The Maori Looks to the Future

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 7, 7 May 1945, Page 26

The Maori Looks to the Future

By

Harry Hawthorn

[Dr. Hawthorn, who is now teaching in the United States, is a New-Zealander. He taught in Native schools in the North Island before going abroad to continue his studies, and is the author of The Maori : A Study in Acculturation.'] The ninety thousand Polynesian I Natives of New Zealand, brownskinned though they are, have not slipped into a status of second-class citizenship. They vote on terms of full equality with the European - NewZealand majority and in the last forty years a number of Cabinet Ministers and an Acting Prime Minister have been chosen from their representatives in Parliament. They were one of the first Native peoples of the Pacific to belie the myth of the “ vanishing primitive ” ; their numbers have doubled in this century. In the two World Wars their soldiers have fought with the general New Zealand forces or in their own battalions, according to their preference, and have won honours as combat troops.

This situation poses a number of questions. The European - New-Zealanders are not an unprejudiced people. Their immigration policies discriminate against Chinese, Japanese, and British Indians. How, then, did this position of the Maori come about ? Is it exceptional, or does it have meaning for other situations where peoples and cultures meet ?

A brief review shows few basic elements of the situation to be exceptional. To be sure, the position of the Maori is in some ways unique because of his Poly-

in the Far Eastern Survey, February 26, 1945

nesian cultural heritage, and some distinctively Maori aspects of his personality, but beyond this it reveals elements of social development and of experimentation, the mistakes and successes of which are of wider application.

The bulk of the Maori population today is engaged in small-scale farming or in skilled and unskilled wage-labour. A small minority hold positions in the Civil service and in the professions, and some farm on a larger scale with sheep and cattle. Few are merchants, fewer are owners and executives of business and industry. The income of the majority of farmers and labourers is small, and without Government assistance it would be inadequate for the basic needs of a family. On the whole, the economic changes of the last twenty years have benefited the farmer and labourer ; and the present adult generation has been engaged largely in the task of consolidating these gains and in pursuing the immediate improvement of farms, dwellings, and community services. But one of the most important keys to Maori personality and culture is the parents’ interest in the child and his future. It needs no higher mathematics for the father than to look at his hundred-acre farm and at his ten children and decide that most of the boys will have to find some other livelihood.

In planning for their children, Maori parents look with greatest interest to the Government service and the professions. This preference reflects in part the

Polynesian appreciation of the specialist with his clear-cut professional field of usefulness, and in part the general New .Zealand tendency to attach a special prestige to white-collar and professional work ; in addition, it also shows a recognition of the actual security of these positions. There is no present difficulty for the educated Maori who wants to enter the professions or the Government service : there have been more jobs than competent applicants. Increased attention has been given more especially to the preparation of Maori students for teaching, nursing, and other branches of Civil service. The problem of some other choice will be faced by the children who will come to adulthood in twenty years’ time. The number of students who continue beyond the elementry school level is increasing; and even in the socialservice State which New Zealand is rapidly becoming, a balance will be reached when the professions and the Civil service will no longer be able to support the growing Maori population. Nor has New Zealand agriculture any more frontiers, other than those of scien-

tific advance ; in tine the sufficiency of Maori farming resources will become even less adequate in relation to the growth of population and the rise in standards of living.

In order to draw level with the rest of New Zealand in economic standards, the Maori must also enter, more often than hitherto, industry, transport, and the ■skilled trades. But entry into industry is faced with resistance by some aspects -of Maori personality, by varying conditions of New Zealand receptivity, by the low social esteem for industrial work in any but executive positions, by •difficulties of technical training for rural ■students, and by lack of capital. As Maoris themselves often point out, the traditionally high value of co-operation in Maori society, the responsiveness to the demands of kin and to the stimulus -of good-fellowship, do not make for •efficiency in commerce. Although these •qualities would be a new factor in industry, too, they need not there result in lowered efficiency. In the Maori past these same qualities operated to produce a highly efficient neolithic techique—for

volume and quality of output unsurpassed by peoples possessing the same range of industrial inventions.

Education Overemphasizes Competition

The educational system as yet shows little recognition of the potential value of these qualities in the Maori community to-day and could hardly be expected to as long as outlines of New Zealand’s economic future are still undefined. Formal schooling encourages the isolating, individualistic competitive aspects of the Maori child’s personality, although the adult Maori in the village lives in a community and nation whose major institutions require co-operative habits for their full functioning. Because of the relative poverty of his resources, the immediate future of the Maori can lie only in the Government development of economic institutions—possibly with a basic area of individual ownership and responsibility, as is the case in some schemes of Maori farm development today. The co-operative qualities of the Maori community could be developed

further by a school curriculum planned for the purpose ; the individualization at present attempted by the schools is therefore not only unnecessary, but harmful.

