Dialogue: Maori culture a point of difference, not of shame

Maori deserve sympathy, not criticism, for the way their rituals are used whenever we want to welcome an important visitor, says MICHAEL STEVENS*.

The opening of the Versace collection in Wellington has led to talk in the Herald's letters page about pushy Maori making their presence felt at ceremonies greeting dignitaries.

It made me wonder just how else we could give a distinctively New Zealand greeting to any foreigners visiting this country.

A group of laconic farmers and rugby players mumbling their way though our dirge-like national anthem, a few hearty handshakes, followed by tea and pikelets? Ladies, a plate.

Maybe now we are so cosmopolitan in our approach, we could offer them a flat white and a panini instead.

Perhaps we could make all foreign dignitaries bungi jump as soon as they arrived in the country, expressing the wonderful thrill-seeking extreme sports lifestyle we all lead.

Mainstream New Zealand culture has yet to develop any distinctive ceremonial style or ritual of its own. It probably never will.

We need Maori ritual and ceremony to identify this land. Otherwise, what makes New Zealand different from any other old colony?

As brilliant and successful as so many of us are in so many fields, none of them speak of anything different from the usual round of activities and cultural pursuits that can be found anywhere in the Western world.

Our only real point of difference from, say, Australia is the fact that Maori were here first. Oh, and our ancestors didn't quite succeed in exterminating them or their culture.

Maori have a culture and a history full of ancient tradition that is unique to these islands.

They are, in fact, a point of distinction in the otherwise bland homogeneous mass that global Western culture sometimes seems to be becoming.

And, as marketers will tell you, it is having something distinctive about your brand that helps it move in the marketplace, our current god.

If anything, I feel sorry for Maori, pulled out of the hat to show how successful our race relations are, their ceremonies often seemingly reduced to a token gesture to show how New Zealand is different.

Dial a powhiri seems to be the attitude of many attempts at any real bicultural representation.

Yes, it is about biculturalism. This is not to exclude any of the other cultures that are here, but they are all set off against the original one of this land.

The Treaty of Waitangi is between Maori and the Crown, and that gives Maori a special place, which is deservedly reflected in their pre-eminence in matters ceremonial.

This doesn't exclude Chinese lion dancers, it doesn't exclude English morris dancers (though some of us may wish it could) or any of the other cultures that have settled here.

But that is the point - they, we, all came afterwards. They can be found on their own home turf doing those things. Only New Zealand can offer the richness and traditions of Maori culture.

When you look at what goes on in powhiri, they are not so different from greeting ceremonies anywhere in the world - checking out to see if someone is a friend or foe. If they are a friend, you offer them hospitality.

If you look closely at the complaints on the letters page, there seems to be a nasty underlying strand of plain old racism. A whiff of fear and ignorance, and a belief that nothing that comes from Maori culture could be of any value in a wider sphere.

What's the difference between a pushy Maori and an uppity nigger? The phrases seem to carry the same message, and that's a nasty one.

If Maori shouldn't be pushy, what should they be?

Just what would non-pushy Maori be like? Speaking only English and having no understanding of their history and culture. That nearly happened, and many still wish it had.

Things have changed and a lot of people find it hard to deal with Maori culture being accorded any respect outside a dusty museum display. The idea that it is a vital and living thing still seems to surprise some people.

I understand that many people find it hard to understand, after years of being indoctrinated at school, that Maori culture was not just another primitive stone-age culture that had to give way to progress, that there could be anything of value in it. It's a shame that those attitudes persist - in the true sense of the word shame.

Our own culture, as far as it has developed, has grown up in both synthesis with, and reaction to, Maori culture, however imperceptible that process may seem to us now.

The simple fact is that without the existence of Maori there could be no Pakeha, and New Zealand would be an immeasurably poorer country.

* Michael Stevens is an Auckland student.