NZ IDENTITY DISCUSSION: Ethnicity / Race / Culture relations

That second video's been very popular in the Facebook group Andrew Judd Fan Club which has almost 11,000 members now. As an Admin of the group I've spent hours and hours reading posts from a whole lot of people (mostly Pakeha but Maori too) who have been unhappy with racism for a long time and are now opening up some of the most private areas of their lives and engaging with others in a similar position. We're trying our best to help it evolve into a larger movement, with a lot of energy in New Plymouth going into a hikoi on 15th June to Parihaka, led by the Mayor. I bet the media will mostly ignore it as they usually do with most things Maori - you might have to look a the Taranaki Daily News for coverage.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AndrewJuddFanClub/permalink/1607788982869672/

I once sat on a park bench in Durban SA by the sea, that had a sign on it "Whites only",
I saw the shops and toilet blocks and the buses all divided like this, signs everywhere,
I did not understand, something has gone wrong is all I knew about it at 11 yrs old.
I was white and privileged and oblivious, on the coat tails of the empire, we had, like everyone else "servants" but I was a child, the garden boy (Joseph) and the house boy(Anderson) were 20 an 50 yrs respectively, hired hands i grew up with, but to me they were relatives, like friends, they treated me like their own, i ate with them, and we played and i never learned racism from my parents. i learned the opposite, a respect and wonder for different cultures and peoples, I had no idea what was being done and had been done to my brothers and sisters, by monsters among my own kind I had not even imagined slavery. All I knew was, They and I were raised in the same dirt under the same sky and same stars. I am African, I am Euro blend and I am Kiwi, I am most accurately a citizen of the planet

I have other South African friends who tell me much the same thing. A lot less racist than Pakeha racism-deniers would have us believe. "South Africa's a lot worse than we are." Nonsense, on the racism scale NZ is way down somewhere between USA and Australia.

Kiwi racism is mostly invisible to anyone that isn't directly affected. For instance as a young man I was once told "When you go to hire the car don't take your Maori friend with you." I had a Samoan flatmate - a student on secondment from BNZ Apia to do a degree here. He ran smack into our Banks' 1950's policy not to employ Maori because customers believed they were dishonest and couldn't be trusted to handle cash. Samoan, Maori, all the same. BNZ Apia had to ask for consular and Ministerial intervention to make an exception and get him a job as a teller. The public were never told Banks had a "no Maori" policy. In 1910 my fair-skinned dad had to pretend to be Pakeha to get a job as a railway ganger - Maori were generally thought to be lazy and unreliable. I grew up with Pakeha schoolmates who ridiculed me for pronouncing Maori words correctly and my teacher said all foreign and Maori words had to be anglicised.

That's probably enough for starters. Finally we're starting to do something about it.

I remember thinking going into the process that, money (big chunks) is not something that elders will know what to do with. The traditional way of sharing it out was obviously not going to work, ( the crown would not hand it over if that was a tribes plan). So younger (white uni educated) Maori or accountants like PwC who know "finance" would be bought in to manage it. ( the money stays in the western finance game).
This of course has worked better for those who embraced white culture accounting, investment and property development. You would have a clearer view of such things than I.
There is now said by some to be a privileged set of tribal fortune handlers which is leaving many people out in the cold. Unlike the wonderful Auckland marae who is taking in homeless at nights.

The restoration of culture and pride seems to me to be the success story of the whole process. Many more learning and engaging in the culture, pakeha and Maori.
Having "partnership" status is probably going to be problematic in the near future, as conflicting ways of dealing with resources emerge, one to preserve and the other to exploit. (watching the water issue closely, sacred to some tribes, can that even include treating it like a commodity). In a lot of ways the traditional way is much better for the people and environment and I support the input of Maori in those areas, we know they need protection and restoration, In this the tribes are our best bet right now.
Other Kiwi minorities however are fearful of not getting even democratic representation. Have we inadvertently, they ask, created a dual privilege system ?
There are a very vocal few, campaigning and writing books along these lines, they are being labeled racist and their concerns dismissed, but there are grains of truth in their case that need addressing properly. The 75 year secrecy order that Helen Clarke put on research of a Waipoua Forest Archaeological dig site, because it was inconvenient at the start of the treaty settlements. ? And 1/16th Maori is 15/16 not Maori etc.
Are Maori actually the first people here ? (indigenous).
Awkward issues that are being side stepped all be it for a good and right cause.
There have apparently been serious flaws in the actual process, I hope they do not come back to bite us, i fear they will. Right now even talking critically about the settlement process is labeled racism by some, and supporting it racist by others. (no rational discussion with either of these groups can happen).
There seems no firm and correct position for anyone to stand on, even "leaving the past behind" is going to be very drawn out and multi generational, when the whole issue is based on a disputable history, continuously recycled as the right "narrative" by different people. "Walking into the future looking backwards" is a very hard prospect.

If you can, and I will respect any answer or not.
1 Has the settlement process, actually divided some tribes internally ?
2 Have we inadvertently created a dual privilege system, ?
3 How long can "representative democracy" be on hold ?

Thank you Alan, I'm spreading myself thinly right now as this is about the 20th post I've had to answer this morning.

