Race: The way ahead: Cultural revolution stirred

Rising numbers of people in this country want to shun racial definitions and be known as New Zealanders. But, asks DIANA McCURDY, how integrated are we?


Every time Census year rolls around, a quiet rebellion begins to ferment in the nation's living rooms. A small, but increasing, number of New Zealanders are refusing to tick the little ethnicity boxes on Census papers. With grim determination, they bypass the official options and scrawl their own choices, such as "New Zealander", "Kiwi" and - before it became an official option - "Pakeha".

In 1996, 45,000 gave such a response. In 2001, the number almost doubled to 89,000.

At first, it was assumed these wayward respondents were people of European descent who no longer felt affiliated to the land of their ancestors. But follow-up research indicates that at least 3000 - and possibly many more - are actually of Maori or Pacific Island descent.

It's almost as if a small group of New Zealanders are staging their own mini revolution. Enough of this ethnicity stuff, they seem to be saying: we were all born here and most of us will die here, we are New Zealanders.

Fine sentiment, indeed. But after a month of listening to our elected representatives squabbling over race relations in Parliament, you have to wonder: how integrated are we really? How much interaction do Maori and Pakeha really have?

Massey University senior sociology lecturer Avril Bell says it probably depends who you're talking about. "I suspect that Maori people have a lot of interaction with Pakeha, but I suspect that a lot of Pakeha people don't have much interaction with Maori."

This, of course, is partly a reflection of different population sizes. The burning question is, how much do people deliberately control their interaction with each other?

The work of Dr Wardlow Friesen and three of his colleagues at Auckland University's geography department provides some clues. Using date from the Census, the group has mapped the distribution of Maori and Pakeha across different Auckland suburbs.

Friesen admits it is by no means a perfect measure, but it does give a crude indication of interaction. If you live next door to someone and your children attend the same school, you have a greater chance of interacting with them than if they live half-an-hour's drive down the motorway.

Racial clustering is evident across greater Auckland, Friesen says. In central Auckland, the proportion of Maori has declined to less than 4 per cent in some areas because of rising house prices and an influx of international migrants. Further out - in Manurewa, Mangere and Otara - the proportion of Maori has remained steady at about 25 per cent or higher for two decades or more.

On a national level, the population is also divided. Nine out of 10 people of Maori descent live in the North Island. So, if you're a Pakeha living at the bottom of the South Island, your chances of interacting with Maori on a daily basis are not high.

Is New Zealand developing ghettos? Friesen doesn't think so. Areas with a high proportion of Maori have been that way since Maori urbanisation began in the 1950s, and by no means do Maori restrict themselves to such areas.

"If you look at the areas [in Auckland] with lower proportion of Maori, there's a slight increase in even the lowest ones. There's a slight diffusion through these areas of some Maori population.

"Both in Maori and Pacific populations, there's an increasing middle class, so the two things are off-setting each other. There's both clustering and diffusion."

And as Maori have moved out of central Auckland, Maori culture has moved in. "Within Auckland city we have a greater sense of Pacificness or Polynesianess than we did before, even though the population is not likely to live there. A lot [of cultural activity] is focused in the centre of cities," Friesen says.

But, quality interaction requires more than just physical proximity, Avril Bell argues. Just because people have contact doesn't mean they become more tolerant. They are just as likely to hold true to their stereotypes, but name their friends as exceptions.

"Interaction itself is not an indication of attitudes. You get these people who say quite racist things, and then say that some of their best friends are Maori."

New Zealanders - and the Western world in general - seem to have difficulty coping with the idea of multiple cultures working side by side, she says. "We seem to have this strong tendency to see difference in some kind of hierarchical term. It seems quite difficult for people to think about cultural difference as being equal."

Massey University professor of humanities and social sciences Paul Spoonley is more positive. He's been studying ethnic relations since the 1970s and believes the quality of debate and level of interaction has improved "enormously", especially among the younger generation.

"Given the high levels of intermarriage and family connections, I would have thought there were relatively few families in New Zealand that don't have some sort of connection between Maori and Pakeha."

But, even when Maori and Pakeha interact amicably on a daily basis, stereotypes remain. "When it comes to political issues such as the foreshore you tend to get your information and your views from the media, not from personal contact.

"When you have personal connections with Maori communities, these don't tend to involve a lot of political debate. I think it's always very difficult when you have personal relationships to talk about difficult political relationships. You tend to want to remain friends with people.

"I think that goes both ways. Maori might not want to be as direct and open [with Pakeha] as they might otherwise be."

The problem with Maori and Pakeha relying on the news media for their political views of each other is that the media is a forum which thrives on conflict. "Pakeha tend to pick up hostile negative reporting and repeat it back to you."

In other words, even the increasing number of family ties in New Zealand is not necessarily going to produce an informed, tolerant population.

At this point, the role of institutions becomes important, Spoonley says. Changes at schools and universities have given younger New Zealanders a greater awareness of Maori culture and concerns. And Government departments have responded "quite well" to a call since the mid-1980s to take more notice of Maori clients.

Migrants, on the other hand, choose to come here.

Spoonley warns, however, that relations between Maori and Pakeha still have a long way to go. While there's been improvement, New Zealand still has to face difficult issues such as Maori ownership of major resources and special representation in the political system.

Debate is complicated by the resurgence of Maori pride since the 1970s, while "Pakeha are still not sure who they are culturally".

Spoonley sees this changing. The increasing use of the word "Pakeha" among the younger generation is one sign. Pakeha are the only majority group in the world to use a minority indigenous group's name to describe themselves.

He believes historian Michael King's Being Pakeha Now, published in 1999, was a vital step in solidifying Pakeha identity.

Strong ethnic identity is not necessarily divisive, Spoonley says. If two cultures are equally secure in their identity it can aid, rather than hinder, open debate.

Those who sign their ethnicity on Census papers as "New Zealander" are missing a vital point, he believes. "People get confused between a national identity - being a New Zealander - and having a stronger ethnic or cultural identity."

Or do they? There is another view on the "New Zealander" phenomenon.

Economist and social researcher Dr Paul Callister notes that the high rate of intermarriage in this country has weakened ethnic boundaries for some New Zealanders.

By 2040, it is estimated that the majority of students in New Zealand primary schools will be of Maori and Pacific descent.

"For some Census respondents," he says, "the choice of the term 'New Zealander' may simply represent a way to create a new ethnic group that amalgamates a complex range of ancestral backgrounds."