Is TE MAORI a recipe for respect?

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 2

Is TE MAORI a recipe for respect?

na Michael Romanos

HE RERENGA KORERO

Sciascia enthusiastically says while Te Maori is shown at Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland over the next 12 months or so “the earth will rumble.”

Sciascia who was the executive officer of the Te Maori management committee for four years (until 1985), said it is easier to love, respect, want and care for something or someone that you know about or have close and intimate knowledge of.

As the Te Maori exhibits were being unloaded in Wellington in preparation for their journey around New Zealand, I interviewed Piri Sciascia and Huirangi Waikerepuru, a tutor of Maori language in Wellington, on the value of Te Maori in relation to respect for the Maori people and their culture.

The environments of the two interviews were in stark contrast. Waikerepuru’s took place in the dilapidated, cold and bare pre-fab building the Government had “kindly” endowed to the School of Languages in Wellington some ten years ago. Maybe this is a sign of the current official attitude to maori culture. What chance has Te Maori got as a cultural influence here? But the Sciascia interview was staged in Piris well-appointed, relatively luxurious offices which are part of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council premises.

In speaking of the Maori feeling of Te Maori and the exhibition’s eminence in the United States where Te Maori lived for 18 months, Sciascia said Te Maori has restored to the Maori people their proper place next to their taonga. “Prior to Te Maori we had our taonga without the people to a large degree,” he said.

“For years the taonga have been apart from the people. Te Maori has brought the people back together in a number of ways. The taonga have received all the ceremony, prayer, song, dance and korero. Talked in a way they have never been talked about before. We brought them our aroha and in return we have received their love and the power of our ancestors because we have got close to them again.

“The taonga have scanned the world and received respect amongst foreign people. I would measure that on what the people overseas have done and will do. As a result of Te Maori the level of professionalism that the Americans

PIRI Sciascia, the director of MASPAC (Maori and South Pacific Arts Council) believes the ordinary Kiwi will treat his fellow brownskinned New Zealander with more respect following the art exhibition: Te Maori.

have brought to it has made Te Maori exhibition second to none.

They took the taonga to the top venues in the United States, alongside the treasures of ancient Rome and Egypt. The media coverage that we got could be measured as worth millions of dollars. The American media machine touches the world and certainly Te Maori has been requested by many countries.”

The 174 tribal objects lived at four venues in the USA - New York, St Louis, San Francisco and Chicago. Sciascia attended the opening ceremony in 1984 in New York and travelled back for the openings at St Louis and San Francisco and the closing ceremony in Chicago.

Sciascia said within the USA the profile of the New Zealand Maori is much greater now than it ever was in the art world.

“I don’t know how to measure the awareness of the Maori and their art preTe Maori, but I know there has been an upward-swing in the value of Maori art in the USA since Te Maori.

“Te Maori has created a bigger place for us to stand in the world - we can stand in the commercial world in a way we have never done before. Te Maori has created a focus of modern pieces of Maori art done in the traditional style and as well there is modern sculpture, weaving, painting, writing and pottery. All these forms of art will have greater commercial value. There are already some outlets.”

Waikerepuru said Te Maori is generating quite a bit of interest among Maori people but he says he doesn’t know if Te Maori has reached right across the board.

“Many of our people are unemployed and trying to survive and these people don’t have time to participate in this level of interaction,” he said.

“Certainly Te Maori has created a lot of interest in the USA and gained a lot of respect there, and of course the awareness that there are a group of people, the Maori people of Aotearoa.”

Waikerepuru said because of Te Maori he would like to be optimistic on the gains for the Maori people and optimistic that many changes will come within New Zealand through the recognition of the Maori people and what they have to offer.

“If in fact the United States has given the idea that these treasures must not be lost, then at home the maori language which is the expression of those treasures, must not be lost,” he said.

“Only if maori language can be recognised as an official language, able to be used anywhere, in any dealings with any State department, local and public bodies, and of course, Parliament, only then can I see that Te Maori has generated the respect it deserves.”

Waikerepuru said there are non-Maori people who show respect and have respect for the Maori people and aspects of maori culture, but this has not mate-

rialised in terms of a recognition through Government administration.

