Sorry, not sorry: UK government expresses ‘regret’ over death of Maori people in 1769

The UK government has formally ‘acknowledged’ the killing of Maori people when a British explorer arrived in New Zealand in the 18th century, but the official statement stopped short of the ’full apology’ some were hoping for. The first encounter between Captain James Cook’s men and indigenous people in 1769 led to the deaths of at least nine Maoris. Britain’s newly-expressed ’regrets’ came just a few days before a government-funded commemoration of that landing, and it’s just the latest in a series of sim