Woman to woman talk across cultures

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 64

Woman to woman talk across cultures

IKAROA Maori Women’s Welfare League branch was the only New Zealand group to show solidarity with their sister peace activists in the United States.

T" he occasion was a woman’s ‘Peace Caravan’ which recently travelled across the States, informing Americans about peace. The group organising the caravan advertised in New Zealand for women willing to explain New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance.

Ikaroa responded and duly fundraised for executive member, Mrs Pauline Tangiora to travel. The pace was hectic with only a couple of months to prepare. Pauline said she boned up on official government statements on antinuclear policy so that she could be clear and precise in setting out the New Zealand case.

She also said she didn’t want to be used as a political football, rather present the views of New Zealand through the eyes of the League.

Some Americans found this hard to take said Pauline, that ordinary people could have such an understanding with a government, but also remain their own person.

Pauline said being a Maori woman was a great bonus for her because it gave her the identity base needed to be convincing.

And Pauline felt she had to be convincing because the majority of the men and women she spoke to were unaware of why New Zealand had chosen not to be a part of a nuclear ANZUS defence agreement.

They tended to believe whatever their media told them about this little country in the Pacific thumbing its nose at Uncle Sam. Fired up speeches by politicians were what they got most of their information from.

However she found that there was a significant number of people pleased with the New Zealand stance and were angry that America was bullying a smaller country.

They were aware of the pressure put on New Zealand and had gained this knowledge from personal letters to friends in NZ and contact with peace groups. The ‘Peace Caravan’ turned out to be just that, and not even a well maintained one at that said Pauline.

speaking engagements and opportunities to put the New Zealand and maori women’s viewpoint. In twenty eight days, Pauline Tangiora addressed over seventy meetings. She said radio talkback was one avenue that really got feedback and many people came to meetings through hearing about it on the radio. In fact she was able to aid the American Indian Big Mountain people who faced relocation from their ancestral lands in Arizona. On one Washington radio talkback she mentioned a coming land hui several States away. At the hui she found some people who’d heard the news and came. She was also honoured by the Piscat-

away Indian people just out of Washington by being asked to a Spring Festival earth-turning ceremony. Her status as a grandmother was also acknowledged by her being asked to bless a new-born baby. Pauline said grandmothers are the backbone of the Indian nation and chiefs are very respectful of their wishes if they want to stay chiefs.

This trip was the second time for Mrs Tangiora in the States. She and her husband, John had visited with the opening of Te Maori in San Francisco. She felt that Te Maori had shown the Maori people as a living and dignified people. However on this latest peace trip she found that some Americans still saw the Maori people as ‘singers and beautiful dancers.’ She says this image is still around partly because of the type of publicity New Zealand gets in the States, and partly because of the New Zealanders who go on official business to the States carrying a poor sense of their South Pacific identity.

Its owner, Theresa Fitzgibbons of Feminist International for Food and Peace wasn’t particularly organised for the whistle-stop tour of the States and this necessitated stopping at regular truck-stops to relieve and provision. Pauline said the caravan generated a lot of attention and the peace message really got across.

Whatever the organisation, said Pauline, there were more than enough

She says these people do New Zealand a diservice.

By the end of her State-hopping tour Pauline said she and her American companion, Theresa, had met many American men and women with the international message of peace. She felt she had also shown her American sister that feminism had much wider cultural applications. She said Theresa found it hard to accept that Pauline felt upset that her husband, John, was not permitted to come on the ‘Peace Caravan’.

Pauline explained that “all traditional Maori values make me a feminist, me as a mother, me as a supporter of my husband.”

Pauline said American men seemed very chauvinistic and women spent a lot of time in each others company.

The only sour note in all of this was that the government administration back in the land of the kiwi, that probably benefited considerably from this grass-roots plug, proved unwilling to meet some of the trips costs.

It seems at a time when the term ‘cultural ambassador’ can be momentarily linked with poets like Sam Hunt and dance groups such as Limbs, that the tangata whenua still have to pay their own way, or else join a song and dance troupe.