THE MAORI IN PAKEHA SOCIETY

Te Ao Hou, March 1961, Page 1

THE MAORI IN PAKEHA SOCIETY Some months ago, a New Zealand novel of distinction, Tangahano, by Frances Keinzly, showed New Zealand readers for the first time, to our knowledge, the emotions and fortunes of its characters against a background of large-scale engineering—Tangahano is a hydro-electric station on the Waikato River. Miss Keinzly claimed in her novel, successfully in our view, that the pioneering character of New Zealand life, no longer apparent in the cities, may still be discovered in these huge industrial enterprises. In this issue of Te Ao Hou, we reprint an article by A. S. Fry both in English and in Maori translation, first published in the New Zealand Listener last October, which makes it quite clear how large a part Maori men now play in these enterprises. Mr Fry goes so far as to suggest that in his assumption of dominion over the machine, the Maori is reverting to his ancient attitude towards the land: one of territorial mastery rather than respect for the soil as soil. Mr Fry demonstrates convincingly enough that the Maori has a natural affinity for machines which require some rhythmic control for their proper use: this rhythmic response is part of the Maori heritage. At all events, the large number of Maori men now managing, controlling, and performing highly skilled operations with power machines, sometimes in situations that the pakeha may baulk at, may stimulate the movement of young Maori men from the rural to the urban and industrialsed areas, where they are sorely needed. Also in this issue, we reprint from the magazine Education the remarkable account of a Maori school childrens' tour, by E. G. Schwimmer, Editor of Te Ao Hou, at present on leave. For a fortnight, these young people from Punaruku were exposed to the whole range of pakeha society, from its large-scale industrial enterprises like the pulp and paper mills at Kawerau, to the superbly equipped Mormon school near Hamilton, and to a variety of arts, from opera and music in the classical European modes to exhibitions of modern art at the Auckland Festival. We find Mr Schwimmer's account full of remarkable insights into the Maori condition, from the moving account of the community's slow progress from reluctance to enthusiasm for the project, to the assumption of leadership by one of the most unlikely members of the party, to the alternating bewilderment and commonsense of the young people as their journey went on. Here, it seems to us, is the whole area of what has been, somewhat inelegantly, called “acculturation”: the adaptation of a people from one kind of culture to another. Mr Schwimmer's lively account leaves us in no doubt that solutions to these problems can and will be found.