Maori and Pakeha

I just finished reading a slim little volume by Alan Duff entitled “Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge.” It was quite a challenging read, exposing a side of the Maori and European (“Pakeha” in the Maori tongue) interchange of which I have seen little.

We’ve been visiting and living in the Pakeha side of New Zealand. We have experienced little in the way of culture shock, because there are few things at which to be shocked. Sure, there are a few scornful remarks about American politics that blossom in a desert of concern for the United States; but those flowers appear in spades in the States. There are the colloquialisms and accents of New Zealanders; but we could feel just as out of place in the deep South, I reckon. No, there is little to jolt our sense of competence in navigating the world here.

I had thought that there would be an element of the New Zealand world that would be clearly and obviously different: the Maori people and culture. When I first saw the signs for buildings on the University of Otago campus I felt confirmed in my expectations: all the names were presented in English and then in Maori translation: “University of Otago / Te Whare Wananga Otago.” Surely as we spent more time in this place we would come face to face with two cultures amidst their two-century long process of merging.

We have not seen this interaction. Sure, there have been the occasional faces of people who are clearly of Pacific Islander descent walking past on the street and above us on construction scaffolding. But well-dispersed and present in many different areas of New Zealand life? I haven’t seen it.

Alan Duff has helped to explain the difference between my expectations and the reality of this island nation—and much more. Duff is Maori, writing to address the Maori people and leadership in New Zealand. He assembles a cogent (though at times scathing) argument against the Maori themselves for devolving into a socially deranged culture that has not responded well to the presence of Pakeha and the opportunities it has brought over the past 150 years. As he writes, I hear strong echoes (made explicit sometimes by Duff) of the problems of race relations in the United States across the same centuries. The problems of family relationships, welfare, and education—especially education.

Fascinating stuff, really, for a white member of the dominant class in the States to read from someone of “racial minority” status as he addresses his own people. Duff throws out the communal and traditional elements of Maori society, alleging that these elements hold back his people from succeeding in the present world. He urges—often with harsh polemic—the Maori toward a worldview in which capitalism, education, and strict individualism drive persons toward merit-based success. Here I am, reading this exhortation from a man who is a member of the society from which I thought I might learn something about community, society, and conflict resolution.

Time for a reframe?

~emrys