THE FUTURE PLACE OF MAORI CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY A POINT OF VIEW — BY JAMES RITCHIE

LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON THERE ARE two good reasons why this paper is likely to promote discussion. The first is that within the title-topic there are three concepts whose meaning varies greatly according to who happens to be using them. The second talking point will no doubt arise from the fact that I am non-Maori and am being bold (or foolish) enough to step into a field where emotions and good sense do not always go hand in hand. To deal with the latter aspect first, this paper will mainly raise questions. I would answer them one way—you might answer them another. This is a working paper, not an attempt to lay down rules, present unassailable evidence or preach conversion to some new orthodoxy. Some of the questions which occupied my mind as I prepared this paper I will list right away. You might think about them before you go on with the analytic discussion which follows. What is Maori culture? How would one set about describing it? Is it a unitary matter or are there several kinds or types or components? If there are several components, which are essential and which not? How is this culture communicated? By whom? When? Where? Why? In these communication processes, what is the role of élites? Of parents? Of schools? Of the ordinary man? Of you? What does this culture do for those who possess it, or live by it, or have an interest in it? What might it do that it does not now do? Is it changing? How? Who is changing it? Why? In what ways does a comparison with the state of the culture 20 years ago suggest possible trends, processes, developments? Is change always in the directions which people consciously desire? If not, why not? These then are some questions which must concern those who have an interest in Maori culture. I do not profess to answer them; merely to illuminate them. It might at first seem that there are only three words in the title of this paper on which we are likely to reach general agreement concerning meaning, use, and function—‘the’, ‘of’, and ‘in’. In the discussion which follows, I will not be concerned with ultimate future (whatever that might mean), with questions of assimilation or