Maia Maori development centre
PRESENTER: Nina Pelling
What is biculturalism?
What are the issues of biculturalism in Aotearoa
NZ ?
Outline the debate between biculturalism and
multiculturalism
Biculturalism implies the existence of two distinct
cultural groups, usually of unequal status and
power, within a society united by one economic
and political structure. Bicultural individuals
identify with core elements of their own culture
as well as the dominant culture.
•
Bicultural individuals successfully integrate
themselves into aspects of both cultures,
values, and belief systems.
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Recognition of tangata whenua status of
Aotearoa NZ
Set up to remedy the total disregard of TW
rights by successive governments
Came to light because of what was happening
internationally to indigenous rights around the
world
Response to a growing Maori political
assertiveness during the 1970s and 1980s
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Biculturalism became a philosophical
framework for policy development across the
public sector.
Challenged the we are all one people and we
all live in racial harmony in NZ ideologies
Biculturalism is a way of talking with the
Crown and helps mediate between
assimilation and self determination which had
been the main competing paradigms in Maori
relations since the signing of Te Tiriti o
Waitangi
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Appeasement
Expurgation
Assimilation
Termination
Domestication
Integration
Cultural difference
Multiculturalism
Biculturalism
Self Determination
Toi te kupu, Toi te mana, Toi te whenua
The language lives, the mana is great, the nation is
strengthened.
Mason Durie 1998
Biculturalism in New Zealand means to many
people, giving particular prominence to two main
cultures and traditions: Māori culture and the
English-speaking Pākehā culture. It stresses the
unique position of Māori as the country's
indigenous people and as signatories to the Treaty
of Waitangi, and also the role of European culture stemming from the British Crown with whom the
Treaty was made (Te Iho)
HIGH
HIGH
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
E
Pakeha
Common ground
LOW
Bicultural interface
(Nakata, M 2008)
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
E
Maori
LOW
value
meaning
principle
Rangatiratanga
Authority/Responsibility
Māori have authority over Māori
dimensions
Wakaritenga
Legitimacy
each partner has a legitimate right to be
here, to speak freely
Kaitiakitanga
guardianship
clarify responsibility for guardianship
Mahi kotahitanga
co-operation
spirit of generosity and co-operation
ngakau mahaaki
respect
value each partners heritage, customs,
current needs and future aspirations
I do not want to play down the fact that the
universities have produced some of our most
strident activists and a number of dissenting voices.
In fact the universities are often the place where
Maori students can first begin to learn Maori
language and history. Also, there do exist within
the universities (too few) radical educators who are
concerned with creating strategies of resistance,
liberation struggles and strategies for ‘decolonising
minds (Smith,C.W. 1994 cited Pihama 2001:47).
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issue of a continuing inability to work with
difference? (Trinh Minh-ha 1999)
Multiculturalism has been used in many
western context to set marginalised people
against each other so to avoid the specific
issues of each group.
Homongenisation of diverse cultural people
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Multiculturalism masks prejudice. It can
reinforce perceptions of Maori as a
disadvantaged ethnic minority, yet no different
from any other group who is located outside
the cultural mainstream (O’ Sullivan,D 2007)
In NZ multiculturalism serves as a means to
avoid or deny the urgency of the Maori
struggle for tino rangatiratanga (self –
determination)
Social implications of
Unitec’s marae
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The marae is a place for people
gather . At Unitec, the marae is
also a place to learn and
acknowledge diversity
amongst people
The marae is a place to
celebrate cultural identity
The marae creates space to be
Maori
The marae strengthens
students and staff
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E to Matou Matua arr. Philippa Jones |
Bellissimo, Whangaparaoa College