LEADERSHIP

Te Ao Hou, June 1959, Page 26

LEADERSHIP Leadership in the Auckland Maori community is comprised of a wide range of classes. The educated person is very much in evidence, so are the bureaucratic leader, the professional man, the woman leader, the administrator and the religious leader. It is to be expected that they would feature in an urban community close to European institutions. But then the kaumatua, the kuia and the rangatahi leader are here too. The pattern of leadership is practically the same as that found in the village community, the main difference is in the shift of priority. The educated person has moved to the fore in the urban community, while the kaumatua and kuia are called upon on specific occasions. The bases of authority are not as clear cut as those found in the more homogeneous grouping of the village kinship community. Kinship affiliations in the city are important in developing leadership within particular tribes or subtribes. Ethnic association and the embodiment of Maori

Chairman of the Tribal Executive, and therefore senior Maori administrator in Auckland, is Mr Matiu Te Hau, in private life tutor-organizer for the Auckland Regional Council of Adult Education. Mr Te Hau, who hails from Opotiki, had varied experience in survey parties before the war but ended up doing a university degree and becoming a teacher. After the war, he joined Adult Education; the originality of his thought and the force of his oratory in both English and Maori are widely known. ideals however are helping to cut across the restricting boundaries of kinship, though this, as yet is difficult still in Auckland. Maori skills gain recognition in certain situations when Maori deals with Maori. The scarcity of those men and women with Maori ceremonial skills in the city places particular prestige on those who possess such skills. Of importance in this regard is the way the kaumatua status is frequently assumed by younger men and educated persons because of some facility in the required skills. Education and the possession of European skills are the highest qualifications for leadership in Auckland. This is necessary because of the close association of Maori and European. While the educated leader is given prestige by virtue of his education, he maintains his position through concretely expressed interests in the welfare of the Maori community. Added to education and European skills may be mentioned the alliance of a Maori leader with European institutions. A clergyman is backed by his church, and adult education tutor by the university, and the civil servant by the Government Department. The majority of the leaders in the city of Auckland are the specialists in charge of sports and recreation or other youth activities. Here general kinship supported by outstanding skill in games or in administration in the clubs helps to give prestige. A player who has achieved national fame is highly respected in the Maori community and such persons may find themselves being transferred into positions of leadership in the other organisations in the community. The kaumatua and the kuia come into their own when distinguished Maori or European ivsitors are welcomed at the Maori Community Centre. Their main function is to give just that touch of Maori dignity and ceremonial to the gatherings.