1. A little bit of division coming from iwi, much more created by Chris Finlayson and Government as part of their "divide and conquer" plan. For instance they selectively deal with the Iwi Chairs Forum and shut out more representative rank and file groups.

2. Government has divided iwi like Ngapuhi for its own purposes, by declaring some smaller iwi will be "represented" by others that are quite unrelated. (Similar to "Your neighbour who you don't know is who the Council will deal with over your boundary issues, not you.")

3. Who knows? Think about ECAN and threats of commissioners running Auckland!

When I have more time I'll post some Facebook groups where you can all find out more. Maori are high Facebook users and all these issues have been under continuous discussion by people with very astute minds for over a decade. They don't get published because publication costs money and Facebook is free!

Thank you so much Alan. A couple of years ago Geoff and his cousins and got together and they were invited on to Waikawa Marae in Picton. Unfortunately I couldn't make it but they were welcomed and had a very inspiring day. Since then nothing has happened. We live in Wellington so so far away. I am the driver in this mission so I have not got a clue what sort of follow up if any. Geoff has not sort to follow up as he is a very shy and passive man who has been bought up by a loving family. I seem to have more drive around this than him

Waikawa is one of several marae built in more recent times for communities rather than particular iwi. Others I can think of (and their names say it all) are Arohanui Ki Te Tangata in Waiwhetu, Te Whatu Manawa Maoritanga O Rehua in Christchurch, Papa O Te Aroha in Tokoroa and Hoani Waititi in Auckland. Probably many more.

Wellington is of course Te Atiawa territory, somewhat disconnected from that iwi's Taranaki papakainga. There's a long history of iwi migration down that coast in the late 1700's and early 1800's - my own Ngati Raukawa ki Otaki were one of those who moved from South Waikato about the time Te Rauparaha and his Ngati Toa came down from Kawhia to wreak havoc all over that area and Te Wai Pounamu. I know all about that as one of my ancestors was the child of an arranged marriage (one of many) between iwi as planned reconciliation in the years after all the slaughter. Google Wairau and Kaiapohia if you're curious.

There's a saying that what the children want to forget, the grandchildren will want to know about.

Well thats interesting Alan about Waikawa Marae. I would love any information you could give me so here is the details of the Ancestory that I have found out.
Grandmother: Martha Elva Clarice: B14/8/1999 D. 7/7/76 Marlbourgh
Great Grandmother: Rose Boon: B29/12/74 Marlborough. D25/8/1061Blenheim
Great Great Grandmother: Mary Ann (Mere) Himes. B1846 TeAwaiti, D20/9/1877 Marlbourgh.
Great Great Great Grandmother: Meriana TePohe. B1826 Marlborough. D 1854 Waikawa.
Im sure Geoff said that one of these last two was buried on or near the Marae

I think you might need someone with in-depth local knowledge for this. I did a quick check of the on-line Whakapapa Club http://whakapapa.maori.org.nz/ but no mention of Meriana Te Pohe. I wasn't expecting any - that site's not exhaustive.

I then read the Te Ara account of Te Atiawa's migrations which is also incomplete but interesting: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-ati-awa-of-wellington/page-1

Then found this site which is probably your best starting point:
http://www.teatiawatrust.co.nz/
They've had a Treaty claim and that means they'll have lots of historical documentation to support it with genealogies.

Some cautions from my own searching. (i) birth and death records are unreliable before 1900, not compulsory until 1913. Maori were often unable to read or write and had to give details to some newly arrived vicar who didn't know the language. (My GGM was listed as Ewai when her name was actually Whawhai.) (ii) because of high mortality there were often second and third marriages (iii) Maori naming conventions were changing during that period - see http://whakapapa.maori.org.nz/articles.php?article_id=13 (iv) death records are often more informative.

I suggest you ask the Te Atiawa Trust - might need to explain you're not wanting money or they'll just say you haven't provided enough information.

Racism is not as some would have us think, a switch, on and off. Does one racist word or act make one a racist, no, It is a variable like a volume slider. Min - Max, With some people it is stuck on Max and some on Min, Some move their slider some never touch it.
The actual hatred of another race is very rare, it comes mostly from unaware people who fall victim to programing by others who then hate and act out racist but when really questioned they often confess that they "did not want to be that way" and don't really understand why they are.
Still others have based their opinion of a whole race, on a single personal experience or some one elses which they have extended into racism, once again unreasonable.
Racism is fear and programing, it can be re written, fear can be faced and beaten back.

When I came here in 71, I could see no racism, There were no signs, no servants, we schooled and played together, My fist girlfriend was Wetere the MP's niece. What racism ? where racism ? I heard it years latter in sniggered joke form and slipped racial slurs. These were the days of Billy tee , i think we all scoffed at idea, As you say it was mostly invisible. And not just towards Maori. I got heaps of flack for being a "pommy",from kiwi's and Maori ??. The joke was. "How can you tell when a plane load of poms lands? Asw = The whining does not stop when the engines do. Kiwis being racist to poms ??

I hope somehow we can repair the distance caused by having to separate and formally chose a race for the treaty settlement. It has polarized us literally.