Positive Role in Co-operative Activity

From this point of view those aspects of Maori personality which are now taken as hindering entry into commerce and industry could be of positive utility for New Zealand’s economic future if that country, possessed as it is of a dependent economy of minor world importance solidifies its strength by a further development of co-operative activity in Government and community. The Maori qualities of responsiveness which were behind the tribal genius for organized work could operate with advantage in the growing areas of social security, and m the extending institutions of State enterprise. Individual dairy-farming, which for an indefinite future must be one of the

mam bases of New Zealand economy, can rise above drudgery; and insecurity just about as far as it utilizes co-operation—-at present.universally in the manufacture and' marketing of butter and cheese, and to a growing' extent now in Maori farmdevelopment schemes with the joint use of machines and stud stock.

The Maoris form, a minority with full equality of representation, a position which they have held since 1867. Halfcastes exercise an individual option of voting in Maori constituencies or in the general ones, and their representatives are fully voting members of the House of Representatives.

This is essentially the basis of the New Zealand pride in the national relationship to the Maoris. On these facts, of course, the position is exceptional—even compared with United States territories, such as the Territory of Hawaii, whose delegates to Congress have ho votingpower.

The Maoris share Polynesian talent for politics with a greater articulaten'ess and diplomacy than the average New-Zea-lander. Their representatives in Parliament have, for the last forty years made a common stand on the necessity of economic and educational rehabilitation of the Rural Maori. Their differences on the direction of this effort have not hindered the development of better educational and health services than possessed by Rural European - New-Zealand, or the launching and operation of several major schemes for farm development that are envied by many European-New-Zealand farmers.

Since the Maori cannot live without Government aid and enterprise, the major political decisions of the individual and his representatives have not lain between socialism and capitalism, but between different forms of political organization and different methods of administration. The majority of the Maoris live in village communities which no longer have any considerable attachment to the vanishing tribal political structure. They come into the national political field as individuals, and their representatives belong to the major national parties—in the 1943 elections ah the Maori electorates returned Labour candidates.

• Yet some other political aggregations among the Maoris have existed on a different- basis. One type of political and economic reorganization is headed by the leaders of a Maori Christian Church— the Katana -Church. With the strong religious attitudes, of the Rural Maori, even the satisfactory operation of the Maori diocese of the Anglican Church does not prevent interest in the Maorifounded church. Because of the unsatisfactory nature of local government in the Maori villages, the potential for growth of this type of, organization is considerable.

The local units of administration and self-government in Maori villages have not been particularly well conceived and are in a state of undecided change. This does not reflect on the personnel of the Native Depertment, which is outstanding even in comparison with such an organization as the United States Office of Indian Affairs. The weakness lies essentially in a vague and shifting definition of the nature, power, and responsibility of Maori local organization. A full inquiry into the vitality of the village committees is needed. There is need also for more knowledge of the nature of the Maori church and of the tribal political aggregations. Only on the basis of such knowledge is it possible to decide what aspects of the reintegrative units of Maori political society could be used for the democratic process. In the past, the Government has been wary of all of them.

Although ' a sound basis of fact and a clear formulation of political intentions is needed for many administrative decisions in the economic and political programmes, Professor Horace Belshaw has pointed out that at least one more problem facing the Maori must be solved immediately and expeditiously : the returning Maori soldier must be provided with a farm or a job of satisfactory status, tenure, and income. The alternative would be a burden of disorder which

would seriously hamper the reintegration of Maori society. The return of Maori soldiers in 1918, fewer in numbers, gave some indication of this problem, and Maori communities have ever since been under the load of its inadequate solution. But far more important at that time were those Maori veterans who obtained jobs in the Civil service, or were in a position to start farming on a satisfactory basis ; for these men became.one of the most potent sets of leaders in social reintegration' which the Maoris have had in a hundred years. The opportunity for using fully the leadership of the seven or eight thousand young men who will return from this war is one the Government must not miss!

No Racial Segregation in Schools

The Maoris so far have had less to do with the direction of their schooling than with that of the economic and health programmes in their behalf. The direction and staffing is predominantly a European - New.-Zealand affair, although a comparatively recent start on encouraging more Maoris to enter teaching shows good results.

A dual elementary school system expresses an actual difference in the educational needs between the Rural Maori child and the European - New-Zealand child. There is no intention or element of racial segregation in this system and its operation ; no quotas or subterfuges of zoning separate children in the two systems. Where a Native school and an Education Board school are in the same vicinity, European - New-Zealand and Maori children make their own choice. More than half of the Maori school population attend the' schools of the national system, but European - New-Zealand children who find it convenient to do so also attend Native schools. Attendance is free and compulsory for all children until a minimum age of fifteen.

An excellent job of teaching gives high standards in the basic techniques of literacy and calculation. The curriculum of the Native school is 'adjusted to the local environment in a way which efficiently links learning with experience habits, and known facts as to the child’s situation’; and it also brings the child

into the national culture in some of the more formal areas of thought. Some effectiveness is lost by the failure of the majority of the Native-school teachers to learn the Maori language, but the active interest of the Maori parents in the education of their children stops the school from resembling the culturally isolated institution which it so often is on an American Indian Reservation.

