'Maori culture devalued'

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 3

'Maori culture devalued '

PA Auckland Not all schoolchildren eat cornflakes, toast, and marmalade for breakfast. Some eat kina, says Dr Peter Sharpies, of Auckland’s race relations office. “When a child explains kina are sea eggs, don’t say ‘yuck’,” he urged teachers at an early childhood education seminar in Te Atatu North. Once that had happened and the child concerned had been so humiliated that she had burst into tears and fled home at playtime. Her mother had telephoned her father at work, and he had complained vigorously to the school. The teacher had

been reprimanded for her low level of cultural awareness. If an Indian or Spanish child had told of an exotic breakfast, the teacher would probably have said: “How interesting. Tell us what it tastes like,” but Maori cultural practices were devalued in New Zealand by the dominant culture. Prejudiced judgment of them was hard to overcome, Dr Sharpies said. Employers unquestioningly gave a day’s compassionate leave, on full pay, to people attending a European funeral, whereas many refused to employ Maoris because they so often seemed to be wanting three days off for tangis.

But aunts and uncles had the same status as parents, and cousins the same status as brothers and sisters in Maori families, he explained. A Maori was therefore under pressure to take time off to attend the tangis of many relations. Such a cultural dictate was given little favourable consideration in the business and industrial field, he said. Only by working to raise cultural awareness, and by giving equal value to the practices of various races and ethnic groups in our society would such discrimination be cut down, Dr Sharpies said. He challenged the junior class, kindergaretn teachers, playcentre staff, and parents at the seminar to

take positive action to Integrate different cultures in early childhood education.

Teachers and parents at the seminar recommended:— Visits to Maori and Island families with young children accompanying public heath or Plunket nurses, to encourage joining pre-school groups; Approaches to church leaders to invite support for family involvement in early childhood education; Critical listening to conversation at home to reduce racist jokes; and Learning Maori and Island terms for greetings. The four-day course was organised by the Education Department’s preschool advisory service.