The Period of ‘Storms and Stresses’

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 7

The Period of ‘Storms and Stresses’ Like every other person coming to maturity, the Maori adolescent does not escape the ‘storms and stresses’ of life at this period. With other adolescents, he experiences the physical, psychological and emotional changes which so vividly mark the period of the teenager. In times past, adolescents have been described in many ways. A generation ago a particularly significant description was to be found in the term ‘flapper’, used to designate the female of the species. It is interesting to note that the dictionary meaning of the word ‘flapper’ is ‘one yet in the nest, vainly attempting to fly while his wings have only pin feathers’. In a way, the fledgling bird and the fledgling human are driven by the same urge: the urge to set forth. In so doing, most young people make it the first time, but some for a variety of reasons need to try two and three times. During childhood, the average family represented a collective form of security where the father was the ‘shield and buckler’, where the mother gave the life and the father gave the living, where the child accepted his lot automatically. The authority over the group was vested in the father, especially since under normal Pakeha circumstances, the immediate family circle was, by and large, the responsible ‘kinship unit’. The Maori child needed and received the

same sort of physical and emotional assurance as his Pakeha counterpart, but his responsible ‘kinship unit’ was often a wider one. His grandparents, his uncles and aunts, grand-uncles and grand-aunts shared, as of right, in the upbringing of the child. Even in the tribal situation generally, a keen sense of kinship gave the Maori child an assured sense of belonging. The Maori child in the past learned how to identify with his community at a much earlier age than does either the modern Maori or the Pakeha child.