Trans-world observer of N.Z. inspired by land protest

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 26

Trans-world observer of N.Z. inspired by land protest

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

talks with Robert MacDonald who has been

driven by the Fifth Wind of Maoridom, has been away and returned, and sees a New Zealand society, still looking for its roots amid a new materialism.

ROBERT MacDonald concedes that many pakehas will see yet another white liberal at work through his book, "The Fifth Wind.” He is unrepentent. “If there is aggression, anger and stupidity in Maoridom, the pakeha must know where that comes from, and why, and whether there is any reality, justice or truth in the goals at the centre of the agitation.”

MacDonald was a member of the 1984 hikoi (land march) from the Treaty House grounds in Northland that demanded an honouring — by the Government and the Crown — of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was one of a small group of pakeha observers invited to walk with the marchers. Along with the others, he was driven by the Fifth Wind, a force in Maori mythology that drives, changes and disrupts the plans of humanity.

MacDonald remembers the hikoi’s faces, personalities and events with a journalistic vividness. Among other things, the march allowed him to learn more about himself.

During his childhood, his family’s move to New Zealand had been abrupt and traumatic. His move in later years back to Britain was also abrupt, but he found in 1984 that his New Zealand roots were deeper than he had ever imagined.

He had come here in the mid--19403 as the son of a British veterinarian. What the boy first saw then did not impress him. “Stifling and narrow — complacent and smug” are among his descriptions of a society which thought it had developed the best race relations in the world. MacDonald says the image and reality are poles apart.

In 1953, he joined the “Waikato Independent” as a cadet reporter. He moved to the Hamilton office of the “New Zealand Herald,” writing art re-

views for the “Waikato Times” under a pen name. In 1958, he was dismissed from the “Herald” for growing a beard. The sacking cleared the way for his departure from New Zealand, and he left with few regrets. But he took a legion of ghosts which haunted him for two decades. His ties with New Zealand slackened as he became a jour-

nalist in Britain, writing for “The Scotsman.” and becoming a recognised expert on African affairs.

He later became chief diplomatic correspondent for the Central Office of Information.

In 1976, he returned to an artistic career and completed a master of arts degree in painting at the Royal College of Art in 1979. Today, he works as an

artist, critic and art lecturer. Robert MacDonald had been puzzled and repelled by New Zealand when he lived here. After the 1984 land march, he went into the Welsh hills to write a book about his life’s experiences, and the hikoi became a catalyst.

He wrote a book that traces race relations as seen through the eyes of a new New Zealan-

On a recent visit here, he continued to explore the New Zealand psyche. “I find myself in a situation common to many people,” he says of his links with two countries. "Some aspects of life cannot be resolved properly.”

When MacDonald returned to New Zealand in late 1983, he found a very different place. The hikoi was a manifestation of changing times. Calls for greater official and social recognition of the Maori identity and role increased. He was fascinated by the country’s mood. He met with the kaumatua of the Tainui people at the Waahi Pa, and an invitation followed to write an information bulletin for the hikoi members. He would travel with the Tainui marchers and become one of them.

“There was a certain supernatural quality about the entire hikoi,” he says. One was embraced and admitted to something which was secret — there were the Maori cultural values alongside some other quality. “I remember walking through Auckland with the marchers and wondering what the pakehas on the pavement were staring at. Being a member of the hikoi involved losing a previous sense of being an outsider and being engulfed by something completely different. “It also helped that I had returned home from outside New Zealand and was, in some way, an observer from another place.”

MacDonald recalls the sense of cohesion and strength, and the clash of personalities during the 1984 march. He remembers how

the two pakeha journalists covering it were banned from taking part — it was an atmosphere of hostility and apprehension. “Strangely enough, this was never directed towards me. I seemed to be wearing a magic cloak ...”

Shortly after the march ended, he was flying back to his family in London. The decision to leave was a difficult personal choice. “I became aware just how strongly I had become attached to New Zealand. When I came back, the time I had spent away seemed very unreal.

“I discovered a sense that I had been here all my life and the two decades I had spent in England were simply an illusion. My departure after the hikoi was another drastic divorce but, in retrospect, perhaps I needed it to write a book.”

MacDonald greets the emergence of a new materialism in New Zealand society with disquiet — in any consumeroriented society, there are the winners and the losers.

“I think that the explosion of materialism could be a dangerous thing in a society which is still trying to search for its roots,” he says. “On the 1984 hikoi, the main theme was that the Maoris were an undeveloped nation inside the pakeha community. The Maoris needed a decade of development to pull themselves out of a state of low morale.

“Today, I gather that hopes have been raised but there is also a sense of disappointment that nothing concrete appears to be emerging. There is continued optimism among the Maori, but nothing much has happened yet.”

He declines to offer any quick answers.

“Whenever you are building something, you have to struggle. Some people don’t like a sense of struggle. They believe that no problems exist in New Zealand

and we can continue to ignore the situation. “But you cannot neglect the problems New Zealand is facing today. A long and difficult period lies ahead of us to get things

right. “Anyone who believes that the Lord has given them the perfect country which they can now sit back and enjoy are quite simply fantasists.”

‘Continued optimism among the Maori, but nothing much has happened/