Asia Learns About the Maori

Te Ao Hou, September 1955, Page 9

Asia Learns About the Maori Both Mrs Bennett, an executive member of the league who also attended the conference, and I presented papers at conference, Mrs Bennett's paper was on Maori handicrafts and mine was on our organisation. These topics were selected for us by the programme organisers. Although Mrs Bennett spoke of our handicrafts we had little to contribute from the point of view of their economic value since our handicrafts have never been commercialised to any great extent and certainly not to affect the economy of the country to any noticeable degree. What was required at conference were new ideas of developing home industries in order to help supplement the family incomes of country dwellers, as well as the social and cultural values of such activities. We have never utilised our handicrafts in that way since the need has never arisen in a system of economy which enjoys full employment. The idea of our Maori Women's Welfare League as an organisation principally based on self-help was to my mind a sufficiently interesting example for any similarly situated groups of women to follow. The fact that it also receives a degree of government assistance showed that any such selfhelp projects of a very practical nature do require government assistance in their initial stages, particularly when they concern the immediate family and the community as a whole. The other perhaps more important point is that our organisation does not exist because of segregation, but because of the very fundamental needs of our women, the most important of which is the need to identify themselves as self-determining individuals with the right to choose what is best for themselves in this ever-changing world or the responsibility of creating better lives for themselves in their own way.