“I don’t think Te Maori will sway the administration. I would hope the exhibition will make the Government and the people of New Zealand realise the importance of restoring the language and maintaining and fostering the development of a bilingual society.

“The protocol relating to the various opening and closing ceremonies for each site of Te Maori has created a wider interest and awareness of that level of karakia and kawa rituals which are incantations of the tuturu (pre-Euro-pean) maori world. This is a very important part of maori oral literature.”

Sciascia also believes that the biggest respect for maori art is not what we have achieved overseas, but what we will achieve at home.

“It’s here we need the respect most,” says Sciascia. “We need to find a proper place. Art educators, art administrators, politicians, people of power all have an immense task to give maori art its proper place and greater recognition. Recognition of its primary, its first placing this is not granted here yet in our schools, museums, art organisations etc. Maori art belongs here and it goes back over 1,000 years. If it hasn’t got worth here, what is the use of talking about the worth-gain in the United States.

“The New Zealand people, both pakeha and Maori have gained a greater understanding about maori art and the Maori and I’m sure this will grow. It’s my task as an arts’ administrator to see this happen.”

Te Maori will finish on the 10 September, 1987 in Auckland - exactly three years to the day from the historical opening in New York.

Sciascia outlined how New Zealand will be involved with Te Maori on its four-city tour of this country.

“Firstly our people will be involved in various opening and closing ceremonies at each place. Each venue will have an 810 week programme of cultural and educational activities. These will be organised by local Maori committees set up in each venue along with the professionals of the museums and art galleries a sharing of admin power and decision making. People will feel closely the effects of Te Maori. There will be media coverage, teaching aids for schools and marae.

“A huge public relations exercise will be put into place for Te Maori. There will be tremendous participation by Maori and perhaps, pakeha cultural groups. Who knows, a cultural work may come out of all this, like ballet, modern dance, theatre.

“I’m absolutely certain New Zealanders generally will gain a respect for the Maori from Te Maori. It’s an important step of the increasing interest in Maori culture. The kind of effects I’m thinking of are long-term. I’m thinking of Kohanga Reo, school curriculum. Also I’m

talking about history, resource development, administrative change.”

Two to three hundred people, mainly Maori elders, and cultural groups tripped to the four American venues which housed Te Maori. Sciascia said the total American venue costs for Te Maori amounted to around $720,000 and funded jointly by the Maori Affairs Department, Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MASPAC, the Maori Trustee and the Maori Purposes Fund Board.

This funding covered accommodation, travel, administration and hosting.

Maori Affairs contributed $387,000 (approx.), Internal Affairs $72,000, Foreign Affairs $164,000, MASPAC $20,000, Maori Trustee $25,000 and Maori Fund Board $50,000.

Sciascia said in terms of cultural value and gain he considers this expen-

diture as a very modest exercise.

“The monetary costs is small in terms of the importance of Te Maori to us in our cultural growth. We should put 10 times that amount of money into our New Zealand Te Maori tour. The New Zealand segment has a 1.2 million dollar budget and as a major exercise this is an extremely modest expense particularly in comparison to the spending in other areas of the arts.

Bill Cooper, the current Te Maori executive officer said the major sponsor of the New Zealand tour is Mobil Oil who will give $250,000 towards costs. The Maori Affairs Dept, Internal Affairs and MASPAC/Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council will supply an equivalent amount of $250,000 to the project.

MASPAC and QEII Art Council are giving $50,000 each so Maori Affairs and Internal Affairs are jointly putting

up around $200,000. The difference between $500,000 and 1.2 million is anticipated to be derived from merchandising in the form of shops at each venue selling produce, and in corporate evenings which consist of groups and organisations booking time for private viewing combined with a function like a wine and cheese evening.

As a purely personal point of view, Te Maori is fine as an opening to maori art for the uninitiated but if one really wanted to make capital out of respect for maoridom perhaps the Government agencies like Maori affairs, MASPAC and private sponsors like Mobil Oil should be spending funds on Maori media, such as third channel contender Aotearoa Broadcasting Systems that would reflect Maori thinking and reaches at least the home of every New Zealander.