New Growth from Old

The Whanau in the Modern World

Joan Metge

• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780864737885
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is in the first place meant to provide basic information for the many Pakeha who interact with Maori as spouses, friends, work colleagues and service providers to help them understand a family type different from their own. It is also a contribution to the debate about the causes of current problems affecting Maori families, and suggests strategies for handling them more effectively.

PART I

IN SEARCH OF UNDERSTANDING

Chapter 1

THE FLAX BUSH: FAMILY AND WHĀNAU

Parapara waerea a ururua, kia tupu whakaritorito te tupu o te harakeke.¹

Clear away the overgrowth, so that the flax will put forth many young shoots.

Flax bushes are a familiar feature of the New Zealand landscape, growing wild in swamps and wet alluvial soils, carefully bred and tended in gardens and weavers’ plantations. Each bush is made up of long, swordlike flax blades growing in fans. The roots of these fans are so entwined that they cannot be separated except with a sharp spade. Growth takes place at the centre of each fan, where the new shoot (rito) emerges between its two predecessors.

When gathering flax, Māori weavers cut only the outer blades of each fan, leaving the rito and its protectors, so that growth will continue.

Māori use the flax bush (te pā harakeke)² as a favourite metaphor for the family group they call the whānau. They identify the rito in each fan as a child (tamaiti), emerging from and protected by its parents (mātua) on either side. Like fans in the flax bush, parent-child families in the whānau share common roots and derive strength and stability from forming part of a larger whole. Like rito, children are the hope of continuity into the future. Flax and whānau alike live through cycles of growth, dying and regeneration. New life grows from the old.

Flax provides the inspiration for many Māori proverbs. The one at the head of this chapter is a reminder that the whānau, like the flax bush, grows best when it is cultivated with loving care.

Whānau, family and household

The word whānau comes to modern Māori from their pre-European ancestors but, as part of a living language, its meanings are constantly being reworked and extended.

In its basic verbal form, whānau means ‘to be born’. According to Māori experts,³ its original reference was to a set of siblings (brothers and sisters) born of the same parents but, like family in English, it has acquired a range of other meanings distinguished by context. The most important of these is a large family group comprising several generations and parent-child families related by descent from a recent ancestor. The concept of ‘the whānau’ in this sense has remained important to the Māori people from pre-European times to the present, in spite of changes in function.

Early European visitors to Aotearoa New Zealand identified ‘the whānau’ as ‘the basic social unit of Māori society’ in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. According to their description, it was a domestic unit comprising several parent-child families related by descent and marriage, moving between several living sites and engaging in a variety of productive activities under the leadership of a kaumātua (household head).

After New Zealand was established as a nation in 1840, policymakers of British origin entrenched the parent-child family of the British cultural tradition as the approved form of family. For well over a hundred years, Parliament passed laws which undermined the whānau by outlawing aspects of its practice (relating to marriage, adoption and the guardianship of children) and otherwise refusing to recognise its existence (Durie-Hall and Metge 1992:58–59). At the same time the whānau’s economic base was undercut by loss of land and the incorporation of the Māori population into a capitalist economy based on individual employment, individual property rights and individual legal responsibility.

Nevertheless, in family life as in other ways, Māori have resisted direct and indirect pressures to assimilate to the dominant pattern. They continue to recognise and promote, under the name of whānau, a family group which has many continuities with the pre-European whānau, notably in the stress laid on descent and the values espoused, but which has undergone significant changes in functions and goals. Membership in descent-based whānau has ceased to be universal and become a matter of choice. Adult Māori choose whether or not to take up membership in whānau of this sort, which of the whānau open to them to support and how active to be in whānau affairs. Their degree of commitment varies at different stages of their life, typically increasing with age.

Since no statistics are collected on the subject, it is not known what proportion of the Māori population are active members of whānau of the traditional, descent-based kind. It is generally assumed to have declined to less than one half, possibly to less than one third, but these are no more than informed guesses. Over the last fifteen years there have been signs of increasing participation in whānau, as part of a renewed emphasis on Māori cultural identity. New kinds of whānau have emerged, modelled on the traditional whānau and its values. Even among those not currently active in whānau, the concept has become a powerful symbol of ngā tikanga Māori (Māori cultural ways).

Whether they belong to a whānau or not, virtually all Māori grow up in and/or establish parent-child families and family households. In 1976, 7.5% of Māori households contained a couple only, 53% contained one parent-child family and 24% contained extended family combinations. The corresponding proportions for non-Māori households were 22%, 47% and 9% respectively. In 1991 the proportion of Māori households containing one parent-child family was 54.5%, the proportion containing a couple without children had risen to 13.5% and the proportion containing extended family combinations had fallen to 16.6%. In spite of these changes, Māori households remain more likely than non-Māori to consist of kin related in families and less likely to consist of a couple, one person or non-family.⁴

Whatever their family situation, Māori are an integral part of the wider New Zealand society, constantly and often intimately involved in social relations with members of other ethnic groups, particularly Pākehā, as spouses, relatives, workmates and friends.⁵

Teasing out the relationships between whānau, family and household in the changing world of the late twentieth century is a complex and difficult task in which many people are currently engaged. This book is a contribution to ongoing processes of description, analysis and planning for the future.

