Bumpy road to a 'multicultural' New Zealand
Bumpy road to a 'multicultural' New Zealand
JAKARTA (JP): It was a sunny, but puzzling May morning at the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. Signs pointed toward the main entry, but other notices declared the site was closed due to "inconvenience". Behind the gate were two big women in old jackets. One asked, "I'm Double, she's Trouble -- are you for our cause or for tourism?"
"Well, both," I said, thinking this was part of the show.
The Japanese tourists descending from coaches, however, were quickly ushered the other way, maybe only catching a glimpse of the red and black posters, one of which read "Maori land -- not for sale".
'Trouble' led me to a traditional Maori meeting house, a maere, though of new construction and carpeted. She whispered instructions on meeting their leader. Things began to look serious. The story, conveyed after a solemn welcome address in the Maori tongue, was that the site had been occupied by 150 Maori (most were now at work) since April 3.
Ironically, the protest was against the management of the Arts and Crafts Institute, a non-profit organization aiming to preserve Maori heritage.
"Reliable sources tell us Japanese investors are about to buy this property," said Tuhipo Kereopa, a family therapist. However, the institute's public relations officer, Patrick Tamati, said he did not know where these "rumors" came from.
The protesters insist the occupation is merely the "beginning" of a larger movement to gain their "intellectual and property rights". New Zealand's white majority, they say, have long gained from selling Maori culture, besides taking their land unfairly.
Visitors to the island nation are told that "New Zealand is proud of its Maori heritage" but Kereopa points to poor health, unemployment and poor education among the Maori.
The Maori make up 12 percent of New Zealand's population of 3.5 million and, at about 500,000, are the largest minority among Polynesians and an increasing number of Asians.
Similar protests, though reportedly uncoordinated, were occurring at other places.
A radical Maori group enraged Prime Minister J.B. Bolger at an Auckland demonstration against the Asian Development Bank conference when they threatened "terrorist" attacks if the government continued to ignore them.
Education
But is all this really new? "With better education we're catching up and starting to claim our rights, and the whites don't like it," said 'Trouble.'
The May edition of Auckland's Metro magazine also reports on new radicalism speared by educated urban Maori. In the 1970s, the report states, "Maori discontent re-emerged after a strange silence..." attributed to "a lack of understanding by largely uneducated Maoris."
Things cooled down after many placed their hope in the Waitangi Tribunal, set up to address claims. But a lecturer on Maori issues says Maori are angry now that the government has not acted on the recommendations from the Tribunal, such as educational programs.
Whites are also grumbling. In response to an article on the Maori issue earlier this year in The Jakarta Post, a letter from an Auckland resident stated that Maori are too lazy to work, drink too much and occupy 40 percent of jail space. Also, compared to a European student in law and medicine who needs A+ to be promoted to the next year, "a Maori student only needs C+," wrote Paul A. Medhurst.
In Otara, Auckland's low income housing area, a single mother of four admits many are not enthusiastic about finding jobs, because hard work brings little monetary difference to the dole.
"It's quite tough," says Ronga Goodwin of a weekly NZ$185 (Rp 274,734) in government support she gets for her family. Another Auckland resident said feeding a family of four costs about NZ$150 per week.
When the children are older, Goodwin plans to take a management accounting course. Because the cropping up of businesses looks promising, she said.
The tension between the pakeha (whites) and the Maori is a central problem that both sides are working to correct. It seems a never ending journey given the divisive views on what has been, or has not been, achieved.
A start seems to be the shift away from Europe, the ancestral homeland of New Zealand's majority, and the people's increasing need to embrace the indigenous -- the use of Maori terms alongside English in publications is one sign.
Royalty is reserved to the country's formal status in the realm of the Commonwealth. As a further sign of past regrets, peace activists say New Zealand should apologize to Vietnam for its role in the Vietnam war, as the country was just tailing Europe and the United States.
The 1993 agreement in which Maori were granted compensation in their main livelihood, fisheries, was hailed as a spectacular step in realizing the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. The document contains the respective rights of the 'Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand' and the Queen of England regarding land and other property.
Debates continue over the interpretations and validity of the treaty.
Meanwhile, still in Rotorua and a few minutes away from the occupation of the Institute, the Family Dancers represent a more compromising stance.
After enrapturing mostly Asian tourists with their nightly, but vibrant concert, group leader Maureen heads home to rest for another day of trying to train Maori school drop-outs in the lucrative tourism industry. "It's hard, we only have 26 weeks to work with them," she says.
The drop-outs are mainly from homes where both parents must work, says the managing director of the training center, and the fact that the youngsters are mainly Maori "goes back a long way."
Up north in Auckland, a bartender blurts out, "Multicultural? That's bullshit."
Lucia, working on the ferry from Devonport to the Ferry Building, is a physics major and is of Mangere descent, another Polynesian minority.
She blames both whites and Polynesians for the social gap. "Multicultural is when we can comfortably visit our white friends' homes, but people still keep to themselves."
Regarding education, she knows she is lucky and hopes to get a job relevant to her training. "Most Polynesians have skills for jobs which are no longer here," she says referring to changes in technology which many cannot keep up with. She credits her parents' spending habits for her schooling.
Polynesians, she says, should adapt more to modern New Zealand. "Once they get money they send so much home, especially for funerals, that they are left with nothing for meals and rent," says Lucia.
"Then they have to live in dreadful government housing like in Otara."
It turned out that the place, although revealing the gap between the elite housing overlooking the bay, doesn't come close to "dreadful" housing in Jakarta. The white cab driver, Alan, said it has changed a lot in the last few years.
Houses and cars without smashed windows, and the absence of drunken, brawling men, proves that the police task force set up to curb violence in the 1970s has been effective, says Alan. "Maybe racist, but necessary," he reflects. "This is a nice surprise, they must have adapted. Back then they were pop-eyed after coming straight from villages."
Remnants of violence exist in Otara's shopping area, where heavy rolling doors and padlocks are a must. "We're always having trouble with the boys, one took a whole tray the last time," says a Chinese bakery owner.
In The Best of New Zealand, a book provided in some hotels, the writers acknowledge that the "dynamic" search for a new identity includes more hard work on improving relations with minorities.
A boat rower on a the Avon, a river evoking William Shakespeare's' birthplace in the England-style town of Christchurch in Canterbury, south New Zealand, told of his own view.
"Relations will only improve with the settlement of land claims," is the surprising statement from the calm John Davis. He had just said he approves of maintaining the English characteristic of Christchurch no matter how multicultural New Zealand gets -- it is the main selling point for tourists.
Perhaps his empathy to the Maori has something to do with his majoring in Southeast Asian politics.
But Davis has a personal stake. "My mother is half Maori," he says. His Caucasian features reflect that successive inter- marriages alone do not guarantee integration of minorities into the white society.
The Maori already understand the pakeha, they would like it to be reciprocal. (anr)