Maori export hopes in sales drive in U.S.

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 17

Maori export hopes in sales drive in U.S.

PA Hamilton Next month’s Maori trade and cultural mission to the United States may open up markets for handcrafts and smoked eel in Hawaii and for horticultural produce on the American mainland. The Secretary for Maori Affairs (Mr I. P. Puketapu), who organised the mission of 13 Maori leaders and craftspeople, said it would pay high practical dividends.

“It is not a concert party thing,” he said. “This is real Maori culture on the move.” A balance would be struck between trade development and cultural development. In Hawaii, which Mr Puketapu sees as a good outlet for Maori products such as handcrafts and smoked eel, and in mainland America, where the Marae Enterprises scheme

could find a market for its horticultural r reduce, the delegation would make practical market assessments in a Maori way. This would be with a keen eye to what people

back home might be able to produce. Marae Enterprises is a relatively new idea of the Maori Affairs Department to arrest the urban drift of young Maoris, and pre-

serve traditional values by encouraging cottage industries in rural areas. Enterprises set up so far have been mainly horticultural, but organisers hope to give a com-

mercial footing to traditional craftwork. For this reason the mission will pay much attention to the commercial development of Indian craftwork within the traditional communities in New Mexico, a state of 3 million people of whom roughly a third a. * Indian. Mr Puketapu said the mission would attend a three-day Indian conference at the state capital, Albuquerque, and hoped to establish a permanent ex-

change programme with the American Indians. Maori representatives might regularly attend the annual United States Indian Congress, and Indians would travel to New Zealand to Maori Council meetings. One of the mission members, a Rotorua arts and crafts teacher and carver Mr Rangi Hetet, had been given a stand at the New Mexico fair to display Maori products.