Old must 'heed young'

Tu Tangata, Issue 24, 1 June 1985, Page 45

Old must 'heed young'

Older Maori people should acknowledge the know-how of their young and give them the chance to show what they have learnt, says retiring New Zealand Maori Council member and Tairawhiti District Maori Council chairman Sir Henare Ngata.

“I think young people have to be given opportunities and responsibility,” he said yesterday.

“Traditionally Maori society has taken the view that age vests a person with wisdom. That might have been so in Maori society then, but we are in a dynamic, changing world now and older people should acknowledge that there is a lot of knowledge, knowhow and maybe wisdom in younger people. “Certainly they should be given more chance to display what they have learnt.

“Statistics indicate that in the 60-plus level we are very much a minority within a minority race. To expect, in that range, all the answers which should be forthcoming to deal with the problems our people face is expecting far too much.” Sir Henare, himself, is 67 years old. In the New Zealand Maori Council younger people were coming forward, he said. The destiny of the Maori people lay in their hands. In the past 20 years there had been a big drift of Maori people from rural areas to the city and gradually the thrust of the council's work had reflected this. “Maori people are wanting a greater share of the action,” said Sir Henare.

“We are now getting younger, well-edu-cated, city-bred, articulate people on the council. They are not quite so concerned about land matters but want to be part of total society, particularly of the whole decision-making apparatus.

“That requires two things the ability to put forward a convincing case and, perhaps more important, receptiveness on the part of Government.”

The biggest problems which the council saw, but with which it was illequipped to deal at present, were those relating to the young Maori in the cities, he said.

Sir Henare has been a member of the Tairawhiti District Maori Council for the past 25 years, the past 14 as chairman, and a member of the New Zealand Maori Council since its inception in 1962.

He said he wished to pay a tribute to his predecessor on the District Maori Council, the late Sir Turi Carroll. He had been chairman of the council from 1960 to 1971 and president of the New Zealand Maori Council from 1962 until 1971. Sir Turi had put had heart and soul into the welfare of his people.

Sir Henare, a chartered accountant and chairman of Mangatu Blocks Incorporation since 1959, said he would continue to take a keen interest in all things Maori.