What is Maori Culture Today?

Tu Tangata, Issue 8, 1 October 1982, Page 27

What is Maori Culture Today?

Ath form winners

If I had a brainstorm right now, using ‘Maori Culture’, I would receive words like language, carvings, songs, traditions, beliefs and customs. And to me that would be the meaning of Maori culture. It is the way in which you do things, it is what you believe in. Culture is people and language. It is a way of life.

Today, many of us who are Maori don’t really know and understand Maori culture as we should. I think that this is because we have been brought up as Europeans in a European society. I have nothing against Europeans but

sometimes deep inside your heart, there is a part of you that wants to live like a real Maori. I don’t mean, going primitive, but being able to understand your people and to help them, to be able to feel that you are a part of them and they are a part of you and be able to sing a Maori song and understand what you are singing.

I think this is why, so many people, especially young Maori people are returning back to their tribes, their lands and their maraes.

Many young teenagers are learning Maori in School. Here they are taught about life in the past and life today, how to cook a hangi and make a kit, how to swing a poi and sing a song. Things that seem so simple but are so relevant to Maori culture.

This is what Maori culture is today. It is learning to understand your people, to respect them, to feel at home in gatherings. It is living for today and knowing that what you are living for was also a part of the culture of your ancestors.

Sharon Cruickshank

Whangarei Girls High School

Form 4