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)