The I-am-we of Maori culture

Tu Tangata, Issue 25, 1 August 1985, Page 22

The I-am-we of Maori culture

By Hoani Rangihau as told to Michael Romanos

Kupu whakaata

I /\ /1 heard there are 159 dif- \ / —ferent definitions of culV 1 ture. It is something that has interested people all through the ages.

For our purpose, culture is a totality of learned socially transmitted behaviour. This statement means that people learn culture from the time they are born and this is transmitted to them by their parents, environment and people they come into contact with whom they must integrate in some way for any sociological climate or aspect to happen.

Culture is being transmitted in every situation placing different values on different things one learns. And if you think of values as being emotionally charged preferences of standards of work, then you will see why sooner or later these values, especially if you live in a multi-racial society like ours, must concern one another. There is in some cases a definite clash.

Various people have talked about maoritanga which is a word that has been used to explain in some way or another, Maori culture.

One of the first things about maoritanga is when Maoris are talking about themselves they are not saying “I am I” but are saying “I am we”. In other words they are part of a larger community, dependent on the group angle and a potent force in terms of the total community.

This is a concept of people working, living, playing and laughing together and of everything being done for the group.

In the present stage of our national development, people talk about integration and one suspects (especially a Maori) that integration in some people’s terms is straight out assimilation. Numbers of Maoris have picked up the attitudes and thinking of Europeans and in some quarters this is considered the ideal situation. By and large, integration has been taking place ever since we were confronted with cross-

cultural contact. We are New Zealanders by reason we are living here and want to stay here. People talk about the ideal of all of us becoming New Zealanders in terms of European values and standards. At every stage there is some social integration between Maori and pakeha but within this framework there must be room for people to express themselves in the way they want to.

One of the most important aspects of any culture is the language of its people.

I would think there are less than 50 per cent of Maori people today in New Zealand who are Maori speaking. In a strong Maori settlement like Rotorua 90 per cent of people under 20 speak Maori.

I do not think for one moment that the language taught at schools is sufficient. It has been said that Maori language is a very limited one insofar as it cannot be used in this highly technical world and that it cannot define many of the words we use like Neutrons and Protons etc. But I am certain that if Maoris felt they had to explain such things in Maori, they could.

As a nation we believe we should have some advantage from other European languages and there is a lot of movement towards learning the Asian languages. But I am always struck by the fact that people going overseas tend to gather certain Maori things or words because they realise people are interested in the Maori and the way we have intermingled. Yet to many it is not worthwhile to speak the Maori language.

But I am one who believes we don’t have to know the language in order to be Maori. Some people at Victoria University tried to measure the amount of maoriness there was in any particular Maori by asking a series of questions and marking from 100 per cent down the line.

But people will be looking at Maoris in the future and it will not matter

whether one can be assessed by a questionnaire because you can simply elect to be a Maori. So language, although it is one of the most important things, is not the only thing that will give you a sense of having Maori culture.

I am also reminded of the Reverend Kingi Ihaka who said at a meeting a Maori was a person who could talk Maori, knew the customs and looked Maori. At this meeting a number of South Island people got up very quickly and of course they looked so fair, and they said: “We do not know how to talk Maori but don’t tell us we are not Maori.”

Another important aspect of Maori culture is conveyed in the term, turangawaewae.

Turangawaewae is centered around the marae when previously it was centred around common ground of the tribe. The marae in that area of clear ground which is immediately in front of the meeting house or any of the buildings close to the meeting house. It may not be a meeting house as we know it but whatever, this allows people to be able to say what they want and to feel identified with the particular home area they come from.

Turangawaewae I suppose, is that emotional tie that the land has for the Maori. The tie is emotional not because the Maori sees the land as something he can use or something negotiable, but the land is the place from whence he came.

This is Mother earth, Father sky and is part of the mythology that gives Maoris their emotional overtones to the land.

But turangawaewae is changing. It will progress to the area in which a Maori is living for the moment. The Maori has become so individualised that he can put this turangawaewae on his house. One of the things that happen on the marae is the institution of the tangi and the hui and these two functions help perpetuate and sustain Maori culture. At these functions you get people to chant their old chants, relate the genealogical lines. The tangi over the years has taken the place of the wharewananga or the old schools of learning that the Maori had. Wharewananga as such has been wiped out of existence because of the need to keep up with the economics of New Zealand. But if there are sufficient Maoris who want to learn because

it has meaning for them, then they will learn enough to get by.

