Warriors author slams Maoridom and politicians

Alan Duff

The author of Once Were Warriors has lashed out at Maori and the Government for what he says are their inept responses to dealing with a "culture of violence that has affected Maoridom forever".

"The dysfunctional family syndrome is all too prevalent and, more often than not, it applies to our people - that's the sickening thing about it," Alan Duff told the Herald yesterday.

His comments come after the violent deaths of twins Chris and Cru Kahui and the family's refusal to co-operate with police.

The incident has prompted Prime Minister Helen Clark to draw parallels with Duff's novel Once Were Warriors, published in 1990.

Duff said the Kahuis and the family portrayed in his book are not mirror-images of each other, "but there are similarities: dysfunctional families and a modern culture of violence that has affected Maoridom forever".

He was not surprised at the Kahui case.

"I know damn well it carries on. There was some big oaf fast asleep and drunk at 7pm when [Maori Party co-leader Pita] Sharples called around to the [Kahuis'] house. Those sorts of people are all too common.

"You can't change those adults and, if we don't watch it, we're not going to be able to change children from becoming those adults."

Duff criticised the Government for what he said was the most impractical and least offensive approach.

"[The Government will] be getting a lot of committees together, charge the taxpayers hundreds of thousands [of dollars] and come up with idiot solutions, all of which are designed not to offend Maoridom.

"There's no depth to any of it and nothing is going to happen.

"They're just going to create another bloody bunch of bureaucrats, and we'll continue down the same road."

He was equally unforgiving to Maoridom, who he claimed leaned on the perceived image of being victims.

"They just want us to have this stupid, insulting societal model, saying we were all perfectly happy until the Pakeha came along and ruined it for us.

"Someone [needs to] stop all this about us being smiling peasants living off settlement money."

The way forward, Duff said, was to change attitudes through organisations that interact with affected communities. One such organisation is Books in Homes, Duff's charitable trust, through which five million books have gone to 460 schools and 100,000 children in the country's poorest communities.

"We've got to instil values. Maoridom from the top down has to be told that it's shameful to hit your kids, it's shameful not to make sacrifices to give them a better future, it's shameful not to want to aspire to advance yourself.

"I know the problems backwards, but these politicians don't. Why doesn't the Prime Minister come to us and say, 'You're the guy who wrote the book, you're the one with the literacy programme and getting books to children - what are your thoughts on it?'

"Why don't they go to the people who care?"