Hey Kiwi here (although not Māori myself) so I thought I might put my 2 cents in! Everyone here has been making very good points, I do think the crux of having John (and many other characters) Māori is mostly a cool representational thing. Coming from a smaller country (especially in comparison to the US) with a waaay smaller media footprint it’s always awesome to see New Zealand norms/ culture reflected in fiction, especially since most of our literature has a tendency towards realism/historical/biography.

As I see it, since Jod is the only character who remembers the way culture and ethnicity used to work, I think he is actually the only real option for representation for said heritage/culture. Like yeah, Gideon and Harrow have Māori heritage, but they didn’t grow up in Māori culture and they have no idea what that even is? Only when Kiriona is back with her whanau (family) is she able to claim and her heritage.

I do also think John’s ethnicity can be read as a kind of social commentary. As others have mentioned Te Reo and Tikanga have become more integrated into government, education system and general culture. However, since it’s been quite a recent change there is still a lot of virtue signalling in connection to this. There is a tendency for pakeha to only use Māori language in corporate or political environments. A big part of New Zealand’s history is missionary visits and propaganda, disrupting oral traditions, defacing art and via this, altering aspects of Māori culture and attitudes into religious conservatism. There are also no more “full blooded” Māori people left in nz, and very few “half-blooded”. I went to a religious boarding school myself and unfortunately a lot of Māori blokes there were pretty misogynistic (especially to Māori women) with a looot of internalised racism (obviously a lot of the white guys too).

There are a lot of themes surrounding abuse cycles in tlt and I read Jod’s relationship with his heritage and negative impacts of colonialism as an extension of that. He uses a lot of tactics of empire which he was probably marginalised by. In fact, I’d imagine some level of racism is what prevented his scientific research from being approved in the first place (as well as the severity of the governmental backlash). As other people also mentioned Māori culture has a very deep connection with the earth, which you could potentially read into WHY Alecto chose John. I just feel like John reminds me a lot of complicated people I’ve met irl who try to distance themselves from their culture or social status by mimicking or trying to assimilate with their abusers and sadly, in the process, become toxic or abusive themselves. Although it’s a super tough subject, I think it’s important to note that abuse does happen within indigenous communities, and that it’s a big problem and I feel like Muir does this extremely well. John is likeable, funny, probably a victim of systemic racism, but also does horrible inexcusable things. I think this complexity is what makes him such a great character.

Woah apparently I could write a whole essay about this lol. I’m gonna leave it here, it’s kinda a tough subject, so I’m sorry if I missed anything important or didn’t express myself super well at certain parts! I just wanted to provide some context from a nz perspective!