CHAMPION OF MAORIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 1

CHAMPION OF MAORIS

DORA WILCOX IN LONDON IGNORANCE OF LEGENDS AND LANGUAGE Seated at dinner beside Andrew Lang at a Scottish university on one occasion, Dora Wilcox, the New Zealand writer, was asked what she knew about Maori legends. “I was ashamed to find that this great writer and scholar who had never been in New Zealand knew more about the Maori, his art and his legends than I did, and myself New Zealand born,’' writes Dora Wilcox from Sydney to Te Akarana Maori Association in Auckland. In private life Miss Wilcox is Mrs. William Moore, wife of the well-known Australian art critic. When opportunity subsequently offered in London, the New Zealander began to read about the Maori people, and to some degree also made herself acquainted with the language. To Akarana Maori Association recently wrote to Dora Wilcox thanking her for taking up the cudgels on behalf of the Maoris when in New Zealand a few months ago, and strongly protesting against any possible colour prejudice in the minds’of New Zealanders. “It is a great pleasure to me, who am New Zealand born and bred, to do what I can for our fellow-countrymen of the Maori race,” replied Miss Wilcox to Mr. Patrick Smythe, the association’s secretary. “I should like to tell you how it is that I learned to care so much. “My people were among the first pakehas to settle near Christchurch, where I was born. When I was a child we did not often see Maoris except when w*e went to Akaroa or to Kaiapoi, but my grandfather, who was both kind and wise, always taught me to judge others according to their character alone; and people of all races and nationalities were welcomed in our home. “Then I went to live in Europe, and perhaps forgot a little about New Zealand until one day at dinner in a Scottish university Andrew Lang began to ask *me about Maori legends. . . During the war Dora Wilcox was “very glad to do a little” for woundtl Mao'ri soldiers in hospital. Barney Tawera, whose uncle is the guide at Te Wairakei, was one of these men. Dora Wilcox and the guide recently met in the thermal district. THEIR LANGUAGE FORGOTTEN There was one thing, however, that made the New Zealand poet very sad when she returned to her native land . . . “and that was to meet Maoris who had received a good English education, but who hardly knew their own language and history and nothing at all of their own beautiful legends and art. “I should like to see all the Maori people, while having the best English education, taking the greatest pride and interest in the things that are peculiarly their own —in their history, their music, their traditional dances, their art, and in their most beautiful legends.” Replying to a former statement by

the writer on this question, Mr. Smythe wrote: “We are deeply grateful for your remarks. We have always felt that all praise and defence of our race comes better from one of a different race. The association aims to show thv Europeans that the Maoris appreciate what has been done for them during their century of civilisation, but, at the same time, they guard jealously their ancestral dignity. “The inexplicable problem is, why such contentious attitudes should be still extant after a century of personal contact and collaboration. However, with such champions as you, ever reminding the ignorant of the community of their, blindness, we may hope for enhancement of mutual appreciation.”