Haare Williams

Tu Tangata, Issue 33, 1 December 1986, Page 14

Haare Williams

by Shane Cave Shane Cave is a feature writer for the Listener.

Working within the system

Radio New Zealand’s Maori service exists in a sort of twilight world without an outlet of its own, obliged to supply programmes to the YA network to which virtually no Maoris listen. The man responsible for running the Maori and Pacific Islands unit, “Te Reo O Aotearoa, Haare Williams, is well aware that he is viewed by some of his people as, in his words, the token Maori m broadcasting, the lackey of the Broadcasting Corporation. Nevertheless, because he manages Te Reo, it is his views and ideas which colour much of the detail of the Radio X t , v i a , r o lv/fo™ r, dio network He firmly believes that working on the inside of “the system” is the best way of actually getting things done. “If I have to be those things to get this network going, then let it be. I think the results . . . will be compelling testimony that the decisions were made in the interests of the Maori people.” It is clear that while the Broadcasting Corporation is determined that the Maori radio network be run by a board chosen by Maoridom, the network will

be a creature of the BCNZ, in less of a twilight world than Te Reo but still with a foot in both worlds. This is a reflection both of the Pakehas who run the BCNZ, and of Haare Williams who throughout his 49 years has seen both worlds from close up. He grew up in a world where Maori was crystal clear to him. Living with his grandparents on the shores of Ohiwa harbour between Opotiki and Whakatane, Williams says he was imbued with the spirit of Te Kooti, a childhood hero clearly different from the heroes of his primary school peers. . . ~ For the Pakehas he was at school with 11 was R°bm Hood and King Arthur who were the heroes, while Te Kooti was a vagabond and liar. Being Ringatu was a source of embarrassment. Says Williams, “The shame that was attached to not being at school on the 12th of each month or being away on the first of other months . . . those factors were a crucial part of the formative shaping of the world of heroes.” While his early schooling set up a tension with his Maoriness, taha Maori was still strong. He was fluent in Maori and

read the bible in Maori by the time he was seven. Complementing this was a love of English literature, kindled at school, which has never died. As Williams went through the school system, school certificate and teachers college, he says his Maori side got “put 0 n the back burner a bit.” He went primary teaching in Tauranga, on the western side of Lake Taupo and Matauri Bay in Northland. There was some contact with things Maori at this time but it was not until he had lectured at Ardmore Teachers College and collected a university degree that he rrmlH rh „ n( ,p Hirertion could change direction, A job at Waikato University’s Maori studies Department brought him into contact with people like Ngoi Pewhairangi, Eruera Stirling and Pine Taiapa, important contacts in his efforts to gain acceptance for a Maori radio network. My Maori credentials arent weak. I use those and I use my professional credentials and my cultural and academ'c credentials to get it off the ground. Getting the radio network off the ground will not be easy, however, with

many obstacles still be be overcome. Williams sees threats to the network ranging from a change of Government undermining the commitment of the BCNZ to such a proposal, to the disparity in the wants of Maori people.

Conflict in Maoridom over how the system should be funded and owned has caught Haare Williams firmly in the middle, with the BCNZ on one side and many Maori people on the other. There is also the possibility of public resentment of the BCNZ handing over its money to a Maori organisation under its wing. This too could stifle Williams’ hopes, he says.

Williams is already planning for the advent of the new network, although is anxious to avoid being seen as an empire builder. Programming, he says, should be the responsibility of the board set up to run the network. When pressed however he does have some ideas on what the network will sound like.

Firstly there is the vital question of the language. Its use will be determined by the sort of programme and the time of day in question. For example, the all important money spinning brealdast session will be a mixture of Maori and English, with Maori increasing as the day progresses. The afternoons and evenings would devote more time to the younger Maori listener, and Williams envisages giving the network over to young people at least one evening a week. Sundays would, he hopes, be devoted to taha wairua, not just Christian church services but also to tangi, discussion of the value people place on land and the conservation of taonga.

Then there is the music. Breakfast radio on the network should be made up entirely of New Zealand created music, says Williams. He is already working with Howard Morrison and looking for the best way of getting enough of the right kind of local talent recorded.

“Hopefully in the next two years we will have about six hui workshops on marae around the country with technicians, with broadcasters, people in the music industry, marketing and sales, advertising and artists and kaumatua coming together in a collective effort to spot the talent, to record it, to start composing music and hopefully by the time we kick off the network in October, 1988 we will have the music.”

His plans include an international marketing push as well.

Just how this blending of cultures goes will depend on many things but with Haare Williams’ own background blending both cultures there is a clear purpose in his development of the network. He envisages the eventual handing over of the network to Maori peo-

pie by the BCNZ, but says that can’t be done within the existing broadcasting act. In that time he expects the Maori network to be reaching listeners in Northland, Auckland, the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Christchurch, that is 66 per cent of the Maori population, or 186,000 people. Williams’ work so far in developing Maori radio within Radio New Zealand has included giving managers some marae experience. That has been fraught with frustration and he says he often felt he would be better off immersing himself in his painting, (he has held

five solo exhibitions) or his poetry. But his belief in the great benefit for Maoridom of a radio network has kept him working within the system. “You can’t effectively endeavour to change a system if you’re not in there.” Personally he has succeeded, to his own satisfaction, in both worlds. He is a Papakura city councillor, and brings a Maori perspective to the council. Even his second marriage was a joint RingatuAnglican ceremony. Whether such blending will work, or is indeed wanted, in a radio network he will have to wait and see.