The Maori Way of Life

Cue (NZERS), Issue 9, 15 October 1944, Page 9

The Maori Way of Life

New Zealand has ■ < / . often been complimented - . • on her ■ successful treatment of '/■ : her native./race— and. the Pakeha " as . rat her tended to plume himself on k* s Wilful handling of what other '.. k.. ? . nations have found so thorny a problem. •He tends to forget two things. The first -is ; that his native race is a much smaller ; proportion of the total population than .in other countries • where bitter feeling has ; grown ud between skins of a different colour.. • The second is that probably the Maori is entitled to even more' praise for his skilful handling of the Pakeha problem. /*• /' "• ’• '

(By

TT OW has . he -done this ? / (The •**- most outstanding / feature . of the relation between Maori and white ..-man,- when compared;, with that of other mixed populations, is the free ' and equal attitude of each to each. -There is no ..white sahib, no brown subservience. This ; is .so rare, in the /world that it is worth considering how it occurred. . ■. , The writers suggestion is that when the white man first came to (NZ- the Maori was living in coneditions by no means wholly savage. He had a' strong social organisation through hapu and Iwi to the tribe, based, on an aristocratic tradition, where birth and the heroic virtues, moral and physical courage, and skill with arms. and tongue, received due honour. . The Maori had also a high and strict moral code — a gentleman in the old sense of the word. He did occasionally eat his enemies, it is true, but in a strictly ceremonial manner.' In fact, the meal was a compliment to the defeated foe,, as it was thought that by such means the victim could acquire that foe’s good qualities. The native had many accomplishments beside the martial ones. His traditional art was rich and varied, his agriculture .was fairly developed, and he was no mean exponent of the art of liv-

ing.. Maori family life was generally happy, and, if : hard, had many lighter moments. Before the coming of the. Pakeha, the Maori was not progressive, but he was the inheritor of a traditional way of life which satisfied, as modern - life does not, both the emotional and the creative sides of. man's nature. The intellectual side was underdeveloped but in the absence of writing and under circumstances where the - mechanics. of getting a living .. demanded so-much time, that was not missed. In any case the Maori, as -Mr Justice Alpers . pointed out in Cheerful Yesterday, is a spiritual cousin of the Celt, and like the Celt it is unlikely -that he will ever be too keenly interested in the pursuit of that severe and naked lady • Truth, when he can often spin such delicate embroideries for the lady Romance out of his fertile and poetic brain. . . Mostly, the first whites the Maori met were whalers and beach-combers, men of no education, with foul tongues, diseased bodies and no discoverable morals. It can be imagined that the Maori formed no very high opinion of the Pakeha from early representatives. He did not feel inferior to. them, in spite of their guns, axes and hatchets. He accepted the iron age' but formed his own judgment on its messengers.'

Later he met better samples of the white race. But they arrived so gradually that the Maori, if he had to resign a first feeling of superiority, c e r t a i nly never acquired the opposite attitude. H e had to withdraw before the betterarmed immi g r a nts,

but: he withdrew proudly, never yielding his rights without a struggle, and ready to negotiate only on free and equal terms, as between one sovereign people and another. The Treaty of Waitangi, however incomplete, established the Maori right to be considered as an equal race and not a conquered savage.

And what of the modern situation ? The Maori has suffered much at the hands of the Pakeha. We brought new diseases which ravaged the race as new diseases always do. We bought land from chiefs who had no right to sell, and not all the disputes that these purchases caused have yet been settled, zWe 1 upset the Maori moral code and way of living and have not replaced it with one demonstrably more satisfactory.

We have given him the mixed blessings of modern civilisation, from dental caries* to aeroplanes, and we have had in return a free gift of the best blood of the Maori nation to help us in two wars to maintain the way of life that we have introduced. In that is the Pakeha’s great encouragement to hope 'that he has brought the Maori something worth having,

since he is ready to fight to retain it. ■

Today, after a hundred years bf living together, in various degrees of harmony, Maori and Pakeha still do not see eye to eye in all matters. The Pakeha tends to think the Maori lazy. The Maori very fairly retorts that the white man is often unnecessarily and fussily energetic. v .

The English wartime slogan «Is your journey necessary ? » if applied to many of our peacetime activities might considerably reduce them.. The Maori has never consented, as the white man has become the slave of the clock. And there is much to be said for his point of view. A little laziness has its place in the good life.

The American nation ■ has recently been discovering, somewhat excitedly, the beauties of relaxation and Mr Lin-Yu-Tang, who showed them the way, has reaped a rich harvest with his book on « The Importance of Living.» The Maori, like the Chinese philosopher, has never needed to read a book to learn that secret.

But, like most white races, the Pakeha can benefit from occasionally asking himself why he hastens to do this and that. Needless strain, the doctors say, is a potent poison. Millionaire dyspepsia is a disease that can affect even the moderately rich. It is not recorded that the Maori suffered from it overmuch. We can learn from him.

It can be said that in many ways both races have gained. We have in some respect made up for our gift of too-lethal weapons by <ITI . introducing . the Christian, ethic. We / have shown the lyHtol Maori an easier

way of . winning a living from , the land. If we intro-

duced new diseases

and dental troubles

we have also given

the benefits of mod-

orn medicine . and modern dentistry. And we have made an honest endeavour to give compensation for some of our ancestors’ doubtful deals in land. We have, learned in return to appreciate a rich, fertile culture, with poems and myths of great beauty. We have been shown a form of communal living that really worked and we still - have, in the Maori’s devotion to his family and his .tribe, an example which we might well follow. The Maori has shown ..-v that his magnificent qualities as a fighter have not degenerated, and has applied them in the service of the ideals we share with him, of freedom to live in the democratic way. Although most Maoris have some white blood, there is no sign that the characteristics of their race are dying out. And it would be

a great loss to the country if they did. No country, especially one a: L newly, settled as ours, can afford to neglect a culture with its roots so deep in the soil as the Maori. - > * ..; It is indeed a question whether schools should not devote much more time than they do to teaching what that culture has to give. No country can live indefinitely on an imported tradition and if we are to be New Zealanders in fact and not merely trans- ; planted Englishmen, the absorption of the best the Maori tradition has to give us might well form a starting point for a truly national development in art, music, literature.