maori in NZ

wow where to start...

Ok first of all i am a pakeha....a white NZer with a heritage from europe but many many generations in NZ!

I grew up with my first school and kindy in middle of otara! then at a school where I lived a few streets from the recent liquor store murder. We were raised in that school being taught about culture without over thinking it....I recall maori poi and sticks and songs...and i embraced it as it was part of my life teachings at school....

I then went onto grammar and private schooling....one school had me take three languages...latin (dead? or the basis for our engligh language?), french and german...with a marae built in the middle of the school when i left and a huge focus now on maari language and total immersion....
my other school a near "white" private institution where maori may have been an option but i wasnt aware of it....so Im not suprised at the attitude of lizzles kids at that school.....ive been at a school like that years ago....

In life we make decisions....in mine i have been enlightened by what was taught to me about maori language etc and it was not forced down my throat, and i chose not to take maori as an option at school...society around me has shown me MANY sides of maori and NZers in general...each day I work with many cultures in sth auckland so I know that what the media is portraying is not a maori problem only..i do think some schools are going overboard and ignoring the other cultures they have present...heck what did folk dancing have to do with my culture when i was at primary school????

I do not agree maori language learning should be compulsory. Im not overly offended at maori being spoken to my 16 month old at times at DC....she will choose in time what to take on board....but i will not let just one language be forced upon her - we will be choosing schools with varying curriculums for her to attend.

what offends me as a NZer is the way maori and our NZ culture is protrayed overseas at times - and i recall being overly offended by a display in the washington museum years ago where they mixed up maori and tongan traditions and passed them off as NZ ones!!!!! we have naive people in NZ but we have to recognise that outside NZ maori language and cutlure does not exist as we would like it to....if it did maybe we would be learning the pidgeon tongue of the solomon islands or the native american indian tongues too?

phew....ok just my two cents....


Edited by Bombshell

interesting reading, and very sad that school age kids have that point of view - I would have hoped things would have moved on. It says to me that their parents attitudes are influencing them, and their negative attitude is due to a complete lack of teaching of NZ history in school.

If more people had this history lesson they would realise that any policies to increase Maori access to healthcare or education etc are there to help decrease the level of inequality in our society - inequality that was created by us whities coming here and pinching all the land and making many Maori dependant on the govt for housing etc -

I could go on... and on.....