiths. I really thought it was a thing of the past, had died out in the 1950s... but there you go, old colonial attitudes die hard.

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