There are any number of things in the category of songs which young Maoris will not be able to recite or give forth in the old form. The language has become difficult for them to learn. Even people my age who speak Maori very well, are told by older people our reciting is incorrect. The fact is we should not become neurotic about trying to get our tongues round it. If they cannot stand the test of time they should go.

Tangis are being held in private homes and ties are being cut because this is the way we have to live. We have to fit in with the economics of the situation.

Arts and craft is an area most people would like to be retained within the Maori culture. It is a region that can be enjoyed in a group with such items like action songs and hakas. Professor Smithells who was head of the Otago University Physical Education Department was trying to include hakas and action songs in the curriculum because, “I feel they are things suitable for the development of the body. The natural grace of action songs, the movements of hands and feet and co-ordination of actions to harmony and there is nothing more vigorous and testing than doing a haka properly.”

We as New Zealanders should be trying to develop our own unique qualities which set us apart from other people. Sometimes visitors from overseas think we are inclined to be smug about our qualities. Eric Linklater, an Englishman, wrote about his travels in New Zealand and said the Kiwi character is that of a most hospitable person almost to the state of embarrassment, happy, generous and friendly but inclined to have a “she’s right mate” attitude which was in some cases a sign of artistic shallowness.

Sometimes I find my non-Maori friends thinking of me in similar terms. They say this “me” as a Maori is inclined to be hospitable and generous to a fault. What has happened is that we are forming a New Zealand-type character.

What non-Maoris have done is taken the best part of Maori and introduced it as themselves. But we should be encouraging this New Zealand character and here the Maori people are ethnic only in the sense they have been in New Zealand a little longer but at least they

have certain cultural attributes which are essentially peculiar to the country.

Perhaps the evolution has been too slow but the fact is the Maori has gone more than half-way to meet the nonmaori and has had to in order to change his standards and follow the general stream. On the other side, the nonMaori has not in the past been actively concerned in stretching out a hand and helping the Maori and saying, “there are things about your culture I like, how about teaching me?”

There is a lot of latent goodwill throughout New Zealand on the part of pakehas but it is this sort of latency which needs to be awakened because the Maori culture should become attractive to the non-Maori and developed as a New Zealand personality and culture rather than a Maori one.

It's been said that some Maoris are very difficult to deal with because they

cannot dismiss their tribual affiliations. While it is true it is still strong, it is also true that Maoris under the age of 30 are not really interested in this tribal affiliation. There are not many young Maoris who know of their sub-tribe. But I have always held the opinion that Maoris in order to have their culture accepted by pakehas, should think in terms of Maori as a whole and not tribal. Maori persons first-not awara first, Maori second.

For Maori culture to become a force it must be dynamic and prolonging in such a way that it does not oppose progress nor does it imply opposing integration of the races. Those who lose their identity on a physiological basis should if they so elect, identify with either group. I say physiological because the effects of intermarriage are such that future generations will support a great number of very fair Maoris. Unless Maoris themselves actively seek and participate in acceptable modifications to Maori culture and interpret how they feel and want done, then it is most difficult for the nonMaori to see and understand.

Spirituality is one of the concepts of Maori culture. Maoris see God as not a god which lives up in the sky or can only be met on Sunday mornings in church. This god is one that he can take around with him. His every movement is dependent upon asking divine guidance. Under what other conditions can you find very aggressive meetings opened and closed by prayer. Maoris carry god around in their “pockets”. It is a carry over from the days when so many Maoris were stopped from even mentioning Io which is a person whom they gave certain attributes not unlike the present day Jehovah.

One of the strangest things is that Maoris (especially on maraes) are quite happy to participate in whatever church is having a service at that particular time. For us, religion does not mean dressing up to the hilt for a Sunday service where one is part of a cold building and sometimes cold people. This type of religion doesn’t fit the Maori. Their religion is something less austere. And I am saying this because the Maori regards his God as not being in the church but wherever he goes or whatever he does. This is one of the things about Maori that perhaps we may be able to influence non-Maoris in some way.

Hoani (John) Rangihau of the Tuhoe tribe, is a consultant to the Maori Affairs Department. He first joined Maori Affairs in 1948 and served as the Rotorua District Maori Affairs Welfare Officer. Later he was the Maori centre research officer at the University of Waikato. An ex serviceman, Hoani has nine children.