Taika Waititi Called Out Hollywood For Mistaking Diversity For Having "To Include A Person From Every Single Background" In TV And Movies

If you're so inclined, let's pause for a quick history brief: Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492. Most of us probably vaguely remember, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," from school.

In 1759, Great Britain won the Seven Years' War, fundamentally changing the balance of power in Europe. Great Britain became a world power, and France ceded nearly all of its land claims in North America and trading interests in India. 

After managing India through the British East India Company and exploiting its trade with Asia, Great Britain officially subjected India to British Crown rule in 1858 — a period known as the "British Raj" or the British Indian Empire. This lasted until 1947 when the Brits haphazardly left, but not before partitioning India into two independent dominions: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. The partition resulted in one of the largest mass migrations in human history and the death of 500,000 to 2 million people. (Queen Elizabeth II's dad, King George VI, was actually the last Emperor of India.)

Ten years later, in 1769, British explorer James Cook arrived in Aotearoa (already named Nova Zeelandia on Dutch maps). In 1841, after decades of colonization and Christian missions, New Zealand became an official Crown colony within the British Empire (though it was previously administered as part of the colony of New South Wales in Australia). By then, the Māori population had declined to less than 50% of its pre-colonial level.