Maori after Brash: 'Pakeha just don't understand'

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Pakeha just don't really get us, many Maori told the Herald, but they said Pakeha should try to understand. Because Maori values are different from those of Pakeha does not mean they are wrong.

Take taniwha. To most Pakeha they are silly, mythical monsters who get in the way of motorways. But to Maori, taniwha are sacred, tapu. They are a concept embraced by tourism yet quickly rubbished if they stop progress.

Tapu, says Professor Margaret Mutu, is about things that need to be left alone. The head of Maori Studies at Auckland University says Maori are not being difficult or intentionally adversarial.

She has written a book about the subject for her own hapu, people living in a Pakeha world to survive.

Essentially, there is a fundamental difference in how Maori and Pakeha look at life, she says.

"Your important being in the Maori world is still your family, or your whanau.

"In the Pakeha world you are brought up with the right of the individual as paramount. In the Maori world it is the right of the people among whom you live and the good of the community that comes above the good of the individual.

"It means you have responsibilities. If one of your family is not well or has problems then you have to drop things and help them. It's the whole value base."

For Maori, knowing who you are and where you fit in the world in terms of genealogy is fundamental. When someone dies in the Pakeha world there is a funeral and people are expected to get over it and get back to work.

At a tangi, relatives drop everything and support one another. In the Maori world you do not have to attend the whole three days of the tangi unless it is your marae, but there are still responsibilities and often they clash with the Pakeha world, says Mutu.

What Don Brash has said has been very hurtful to Maori. But to respond in a Pakeha way, as is done in Parliament, goes against the grain, partly because of the concept of mana.

Mana, a basic part of the Maori world, includes respecting the mana of other individuals, which explains why, perhaps, Maori have been largely silent in the wake of the speech. To speak up would be to hurt the mana of another person.

"The view that I've been brought up with is if you are going to hurt someone, remember that it will come back at a later time and you could live to regret that."

It is partly why Maori are not well represented in Parliament.

"Because we won't send our best to be subjected to that sort of thing. It is just too hurtful.

"I always like to think that New Zealanders are very fair-minded and I think they understand that Maori are a bit different, but they don't understand how."

Many Pakeha told the Weekend Herald last week that we are all New Zealanders but the message, from a Maori perspective, is that Pakeha think Maori should be more like them. But Maori do not want to be Pakeha or to lose their identity.

Dr Ranginui Walker says Maori culture has made a tremendous revival in the past 30 years.

"It is huge. It is unstoppable. Kapa haka, Maori literature, Whale Rider, The Merchant of Venice, you name it, it is all just happening.

"Brash is totally unaware of the power of this culture that has made this comeback from the brink of extinction. Now, both cultures have found space, Maori culture has found space in a world dominated by Pakeha."

New Zealand, says Walker, has been heading in the right direction.

Maori are contributing in a big way economically, more than offsetting the money spent on benefits. Recent Governments have been responsible for the emancipation of Maori, leading to greater participation.

Gaps still need to be closed, grievances still need to be addressed and there is work to be done, but he says there is a lot to rejoice about. He hopes Brash will not hold this back.

Herald Feature: Sharing a Country