'MUTUAL SUSPICION’ OF MAORI, PAKEHA

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30717, 5 April 1965, Page 1

'MUTUAL SUSPICION’ OF MAORI, PAKEHA

“Discrimination exists between Maori and pakeha on both sides; it is not just a colour bar. but something of a mutual suspicion among two peoples who do not fully understand one another as yet.” Mr T. R. Kelly (Chief (iolden Eagle of the Cree Indians of Canada) said in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Kelly, an administration officer with the Indian Affairs Branch of the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Emigration. is in New Zealand for four months under a United Nations fellowslt ip to study the extent to which the human rights of Maoris are safeguarded and exercised.

Mr Kelly will report on hisi findings to the United Na tions Human Rights Secre-j lariat, and send copies of the report to the New Zealand! and Canadian Governments. | Although suspicion was mutual, the main fault lay; with the pakeha New Zealander who expected the, Maori “to discard everything! he ever had and become a i dark-skinned Britisher." said Mr Kelly. PRIDE IN CULTURE | : “No people of any pride would throw away all their ■ culture and traditions simply to win favour.” Mr Kelly said “You can see what pride the Maoris have in their tra ditions. It should be realised, in fact, that Maori action songs and dances are the only visible image of New Zealand culture to appear overseas. When your All Blacks Rugby team plays in an overseas match, the way it marks itself as from New Zealand is by performing a Maori haka. “Although 1 have not been long in the South Island. 1 would say from what I have I seen so far that the Maoris

I down here are a generation] further towants integration | than the North Island Maoris i Because South Island Maoris | | have long had to compete with non-Maoris in almost all! iaspects of life, they have had to adjust themselves morel fully than the North Island > ers. and have done so quite readily. “OX THE WAY” "Integration is certainly on I the way. but the existing sus , picion between the races is! likely to continue for several I generations yet." Mr Kelly ’ said. ‘The important thing! is that you should aim in the right direction in this matter! —in my view, at a state of |affairs where the dominant British population is prepared j |to accept Maoris as equal' ' New Zealanders with compar able advantages and as a sep arate ethnic group" Mr Kelly said the IntegraIlion of the Maori people into (the general community’ I seemed to have been assisted] | a great deal by Government I housing policy, through both! I the Maori Affairs Department! land the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works but! I especially also through the! ischeme for capitalisation of I the family benefit “CAN COMPETE” .The capitalisation scheme ! simply means that anyone i with a regular job and of | good character is eligible for la good' house, the basis of • family life." said Mr Kelly. | "For the Maori, it means he can compete with (he pakeha from the same type of home base—a tremendous advantage which the Indians of Canada do not so far. in general. enjoy. "On my return home I

I shall bring the family capitalisation scheme to the notice of my own Govern- , inent." Mr Kelly said he thought a i better definition was needed |of who was a Maori and who ’was not. There were at ! least eight definitions in various New Zealand statutes ; Some persons claiming to ! be Maoris, he said, had perhaps a great-grandparent who was a Maori, but that was lhe total extent of the eonInexion: their knowledge of ‘Maori traditions and culture I was minimal and they made no contribution to Maori ! affairs. In Canada, an Indian at law was a descendant of a 1 male person who was defined as an Indian during one of a [series of conferences held between the Indians and tin Government in the 1870 s and 1880 s MATERNAL INHERITANCE Mr Kelly, although his ehieftancy is from the Cree ! Indians of the Great Plains lis a member of lhe nobility lof the Haida Indian nation lof the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia He may eventually receive chiefly titles from his own . people—not through his father, who has three such ' i titles, but from his mother's - line, as inheritance is maternal. In New Zealand. Mr Kelly has already visited most parts of the North Island and the ■ Nelson and West Coast areas i Yesterday afternoon he and ■ Mrs Kelly were given a for- ■ mal welcome by the Maori ' people of Christchurch, Tau- - mutu, Rapaki, and Little River, at St. John's Anglican I Church. Latimer square.