THE MAORI & THE MEDIA

Kaea, Issue 5, 1 February 1981, Page 6

THE MAORI & THE MEDIA

Two important hui reviewed by Pakeha mediamen

RADIO

On Friday, 26 September 1980, some sixty-odd RNZ broadcasters from the central regions of New Zealand (all those stations with 2 in their call signs) and Head Office, together with their families, assembled at the Raukawa Marae at Otaki. Led by Beverley Wakem, RNZ Controller of Programmes, with Haare Williams and Wiremu Kerekere from RNZ’s Te Reo O Aotearoa Unit, radio broadcasters experienced the effects of Maoritanga during the following two days and two nights. For most people it was their first time on a marae.

The main centre for our activities was in the wharenui, where we all slept, worked and debated. Whata Winiata (a board member of the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand) introduced his fascinating “Whakatupuranga Rua Mano Generation 2000”, an experiment in tribal development, and a preparation for the 21st Century. Then there was Wiremu Parker, who kept us enthralled with his expose on the Maori language: the uses and abuses it suffers; his concern for the declining standards in pronunciation and the too few of the younger generation who have an interest in keeping Maori as a living language. And how did the weekend affect the broadcasters?

Lindsay Rogers from Special Projects: “What is lacking from our own culture from the Western materialist culture can be found there, and I think it’s a great shame that both Maori and Pakeha young people don’t see this.”

David Somerset from Children’s Programmes: “I suppose of all the tens of thousands of words that were spoken during the weekend, the one word that sticks in my mind like a fish hook was spoken by Whata Winiata. The word was “desperate”. He used it to describe the position of the Ngati Raukawa, Te Atiawa and Ngati Toa tribes of that particular coast of Wellington. It’s quite clearly going to take the kind of energy that Whata was putting into our weekend, from everybody, to alter things so that the Maori language and the Maori culture do not disappear over the horizon forever.” It is not the custom for women to speak on the Raukawa Marae, but so highly did the elders feel about the presence of Beverley Wakem as the manuhiri tuarangi, they honoured the occasion by allowing her to respond from the porch of the wharenui during the poroporoaki.

In collecting her thoughts the following week, Beverley said: “I’d never actually lived on a marae on a weekend like this and become totally immersed in the Maori way, and I found it an incredibly moving experience. There was the order imposed on the weekend by the protocol and then the

immense spirituality that lay behind everything that was said and done right through to the end when we, as a gesture to the marae, presented and planted two totara trees as a lasting symbol of what we felt we had accomplished over the weekend.

“As the weekend progressed with the exchange of ideas and the exchange of concerns, we came a lot closer to an understanding of the Maori people, their culture, language and the respect that it should be accorded.

“For us as broadcasters, the insights that we got will help us in very many ways as we go about our work certainly in terms of when we approach subjects of concern to the Maori people and when we come on to the marae in the course of our duties. A number of people have said to me in various ways, ‘this weekend really has changed our lives’. I don’t think that is an exaggeration to describe what I feel. I have gained a great deal from it in terms of knowledge and the wisdom that was shared with us and I know that it’s certainly going to make me a great deal more sensitive to these matters in the future.”

In honouring Beverley, one elder, with great feeling, gave her what he regarded as the ultimate compliment you were a man ...”

As a direct result of RNZ’s association, increasing care and attention is being paid to the pronunciation of Maori words and place names by announcers and air personalities as well it has hastened the organisation of two half-day RNZ hui for those staff at the Dominion Weather Office who are concerned with the reading of the network weather forecasts on the National Programme. It is hoped they too main gain some of what we in Radio New Zealand gained.

JOHN JOYCE

TELEVISION

The feelings of the Pakeha at the welcome on to the marae are very muddled. At Ngatokowaru it’s a cold Friday evening and the wooden seats are hard. The speeches are long and twice as long because every one from your side is matched by one from the other. You understand hardly a word only gestures and moods. But you do understand that somewhere among all those foreign words you do feature. From dusk through to black night time you sit there. The sun has long set behind the tangata whenua and has been replaced by the warm bright lights of the porch of the meeting

house. An hour passes, an hour and a half. The shock of the setting and the unfamiliar language begin to distract from the time. A growing feeling between the visitors and the hosts begins to take hold of you.

Later a young Maori tells me that he thinks this is an unnecessary affront to uninitiated Pakehas, that it could all have been done much more quickly and comfortably. I disagree. I think the shock is necessary to bring everyone back a step or two from the everyday world to a common starting point.

The starting point, once we’ve got oursevles bedded down and well fed, is a hundred meetings with people from all over New Zealand, encounters over the pillow with the head nearest to your own sleeping place on the floor. But soon, because of our late arival, we sleep under the embracing ribs of Ngatokowaru, many of us not sure why we came or what we want of this weekend.

Saturday morning: we talk not about television but about Ngatokowaru. Martin Winiata describes the traditions of the marae. The carvings on the walls are described by the man who carved them, Martin’s brother Hapai. The emphasis is on the spirit and the spirituality of the place. For many of us a gradual slowing down into another rhythm is taking place and we feel stirrings of a deeper understanding of what it is to be Maori.

But there are those who think we are wasting our time. We should instead be talking straight away about how the Maori-television relationship should be improved. Others of us disagree. Before we can talk about changes in television involving the Maori we need to know and feel something of the culture we are talking about. The business should come later.

It does. A battery of proposals already discussed by a number of television personnel is offered to the gathering. For example a daily Five-minute Maori news bulletin, the appointment of a Maori liaison officer at television centres, improvements in the scheduling of Maori related programmes, the possible establishment of marae at the main television stations. Other ideas the recruitment of more Maori into television, more money so that more dramas involving Maori can be produced.

There is a chilling change in the atmosphere when one young Maori gets up to introduce matters of urgent concern to Maori people. According to older people present he has spoken out of turn. He is interrupted whilst still on the floor. He stands aside, bowing to marae protocol. The Pakeha understand not the words but, very clearly, the mood. That, at least, is an advance.

Later another young Maori questions the value of a hui such as this. What are such hui achieving, he asks. We have had three now and what have we got to show for them? Again some of us disagree. There are more Maori related programmes, if badly scheduled. There has been more Maori drama. But most important, those of us television workers who had not been on a marae before are at last beginning to understand.

And yet this young Maori does have a point. A lot more should be happening by now. Like recognising and accepting in television that the Maori is more than another special interest group. That the Maori is the major minority group of the New Zealand population. That the Maori needs to have a more representative slice of the television cake. That the Maori culture is dependent for its survival on the survival and regular use of the Maori language. A language that is used keeps the culture it articulates alive. A language that is not used takes the culture it articulates with it into the museums. At present television, the most powerful communicator, does not use the Maori language. It relegates it to the status of an annual ornament.

The problems facing the Maori people outside the protective walls of Avalon cannot be resolved until this most powerful machine shows that it accepts the Maori segment of its audience as a segment that should be given the dignity of proper representation and access.

One or two people left the hui before it ended because they felt it was not achieving enough quickly enough. Most came away exhilarated by new-found meanings of Maoridom, warmed by the hospitality of the people of Ngatokowaru, and rather disturbed by how much they discovered needs to be done.

HUGO MANSON