Dialogue: Pakeha a term of respect, even endearment

By EDDIE GARLAND*

When we were children, our elders used to tell us many, many things - especially in the evenings to pass the time because we didn't have radio and television back then.

Most of what they told us was meant to teach us the customs, values and history of our people, as well as to increase our general knowledge.

In very early times, our people referred to each other (and to any other people they might have met) according to tribe or hapu (family), never according to race. This was perhaps because they didn't know of other races of people.

Therefore, if a person was asked, "To what people do you belong?" he or she would reply "Ngati Tuwharetoa," meaning the people or descendants, of Tuwharetoa (if from the Lake Taupo area) or "Ngati Kahungunu," meaning the people, or descendants, of Kahungunu (if from the Hawkes Bay-Wairarapa region), and so on.

When talking about kinds of people (or beings), the ancient people knew of only two kinds - tangata wairua (spiritual beings) and tangata maori (human beings).

Therefore, when the early European settlers came here and learned to communicate with our ancestors, when they asked, "What kind, or race, of people are you?" the answer they got was "maori" or "tangata maori." In other words, the old people were telling the new settlers that they were human beings (as opposed to spiritual beings). From that time to now our people have been called the Maori, or the Maori race.

Many Europeans take exception to being called Pakeha. They say it is a derogatory term or an insulting name. Most Maori look on and listen to this with a wry grin but without comment. In both cases, it seems the true meaning of this word is not known to them.

Of all the explanations given to us when we were young, only one rings true. All others smack too much of coarse humour, ridicule or racism. This explanation of the origin of the word Pakeha is the only one I know which can be logically understood and accepted:

In the old days, our people spoke of a race of "fairy folk," fair-haired, fair-skinned people who lived in the mountains. They were regarded as supernatural beings and were called patupaiarehe.

They were generally described as uru kehu (uru meaning head or hair, and kehu meaning reddish or fair, thus meaning people with fair or reddish hair and having a skin much fairer than that of the Maori.

Further, from time to time children of very fair complexion, with fair hair and with blue or grey eyes (called albino) were born among the Maori. These people, too, were called uru kehu.

When the Europeans arrived and settled here, the Maori people for obvious reasons called them uru kehu and after a time this was shortened to kehu. This term was later changed to keha, which means fair or whitish.

Eventually the word lost its real meaning and instead came to mean solely a person of fair or white-skinned race of people. It has never been disputed that the word keha was used in a manner which expressed dislike or derision. Perhaps the Maori of old had good reason to express the word in that way.

However, after the coming of the early missionaries, the Maori people (especially those taken under the wing of the Catholic Church) began to understand the European better and many softened towards them, having been converted to Christianity.

The priests lived with the Maori and became very close to and greatly loved by them. Soon the Maori began to address the priest as pa, meaning father and this is how the word or name Pakeha was born.

Now the Maori knew they each had a father of their own, thus to make it clear which father (or pa) they were talking about from time to time they called the priest te pa keha, meaning the white father. From this came the word Pakeha.

The term soon caught on and so it remains today. Don't you therefore think that the reason for coining the name Pakeha is obvious?

Our Pakeha friends can rest assured that, rather than being an insulting name, the word Pakeha was coined with great respect, and with no small amount of endearment by our ancestors.

* Eddie Garland is a Hikurangi writer.