Governments have ignored Maori tribal life-report

Press, 7 May 1987, Page 44

Governments have ignored Maori tribal life-report

PA Auckland Successive Governments have ignored the tribal reality of Maori life, says an unpublished Maori Affairs Department internal report The report, titled “National Policy , : and Minority Culture,” was commissioned by the Secretary for Maori Affairs, Dr Tamati Reedy, from a consultant, Mr Graham Butterworth, a former Police Association executive officer and Massey University history lecturer, for a seminar Dr Reedy attended in Hawaii last year. The Government was developing policy for using iwi (tribal) authorities for delivery of economic and welfare assistance to Maori people. The report says that policy formulation with regard to Maori people has always been seen as a superior-to-inferior relationship. / The Government has dealt with Maori people as individuals through its agencies or as a national group, the “Maori people.” “The nearest that such an entity has come to formation is that at certain times a consensus has emerged that has united most of the tribal leaders behind a common cause for a few years,” the

report says. Examples are the Kotahitanga (unity) movement of the 1890 s, World War I when most tribes supported recruiting for the Maori Pioneer Contingent and World War 11, when the Government of the day allowed the people to organise on a tribal basis to recruit for a tribaliy-organised Maori Battalion and to contribute to the war effort “There is a new consensus in Maoridom pressing for an end to welfare dependence and for resources to be handed across to tribal authorities,” the report says. It says that the history of the Maori Affairs Department or its eqivalent illustrates the ambiguity of the pakeha attitude to Maori culture. “There was also the fear the department might side with its clients; literally, go native. "Therefore it has been under constant threat with its title land functions being perpetually tinkered with and its staff and budget being expanded and contracted on the basis of the current state of pakeha opinion,” the report says. It says continuing cultural strength has allowed Maoridom to take alien institutions actually aimed at undermining taha

Maori and render them neutral. \ “Indeed, these institutions have been developed to become part of Maori cultural identity. The Maori Land Court Is a classic example of something that was entirely negative and which is now a positive force in Maori life.” It says there has been a failure to bring the tribal principle into the structure of Government “Until this happens New Zealand cannot be considered a bicultural society. r “The argument can be made that the tribal system has been tried a number of times and each time has failed to work. “Close examination shows there have been four consistent elements in every attempt” sajto the .report These are: • A massive hidden agenda designed to benefit pakehas not Maori. .. • Failure to achieve a compromise that struck even a reasonable balance between whqt Maoris wanted and what the pakeha majority was willing to concede. '. v . • Refusal to provide adequate staffing and proper funding for the tribal initiative. •No initiative has been persisted with for more than a few years. ‘