PROBLEM IN CITIES “Desperate need" for Maori culture

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32627, 8 June 1971, Page 2

PROBLEM IN CITIES “Desperate need" for Maori culture

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, June 7. The Maori youth in cities today desperately needed the guidance of Maori culture, the New Zealand Maori Council was told at its annual meeting at the Maketu Pa marae, at Kawhia.

The chairman of the Tamotoa Council (Mr T. I. Eruera) said that culture was absolutely essential to the young people. They seemed to feel culturally deprived when they moved into towns.

For this reason the Tamatoa Council called on the national Maori council to support a petition, calling for compulsory teaching of Maori in schools. A motion was passed at the meeting in support of the petition. BIG DIFFERENCE

“The essence of Maoritanga is Christianity. However, there is less spirituality in a church than there is in a marae. You just have to look at the difference between a tangi and a pakeha funeral to see that,” said Mr "While the Maori youth has the same values as his parents, the pakeha has very different values. This is shown in the hippie cult—drugs are used in a search for spiritualism—a very false way of finding it.” The cultural inadequacies at present facing many of the Maori people could lead

to the situation where the Maori took only an hour off work to attend a tangi—“just to drop in, say hello, goodbye, and leave the family concerned to suffer alone.” GANG EXAMPLE Mr Eruera cited the Stormtrooper gang as an example of what Maoritanga could do for Maori youth. When the Stormtrooper phenomenon blew up, the Maori turned to help his own people. The Tamatoa Council moved in and worked with the gang’s members. Within a few months they had formed football teams, clubs and so on. "This shows what Maoritanga can and does mean to us,” he said.

Another young member of the Tamatoa Council, Miss Donna Awatere, said that most young Maori people in the cities did not look for their Maoritanga. “You have only to look in the housie halls and the pubs to find their parents. This is not the social environment in which our young people can learn,” she said. “Our children are not making the most of the education system available to them. The pool hall for their area—that's where you’ll find them. They are

left to roam around in gangs. With their parents out at the pub there is no guidance or leadership for them. HELP URGED “I’d like to see a movement to get parents who speak Maori to teach their children the language and their culture in the home. There is too much reliance on our education system,” Miss Awatere said. At this stage a Maori elder rose and said: “This is the first time I’ve ever heard young people speak in the marae. “Parents should ensure their young are taught their Maoritanga. But it is also up to the individual to search for his Maoritanga—it will never come to him on a plate,” he said.