The Education of Maori Women

Tu Tangata, Issue 10, 1 March 1983, Page 12

The Education of Maori Women

MATAURANGA/Education

Arapera Blank Tu mai ra, Nga kai-hautu, kai-tiaki. E ki ra! “He atua, he tangata"? He wahine, he tangata! Take your places, Leaders, guardians. Who says, “A god, a man"? A woman, a man!

When I look back on my childhood during the 1930 s and 40s in an isolated Maori village, I am sharply reminded of what makes the Maori, of my generation in particular, different from the Pakeha. Aspirations were different. Schooling was different. Goals were different. Upbringing was different. Families were large in comparison with the Pakeha’s. Incomes were too small. Everyone spoke Maori fluently. Each one of us knew who we were and was able to recite with ease our ancestral history, tribal affiliations, folklore and customs. Every parent appreciated having

girls in the family. Like their mothers, they assumed housekeeping responsibilities as soon as they were able. They looked after little brothers, big brothers and little sisters, and also worked on the farm and in the garden. Their brothers worked on the farm. Grandparents also contributed their share, but often moved from one household to another because other sons and daughters needed assistance.

The education, then, for girls, began in the home. My grandmother, for instance, taught me how to make bread, and how to cook a meal for twelve people. The cooking was never inspiring, but it was, at least, substantial. By the time girls had reached the age of eleven most could cook, wash and iron clothes, ride a horse, milk cows, plant kumaras, grow potatoes, and look after babies. At least they had responsibility.

On the whole, parents’ aspirations for girls didn’t advance much beyond their completing primary school, and getting married to someone who would provide a decent home, and who would not treat his wife too harshly. To gain academic success a girl depended on the sympathy and understanding of an exceptional parent, a teacher and other relatives in the community.

Some children were often absent from school because of ill-health they suffered from tuberculosis, ear and nose troubles and scabies. Sometimes they stayed at home because they had no presentable clothing, sometimes, because of the difficulty of coping with learning in the foreign language, English. I still remember some children who never uttered a word in class. Getting up in front of a class to give a morning talk must have been sheer agony. The same children would be most articulate in the playground or in the shelter shed on a Monday morning. Here they would give an animated summary in Maori of the Saturday night serial at the local cinema. Speaking Maori was forbidden at school so certain children were selected to watch out for teachers.

Success rate

I remember being reprimanded by a senior inspector for my observation that Maori children were more successful academically in boarding schools. He said to me, “Of course they would be! What is happening is that the cream of Maori potential is being siphoned off to these schools, and how can you expect the average teacher at a district high school to produce the same rate of success!” But this was only one of the reasons. If parents were struggling with getting a living, and ex-

pected chldren to make their contribution, how many academically bright children were going to succeed within the state system? How much harder would it be if the parents of these children felt inadequate about academic matters?

Have things changed for Maori girls today? What is important in their present education? How can Maori mothers exert a positive influence on their future?

The Department of Education statistics showing the probable destinations of those Maori girls who left school, from 1975 to 1980 reveal a gloomy trend.

Good housekeeping

When local district high schools were set up in the early forties, secondary education became more readily available, but its emphasis, for girls, seemed to be on good housekeeping. A model cottage featured largely, designed to give girls experience in the art of cooking and entertaining. Staff and students were usually invited to a delicious lunch, well laid out and served. Cleanliness and neatness were also stressed. In fact, such was the attention to health and hygiene, that every student had tooth-brush drill before lessons began.

The academic success of girls in external public examinations was sporadic to say the least partly because home study facilities were inadequate, but mainly because most of the girls were overworked at home. Enterprising teachers in district high schools, however, were often so dedicated to pushing students with potential through these examinations that it was not unusual for them to take such students into their own homes for coaching. One teacher told me that, a month before the School Certificate examinations, he would run every night from house to house, pick up his students and take them to school for a 2-hour coaching session. Another teacher gathered up his students at the weekends for tutoring.

