Maori culture ‘not fully appreciated’

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 21

Maori culture ‘not fully appreciated’

PA Auckland The value of Maori language and cultural knowledge was still not accepted widely enough, the secretary of the Maori Affairs Department, Dr Tamati Reedy, said recently. The fact that a person spoke Maori or had knowledge pertinent to the client group was not considered relevant unless that knowledge was gained at school or university, he told a seminar on human resources management. “The worth of that learning was never questioned

because it came from a pakeha institution.” Dr Reedy said it was now appreciated that it was an advantage for a field worker in an area such as social welfare to understand Maori? “But it was assumed a clerical worker did not need Maori language or culture. “That underlines the view that a field worker meets the Maori client on Maori terms, outside the Public Service building, but should a Maori walk into the building the clerical worker behind the desk has no need to understand Maori.”