Dr Charles Royal (Te Ahukaramū)
Freelance Musician, Researcher, Teacher
The Pae Roa Lecture
Towards the New Indigeneity
The Tangata Whenua of Tomorrow
Te Ahukaramū
Charles Royal
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Contents
• Introduction
• Four themes of Māori history since the 19th
century
• Markers of the Contemporary Threshold
• Towards the New Indigeneity
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Introduction
• We are crossing an historical threshold
today
• Life is changing for us
• How can we make sense of this time and
place we find ourselves in?
• How can we prepare for the future?
• Review where we have been to determine
certain themes and trends
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Worldview Changes in
Māori Communities
• Arrival in Aotearoa and Te Wai Pounamu
– Different climate, resources, size of the
whenua, ‘gods’ in the world
• Arrival of Europeans
– New technologies, fundamentally different
worldview, God outside of the world, the world
is at our disposal
• 21st century?
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Four Themes of Māori History
since the 19th century
•
•
•
•
The Search for Survival
The Quest for Social Justice
The Desire for Cultural Revitalisation
The Achievement of Creative Potential
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Creative Potential
• Has been coming to conscious articulation
for some time
• Motivated by what we have, our
possibilities, rather than what we have lost
• Ultimately about mana
• Creative potential include Survival, Social
Justice, Cultural Revitalisation
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Mana:
Creative
Potential
Social
Justice
Cultural
Revitalisation
Survival
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A New Threshold in History
• We are crossing an historical threshold now
• It is as significant as when our Polynesian
ancestors arrived here in Aotearoa and when
our European ancestors arrived
• Some of our historical concerns will continue
• New issues, problems and opportunities will
arise
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Markers of the Threshold:
Internal
• Treaty settlements
– Diminishment of historical grievance
(contemporary concerns are another matter)
– Increased capacity/capability/confidence to
manage our affairs, to plan for a future
• Population dynamics
– Majority are young
• Cultural dynamics
– Increased ability and confidence with expressing
distinctive identity viz a viz rest of country
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Markers of the Threshold:
External
•
•
•
•
Post 9/11 world
The end of God?
Infinity of space and time
Increasingly globalised world
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Into The Future
• Future will be influenced by both internal
and external forces
• Settlements need to achieve more than
just increased participation in existing
structures and activities
• What can we, as Māori, bring to life that is
distinctive to us?
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Into the Future
• We have:
– Created Māori broadcasting, tourism, education,
businesses
– Increased our involvement in conventional
sectors of the economy e.g. fishing, forestry,
agriculture
– Reinvigorated the collectively owned economy
– Significant institutions such as the Kīngitanga,
Rātana Church etc
• But what is all this for? What are we trying to
achieve?
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Towards the New Indigeneity:
Internal
• What lies at the heart of our distinctive
knowledge?
• A kinship based relationship with natural
world environments
• Ultimately, this is what our reo, our
tikanga, our history, our culture is based
upon and seeks to advance
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Towards the New Indigeneity:
External
• Disconnection between humans and natural
world environments
• ‘Distance’ now exists between human
consciousness and the natural world
• Superiority of humans to natural order has
brought about unsustainable costs
• We have to recalibrate human culture, society
and economy in ways that are mutually
enhancing of the planet
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Reimagining Human Existence
• Beyond merely being ‘green’, being ‘nice’
to the planet
• A fundamental understanding and
acknowledgement that our destiny is
inextricably connected with the destiny of
the planet
• Indigenous position – a kinship based
relationship with Papatuanuku, the earth
is our mother
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Tino rangatiratanga and the
collective, inter-generational economy
• Tino rangatiratanga should continue to
provide alternative critique/view to
Kāwanatanga
• Collective inter-generational economy is
an opportunity to explore this new
indigeneity, to give effect to it
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Features
• Regional ‘ground up’ approach
• Human health and wellbeing is relative to
the health and wellbeing of whenua
• Updating our existing tangata whenua
rituals
• Creating new rituals and experiences
• Mana, mauri and wellbeing indicators
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