Elizabeth Rata: Forget ethnicities, focus on cultures

COMMENT

Each year the events of Waitangi Day remind us that New Zealand has not resolved troublesome issues between Maori and non-Maori. As a nation we have two choices if we are to make progress.

We can organise the nation according to ethnic membership, or we can create a nation unified by cultural identity. The first choice is anti-democratic and dangerous; the second is our future.

It is possible to create social cohesion through a national culture in ways that include and promote not only Maori culture but those of other peoples who make up our ethnic diversity. The path to social cohesion and national unity means a new way of thinking. We need to separate the concept of "ethnicity" from the concept of "culture".

Ethnicity is a recent replacement word for "race". It means a genetic connection to a group of people. Ethnicity is "who we are" in that genetic sense. Culture is a completely different idea. It means "what we do". Culture is our language, history, customs, religion and values.

Ethnic belonging can't be shared with those who are not "of the blood", but culture can be. Culture occurs as we live. It is transferable. You don't have to be ethnically Maori to be committed to the Maori language. You don't have to be Chinese or European to be committed to the values and practices that make up those cultures.

Once we separate the idea of ethnic belonging from cultural identity we are freed from the restrictions of history and able to move more freely into the future. Culture is not just about maintaining the traditional ways of the ethnic group, it is about creating the future; about making, not maintaining, history.

But we can't ignore the past. Many people feel a deep spiritual and psychological link to their genetic ethnic group. So how do we maintain the cultural identity of the different ethnic groups and at the same time create a national culture with which we can all identity?

Those who believe that ethnic belonging and cultural identity are the same thing say it is impossible to integrate all the cultures of our ethnic groups without losing the distinctive identity and mana of each culture.

According to this "culturalist" view, integration into a national culture means death for the minority cultures. They believe that Maori culture is for Maori ethnics, the Indian culture for Indian ethnics, the European culture for those of European ethnicity, and so on.

Culturalism is the dominant way of thinking about Maori issues in many education circles. It is the reason that schools are encouraged to develop Maori cultural programmes for children of Maori ethnicity. According to this approach, a strong cultural identity with one's ethnic group leads to educational achievement. But there are many factors that contribute to educational success; cultural security is only one.

There are several serious problems with the culturalist approach. Each ethnic group becomes a distinct social category with its own requirements. This justifies the separate education system for Maori and separate Maori research based on a Maori "way of knowing". In ethnic knowledge, a link is established between a person's genetic inheritance and a socially created behaviour - how one knows something. Linking social behaviour to racial inheritance is a dangerous path to go down.

A second problem is the creation of fixed boundaries between ethnic groups, particularly between Maori and non-Maori. These boundaries are increasingly difficult to cross and have the potential for conflict. When ethnic membership and cultural identity are put together in this fixed and separate way, the reality of our mixed ethnicity and culture is ignored for an ideology that is, at heart, one of "racial purity".

How do we maintain the cultural identity of the different ethnic groups and at the same time create a national identity? The answer lies in separating ethnic belonging from cultural identity. The next step is to promote the three main cultural strands that make up Kiwi culture. They are the cultures associated with indigenous Maori, settler-descendants and recent migrant groups.

The tendency in recent decades is for individuals of mixed Maori-other ethnicity to identify as Maori. For some, the status of being indigenous is psychologically appealing and offers pride in the unique position of Maori. For others, Treaty of Waitangi settlements may offer economic hope. Yet others may identify as Maori if they have been identified as Maori at school.

Among those who believe that ethnic belonging is the same thing as cultural identity are those who go one step further. These neo-traditionalists are determined to restore the traditional culture of the ethnic group. At best neo-traditionalists play an essential role in restoring those parts of Maori culture, such as the language, that will contribute the Maori strand to a truly Kiwi indigenous culture. At worst, neo-traditionalists are fundamentalist bigots obsessed with a "blood and soil" ideology.

When culture is separated from ethnicity, a person doesn't need to have the ancestry of an ethnic group to be committed to that group's culture. In this approach, the cultures of the ethnic groups who make up our nation - indigenous, settler-descendant and recent migrant - are available to all, regardless of ancestry.

If we wish to make those strands available, all three must be given status and be recognised as important components of the national culture.

This does not mean all customs are acceptable. We are well rid of slavery and gender discrimination, for example, but have still to rid ourselves of other non-democratic practices, such as birth-ascribed status.

If New Zealand culture is to continue to develop from the three main strands, some customs must be jettisoned, others promoted within a unifying and integrating framework of democratic principles. Continual adaptation has been under way since early contact between Maori and Europeans.

There is not a "two worlds" division. The process is, as in all multi-ethnic societies, a constant mixing of ethnic make-up and cultural identification. A New Zealand culture is constantly developing. Our task this century is to improve the process by including democratically compatible customs from the three constitutive cultural strands.

These cultural strands are already mixed in individuals. We need to acknowledge the integration that is constantly happening if we are to consciously create a valuable national culture.

* Dr Elizabeth Rata teaches at the Auckland College of Education. She was a 2003 Fulbright Scholar at the centre for Australian and New Zealand Studies, Georgetown University, Washington.