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Maori and Chinese should work together to advance their political agendas, says a high profile Maori academic and activist.
Professor Margaret Mutu also says Maori could learn from Chinese how to "get around Pakeha racism".
Mutu will take this message to the Bananas NZ Going Global Conference in Auckland today. The annual conference, organised by the New Zealand Chinese Association, turns the spotlight on New Zealand's Chinese community, which now numbers nearly 150,000.
Mutu, of Ngati Kahu, Te Rarawa and Ngati Whatua, and of Scottish descent, is professor of Maori Studies at Auckland University.
She told the Herald on Sunday she believed that overall, relations have historically been good between Maori and New Zealand Chinese, partly because of a shared experience of Pakeha racism.
"We are both oppressed and discriminated against."
The two cultures shared other similarities, she said, including tribal structures, the promotion of group wellbeing over individual, and the practice of looking after their own.
She claimed Maori ill-feeling toward Chinese is contained to a "very small majority that has jumped on the racist bandwagon, but that's an aberration". Maori with anti-Asian views often had no regular contact with Chinese and were influenced by negative portrayals in the media.
She said the two peoples should "sit down and start discussing the best way through this for our country. Chinese by and large have been able to work their way through from being poverty-stricken... so badly oppressed, and they're now very, very successful businessmen [sic], professionals. They've managed to get themselves into a good economic position... despite the racism. We [Maori] could learn a lot from that, as to how to get around Pakeha racism."
In return, Maori could teach Chinese how to be more politically active and visible.
"They've contributed so much to this country, nobody knows because they don't dare to put their heads above the ramparts."
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia yesterday told the Herald on Sunday she agreed that Maori could learn from the Chinese emphasis on education.
She said Maori-Chinese relations had historically been good, as evidenced by inter-marriage, but had deteriorated in recent years.
"Many Maori in the last 20 years have become more and more disconnected even with each other, so I don't think it's unusual they're not building relationships with new migrants," Turia said.
A Massey University report released last month found Maori attitudes to immigration had hardened in recent years. It also showed Maori were far more likely to agree than non-Maori that Chinese, other Asian and Pacific peoples take jobs away from people who were born in New Zealand.
However, Maori were less likely than non-Maori to agree that those groups increase crime rates.
A staunch advocate of Maori indigenous and Treaty rights, Mutu has come under attack in the past for her analyses of Pakeha racism towards Maori.