High education for those Maoris who remain culturally distinct from European-New-Zealand is. not in as satisfactory a state. Maori students attend all the secondry schools and the university on an equal basis. They have access to some special scholarship funds which go part way to compensating for the rural seclusion of so many of them. The dual national system stops at the elementary level, but secondary schools for Maori students are run by the various churches. Although many graduates of these schools have become prominent, their operation gives little cause for satisfaction : —their curricula tend to be extremely academic, and mechanically mixed with some vocational courses in agriculture and domestic science. ■ Many other peoples in contact with Western civilization face the same problem. New Zealand's educational philosophy recognizes little necessity for schooling beyond vocational necessity, but there is a conflict over the choice of vocation. The parents and children have to choose between pre-professional training and industrial-agricultural ; and the Maori parents, in harmony with the national majority, refuse to recognize the statistical limitation .of opportunity for the pre-professionally trained student. As with the usual American high school, the programme of most New Zealand secondary schools is badly disintegrated and seldom approaches an effective prepara-

tion of the individual for a fuller life in a finer society. The Church Maori secondary schools envision this aim, but do not get there. A plan of the Department of Education to continue the dual system to include Maori secondary education offers a possibility of improvement, but this will not be realized unless the Department also assumes a clearer and more inclusive educational purpose.

The elementary schools of the Native Schools Service' in the villages have approached this end. They were led to it largely by a realization that effective "teaching practice demands a close contact of school and community. The Maori parents, whose interest in their •children is a model of affectionate support without over-determined demands, from "the beginnings of Maori education of 1857 have gone more than half-way to meet the school ; and, since this was -community-centred, it has been of tremendous influence and help in harmonious -cultural change.

The pity is that, except for technological changes in village housing, agri--culture, and the household arts, and for a turn to calvinistic morality (only partially congenial to the Maori as yet), the direction in which this lively elementary school system works is not clearly -envisioned. The probelm is not solved by European - New-Zealander either, and it is probable that as in other respects, the Maori village, with its conservatism, would refuse to be out in the vanguard. So, in the meantime the Native schools teach the indespensable techniques of literacy and calculation, a -somewhat dis - harmonious morality which does not catch on very well, and the attitudes and habits of an individualistic competitiveness which even to-day - work against the only economic and political trend that is open to Maori society as .■ a promising way to greater prosperity.

Lack of Caste Distinctions

Social relations between the Maori and European-New-Zealanders are not a subject of any planned programme, although some groups utter intentions for or against assimilation. The Maori moves in New New Zealand social life with a general absence of caste distinctions and disabilities. Refusal of any public services would give him the legal recourse open to all New Zealand citizens.

In spite of this sets of social class evaluation do exist in Maori and European - New-Zealand society. They are somewhat modified in comparison with those current in Europe and the United States by the relatively slight economic differentiation in New Zealand. Since the Maori is on the average lower in the socio-economic scale than the European - New-Zealander, there is a class-colour situation similar to that in Brazil. The lower limits of this economicstatus position are marked clearly by the fact that the male Maori is not engaged in menial occupations. A few girls work in other households prior to marriage, but none of the men are domestic servants, doormen, cleaners —in the cities or elsewhere. Correlated with this is the fact that the Maori is likely to hold status evaluations more firmly and distinctly than the average European - NewZealander. This is more a cultural heritage from the aristocratic past of his society than a compensation for elements of disprivilege in his present position.

Sometimes Maori nationalism includes a sense of racial superiority. In several cases Maori university students have broken off engagements to European New Zealand girls under pressure from the Maori parents. Nevertheless, intermarriage has been frequent, is continuing, and will probably increase. There are no legal barriers, nor can they arise. New Zealand, which does not readily make ideological formulations, gets as near to one on the position of the Maori as on any other point; and the prevailing pride in the Maori population and its position in New Zealand cannot be frontally attacked.

Social class differences more than others prevent closer contact and assimilation ; and these barriers are loosening with the economic changes of Maori and European-New-Zealand society, and with the continued operation of the educational services. A school programme for fuller social democracy, as well as political and economic, would greatly facilitate this. But, in any case, nothing now apparent can stop the trend. Intermarriage, not infrequent now, will increase. It does not appear that the Maori situation is exceptional because of any innate exceptional qualities of either of

the peoples in contact. Difficulties have arisen from the start and have continued to appear. The planned transition, now showing an encouraging proportion of successful results, grew into effectiveness only in the past generation. Among the most important factors to be noted is the definition of equality given in the Dominion’s laws and made effective in ali administrative measures and plans. On the Maori side is the ability which they have shown for a fully responsible Governmentpolitical ability' which always exists where an otherwise primitive people has had experience in directing the common activities of tribe, village, and clan. .