Today’s Maoris seen as people ‘on the move’

Press, 6 September 1980, Page 23

Today’s Maoris seen as people ‘on the move’

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

Maori language, Maori land, Maori education — these and other issues reflect the increasing selfawareness and self-respect of the Maori in the last few years. The rare combination of a Maori Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Couch) and Maori Secretary for Maori Affairs (Mr Kara Puketapu) has reinforced this impression. In his annual report to Parliament, Mr Puketapu set out some of the main issues and trends.

It could be said with confidence that the Maori of 1980 were a people “on the move.” Communities everywhere were making a tremendous effort to adv?.nce their own social, economic and cultural well-being, he said. Maori organisations had sharpened up their own administration and now seemed better geared to undertake new tasks, using both old and newer ways. During the next year this momentum would continue. Given sustained Government help for marae building, land development and youth programmes, many of the adverse trends of the past could be quickly reversed. “For example,” said Mr Puketapu, “we are beginning to see Maori students staying longer at school and moving more strongly into vocational training.” At the same time, Maori youth was expressing a thirst for traditional Maori culture as a means of satisfying a personal need for identity and intellectual development. It could also be expected that Maori

people would pursue their language and culture with even more vigour than in the last 50 years.

Provided tribal struct u r e s continued to strengthen, and both land and human resources were better harnessed, it. was not difficult to appreciate that Maori as a spoken language could become almost commonplace in New Zealand communities during the next decade. “It is the department’s view that this will be the natural trend and one that should be seen as promoting greater creativity and positive development from the Maori,” he said. The main thrust of the department’s activities in the last year had been in. the promotion and development of Tu Tangata — “the stance of the people.” From a new and little understood philosophy expounded two years ago, Tu Tangata had grown into a dynamic and effective series of inter-related development policies in sharp contrast to the once-held assumption that the department was merely a welfare agency.

At the heart of Tu Tangata lay the belief that the Maori people had resources which were grossly under-used, and that they should be used for the greater good of the Maori and for the nation as a whole. “In such areas as land utilisation this approach is obvious enough. Less obvious, perhaps, is the concept of the people themselves being such a resource,” Mr Puketapu said. Whether by taking a greater role in the mainst-

ream of New Zealand’s social, cultural and economic life, or by drawing on the strengths of distinctively Maori institutions and values, Maoris were being encouraged to “stand tall” — to grow in the self-esteem and self-confidence which had often in the past been “conspicuously absent.” The department had set in motion policies aimed at improving Maori performance in schools and in trade and vocational skills. But at the same time, there was a need to nurture that “Maoriness” which distinguished not only the Maori people but helped to make New Zealand unique in the work: at large. • Last year, for example, saw the successful running of a series of wananga for Maori youth and women — maraebased, live-in seminars run along traditional Maori lines. They were remarkable, said Mr Puketapu, not only for the self-con-fidence, they inspired but also for the way in which their aims were achieved. This was by upholding traditional Maori attitudes such as tribalism, communal living and discussions, all centred on the marae itself. The department was

now convinced that the Tu Tangata policy was sound and readily acceptable to Maori people. A strong partnership had developed between the people and the department which would allow for more innovation and positive action.

But effective devel-

opment of the young people must remain the high priority, he added. At a time when unemployment posed problems, job creation for school-leavers would be a critical aim for Maori people in many districts. Equally important, however, was the need for the community at large to offer sufficient social and cultural options for young people to ensure that thev we r e guided into "positive lifestyles.” To ensure that the momentum of the Maori advance was sustained,- the department intended to encourage communal deci-sion-making on a larger scale. Wherever possible, policies and their implementation would be worked out with the communities likely to be affected by them — usually on their own local marae. “The kotahitanga approach has seen individuals and whole communities become inspired with greater self-motivation and self-determination,” said Mr Puketapu. “New initiatives and developments are coming from the people themselves, sometimes under the administration of Tu Tangata, most times not, but always very much in the spirit of Tu