Girls, like boys had a better chance of academic success in boarding schools. There were five of these for Maori girls two in Hawke’s Bay, one in Auckland, one in Marton and one in

Christchurch. I don’t think that the subjects offered at these boarding schools were any more attractive than those offered at district high schools. But the environment was different. It was constant, structured and secure secure because, although the girls were removed from strong kinship links and obligations, yet Maoritanga and a spiritual awareness of people and things were perpetuated. The figures showing the attainments of Maori girls in the public examination system, however, do show a little lightening of the gloom. Although the gap between the attainments of Maori girls and non-Maori girls is still wide, it has been closing since 1975. But the rate at which this is happening is still very slow. Attainments of Maori girl school leavers compared to those of non-Maori girl school leavers at three key levels from 1975-1980. Source: Research and Statistics Division, Department of Education. Results expressed in percentages. I have been teaching for twenty-five years. As a Maori, I am saddened by what is happening to our children in the city and now of the city. Since 1950 the Maori population has become mainly an urban dwelling people. For at least half of my teaching career I taught in isolated rural areas, and for at least half of my life so far, I was living in rural Maori society. It is very clear to me how different urban Maori society is from the one in which I was nurtured.

Maori, are going through a crucial period of adjustment in which parental responsibilities have been eroded. Some of our parents do not even know where their adolescent children are during the week-ends, and in extreme cases, some young people go missing for a week or more. At a Wananga conference in May, 1979, a Pacific Island visiting nurse told us rather apologetically that the most neglected homes she visited were Maori ones. 111-health is still too marked amongst our children. Too many are still going to school with lice in their hair, with ear, nose and throat troubles, and too many are absent from school. Are Maoris today such bad parents? The unacknowledged fact is that most mothers have to be second-income earners in order to meet the demands of urban living. To compound their problems, the extended family is not so readily available to assist them with the upbringing of their children. So their older daughters are now in the unenviable situation of having to cope with family responsibility alone. What contribution, therefore, can Maori mothers make? I believe that they will be able to raise the quality of their family lives only if they insist that their husbands share in the task of bringing up their children. For too long it has been accepted that the women alone have the responsibility for their children’s education and physical and spiritual well-being. What have the schools to contribute?

Here in the city of Auckland, we, the

Both Maoris and Pakehas share this problem of how best to educate girls. What does New Zealand society expect of its women? They are crucial in the establishment of attitudes. Does it want them to maintain and perpetuate cultural differences? Does it believe that a nation comprises only one culture or does it see different peoples existing as one nation? Can the Maori effectively cope with living in a bicultural, or a multicultural context? Can the Pakeha? If the answer to the last question is yes, then Maori society will survive intact, despite making many modifications to suit a now urban society. If the majority society, which is Pakeha, accepts that it can live with different cultural concepts and yet still be one nation, then it will allow a minority people to solve their problems in their own way. And if this becomes a part of the law of our country, schools will have to

offer diversified courses suited to the growing needs of the many-faceted sections of society. I think the way to provide this sort of education is by setting up alternative secondary schools. Expensive they may be, but for the future security of New Zealand, the cost would be infinitesimal. And if Maori girls and women are expected to contribute to a cohesive exciting society, but one which is also tolerant and humane, they must be given equal status with their men. They should not be destined to the drudgery and obscurity of house-keeping only, but should be made to feel confident in their ability to cope with the demands of an increasingly varied world.

Arapera Blank teaches at Glenfield College, Auckland.

1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 Total number of Maori girl school leavers 3430 3730 3727 4108 4308 4077 Further full-time education 236 239 275 324 339 481 Total number taking up professional and technical work, other trades and apprenticeships, sales, clerical work, etc. 2114 2208 2045 2061 1848 1518 (Numbers for professional and technical work are given in brackets) (31) (299) (223) (172) (180) (130) Destination unknown 1316 1522 1682 2047 2121 2078

* This figure probably represents a rise in the number of girls wishing to take up the opportunities which were offered in technical institutes and other tertiary institutions by, for example, the Department of Maori Affairs, vocational training courses, (Job Entry Courses), or by the Government’s Young Persons’ Training Programme schemes. This indicates a change in attitude, but there is still considerable reluctance among Maori girls to take full advantage of such training schemes as do exist today.

1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 Attainment Non- Maori Non- Maori Non- Maori Non- Maori Non- Maori Non- Maori Maori Maori Maori Maori Maori Maori University Entrance 19.22 3.67 18.81 3.81 20.79 4.64 19.97 4.55 19.89 4.92 21.15 6.28 School Certificate in 3 or more subjects 12.65 5.54 12.23 5.44 12.40 5.44 12.48 5.72 11.98 6.36 11.88 6.40 No attainment 28.88 67.96 28.44 66.57 26.14 65.87 24.81 65.29 25.13 61.30 24.02 61.12