An Inescapable Question

Te Ao Hou, December 1963, Page 33

An Inescapable Question Mr Harry Dansey's paper, ‘Being a Maori in Auckland’ was an eloquent general discussion of the situation in which the 20,000 Auckland Maoris find themselves. After speaking of the antiquity of Maori associations with Auckland—‘one of the ancient meeting places … one of the highroads of Maori history’, he discussed some of the implications, both material and spiritual, of the Maori migration to the city. In particular he spoke of the question which, he suggested, confronted city Maoris in an especially inescapable form: ‘whether to be a Maori with all its cultural implications, whether to be what is in effect a brown Pakeha, or whether to strike a balance between the two’.

Mr W. Karaka gave an interesting discussion of the place of Maoris in trade unions. He emphasised that the role of the Maori worker in a trade union was in no way different from that of any other worker, and that any differences—such as the fact that it is rare to see a Maori in trade union leadership—are of Maoris' own making. He also discussed problems in the Pukekohe district, saying that in the opinion of the Auckland Labourers' Union the Maori workers in the market gardens there are being exploited. Mr A. Awatere, in a paper on ‘Maori Workers in Auckland’, provided a great deal of information on the new opportunities and responsibilities experienced by Maoris coming to live in the city, and outlined the many different institutions and organisations which are working to assist them to find the most suitable employment in this new environment.