Student Workcamp, Ahipara 1968 by Don Chapple A Pakeha travelling at 40 m.p.h. through a country Maori community, may look out of the window of his car and gather a mixed bag of impressions. He may see a few people—cultivating gardens or riding horses, hanging laundry on a line or sitting on front steps. He will notice a few things that set this community apart, as Maori: the people of course; a meeting-house, perhaps in semi-traditional style; few signs of wealth; many signs of making do with what is at hand or with what has ‘had its day’. The best houses will still be modest by Pakeha standards; the worst may rouse in him vague feelings of embarrassment, that vanish as he speeds on through the more prosperous Pakeha farmland. He will not have gained an inkling of what it means to be born and reared in such a community. For perhaps the majority of the 25 students who made up the ‘workcamp’ at Te Ohaki marae, Ahipara, in May 1968, their only previous experience of a country Maori community had been that of the Pakeha motorist. In one very full week, they realised how much they had not known, and could not have guessed, from the window of a car. In just one community, of the hundreds throughout New Zealand, the figures on horseback, the figures working or playing or sitting in the sun, became real people. People with names. People with problems—some of which were familiar to us, some new to us. People with skills we envied. People with pride and hope in their children. People with convictions. People with wit and humour—who would have replied to all this by saving, ‘What did you expect to find, Zombies?’ The very fact that this was an unusual experience for many of us is a silent commentary on the results of 150 years of Pakeha settlement. We have had, and still do have our own brand of ‘apartheid’ in New Zealand. Auckland Student Workcamp 1968 set out to ‘jump the fence’—to meet some people on the other side of the cultural ‘barrier’—to see ourselves, if possible, as others see us. Was our aim worthwhile? Was the venture a success? This account is one person's opinion in a field where each should speak for himself. The idea of workcamps is not new. After World War II in Europe, volunteers from all over the world gathered to help in the work of reconstruction. The workcamps had a dual purpose—to do a necessary job, and to provide an opportunity for people of different nationalities and cultures to work together and get to know one another. The Society of Friends (Quakers) have been prominent in the workcamp movement. In New Zealand, the first camps were, I believe, organised by individual Quakers, with the original aims in view. A series of such camps have been held since about 1963, in the Hokianga District. For several years the universities in New Zealand have also been holding workcamps. Auckland University students built a play centre at Herekino in 1965 and remodelled a building for the same purpose at Pukepoto in 1964. Although the work is important, it is becoming more and more evident that the social side—meeting people whom we would not normally have the opportunity to meet—is perhaps even more valuable, for us anyway. The Ahipara camp 1968 was organized by an anthropology graduate student, who had had experience at Herekino. Initial inquiries were made through the District Officer for Maori Affairs, Northland. Final arrangements were made through the Maori Welfare Officer in the Ahipara district. ‘Come, be our guests! Don't worry too much about work—you might find something. If not, just enjoy yourselves!’ This was the spirit of the invitation. Meanwhile, back at the university, a committee of five had been planning, advertising, recruiting, Dr P. Hohepa agreed to give us an introductory talk on matters of observance and etiquette on the marae. Finally, 25 students left Auckland for the far north—by car, by scooter and ‘by walk’—which meant hitchhiking. Arrival was