THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1983. Souvenirs and good taste

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 20

THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1983. Souvenirs and good taste

Unfashionable as “good taste” is these days, the notion that tourists’ souvenirs should give a favourable impression of a country and its people can hardly be denied. Taste is the essence of the objection raised by a group of Auckland Maoris, and by the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination, against what they say are “culturally offensive” souvenirs. If makers of souvenirs, Maori people among them, can produce better, and marketable, items for tourists, our visitors will be just as pleased as anyone. Overseas visitors would be among the last to be aware that some souvenirs offend. Much of the souvenir business is unpretentious, dealing in cheap, compact, and often trivial items. Trying to elevate the trade into making and selling only high-class, authentic items, serious in their purpose and scrupulous in their tastefulness, is probably a complete waste of time. Many tourists would welcome the chance to buy, for a dollar or two, a product that they know is authentic in design and culturally correct in its conception and manufacture. The chances of producing such items are pretty slim; yet, by all means, let it be tried. The point made by the objectors is not that visitors go away believing that what they have bought is culturally offensive; the offence lies in the minds of some Maori people at the thought that their culture has been misused. Some experts, and some highly sensitive people, will find fault or insult in anything that is produced. If their view is to prevail, the idea that versions of Maori culture be translated into souvenirs

might as well be forgotten. Representations of Maoridom might as well be removed entirely from the souvenir shops, and this would imply that the culture is so fragile, so elusive, Or so sacred, as to be beyond reproduction or beyond treatment at the level of trifles and small mementoes for tourists.

Visitors buy souvenirs for many reasons. A few will take them seriously; some merely want a gift that has a New Zealand flavour, some will associate a memento with a personal experience in this country; some will be looking for amusing trivia, a little nonsense capable of giving pleasure as well as identifying itself as a memoir of New Zealand.

The objectors’ campaign runs the risk of looking pin-pricking and silly. They should avoid this self-defeating approach. Their purpose should not be to persuade New Zealand and its visitors that the Maori people are thinskinned, overly touchy people, quick to take offence at the slightest, if unintended, scratch to their dignity. The campaign runs this risk. The security of a culture, religion, or institution is measured in part by its ability to ride over irritations, kindly meant humour, and departures from the purity of ideals. The best step to be taken by the objectors would be to encourage more people to produce souvenirs that Maori people believe will create a better appreciation and understanding of Maoridom, as well as meet the many levels of demand by tourists. Such products, promoted for their worth, would soon drive inferior products from the shelves.