Māori and te iwi Māori

The Māori people (te iwi Māori)⁶ have a special status as the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand⁷ and signatories with the Crown of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Though their forebears came as immigrants from Eastern Polynesia, they lived and developed a distinctive way of life in Aotearoa for over a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans (Davidson 1984).

While demographers, social scientists and the general public continue to debate the definition of ‘a Māori’,⁸ the Māori determine the issue in their own way. They specify descent from a Māori parent or ancestor as the basic requirement and, provided that is fulfilled, accept as Māori those who identify themselves as Māori. Attempts to impose a narrower definition in terms of linguistic and cultural competence are generally rejected.

Taken collectively,⁹ te iwi Māori is characterised by a combination of characteristics: genealogical descent from the pre-European inhabitants of New Zealand, distinctive physical features, distinctive values and ways of organising social life, shared history, and consciousness of kind (‘a we feeling’). Those who identify themselves and are identified by others as Māori do not necessarily display all these characteristics in their own person.

Far from being homogenous Māori individuals have a variety of cultural characteristics and live in a number of cultural and socio-economic realities. The relevance of socalled traditional values is not the same for all Māori, nor can it be assumed that all Māori will wish to define their ethnic identity according to classical constructs. At the same time, they may well describe themselves as Māori, rejecting any notion that they are ‘less Māori than their peers’.… self-identification … conveys little in terms of lifestyles, access to resources and participation in distinctly Māori institutions such as whānau and hapū. (M.H. Durie, Black et al. 1994: 3)

Responding to pressure from Māori and social scientists, official agencies have moved over the last ten years to recognise the importance of self-identification in the definition of Māori individuals. On the 1991 Census form, in a departure from previous practice, respondents were asked two questions: ‘Which ethnic group do you belong to?’ and ‘Have you any New Zealand Māori ancestry?’

In response to the first question, a total of 435,619 declared themselves as belonging to the Māori ethnic group, either alone (323, 998) or in conjunction with other groups (111,621). The 1991 Census identified this total as ‘the New Zealand Māori ethnic group’ and ‘the total New Zealand Māori population’ (Statistics 1992:15). As such it made up 12.7% of the total New Zealand population.

In answer to the second question, 511,278 acknowledged having Māori ancestry, making up 15% of the total New Zealand population (Statistics 1992:47). Of those who acknowledged Māori ancestry, 75,659 did not identify themselves as Māori.

Non-Māori, Pākehā, European

The population of New Zealand includes members of many ethnic groups besides the New Zealand Māori. While these are recognised by their own names when appropriate, it is sometimes convenient to refer to all of them collectively by a single term, in contrast with the Māori. Several terms are in use but none is universally accepted. I have accordingly developed my own reference system (Metge 1990:13–15).

New Zealander I use as the most general term, referring to all citizens of the New Zealand state, including Māori.

The term non-Māori is neutral in reference, despite its negative form. I use it when discussing statistical constructs (for example, ‘the non-Māori population’ and ‘non-Māori households’) and when necessary to avoid ambiguity.

The term Pākehā has its origin in the Māori language but is accepted by many non-Māori New Zealanders as the most useful of the terms available. Following Māori usage, I use Pākehā with two meanings. I use it most often to identify those immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Europe (including Great Britain) who have put down roots and feel that they belong in Aotearoa New Zealand. I also stretch it to include all non-Māori in the pairing ‘Māori and Pākehā’. Which meaning is intended is usually clear from the context.

Some non-Māori object to being called Pākehā, believing the term to be derogatory. The word’s origin is not known for certain; of several alleged explanations, some are insulting, others are not.¹⁰ In contemporary Māori usage the word is simply descriptive. If derogatory overtones are detected, they originate with the user, not the word itself. The frequent pairing of Māori and Pākehā indicates connection as well as contrast.

The term European I reserve for visitors and temporary residents from the continent of Europe. I reject its application to New Zealand citizens of European origin because where they or their ancestors originated matters less than their commitment to Aotearoa New Zealand.

The term Tauiwi is used by some to refer to non-Māori New Zealanders. In Māori it has the basic meaning of ‘stranger’ and is used in contrastive opposition to ‘tangata whenua’ (person of the land).¹¹ In that it implies that non-Māori do not belong in Aotearoa New Zealand I find it less acceptable than Pākehā.

Ngā Tikanga Māori

While Māori as individuals display a variety of cultural patterns, Māori as a people lay claim to a set of values and ways of organising social life which are distinctively Māori. For fifty years or more Māori have referred to these distinctively Māori ways as Māoritanga, but over the last ten years they have shown an increasing tendency to prefer the phrase ngā tikanga Māori.

Tikanga is a noun formed by adding the ending -anga to tika, an adjective which means straight, just (fair) and right (correct), in opposition to hē (wrong, mistaken).

While tikanga has a range of meanings in Māori,¹² when used in the phrase ngā tikanga Māori it is fairly translated as ‘the right Māori ways’ and refers to the rules or guidelines for living generally accepted as tika. Ngā tikanga Māori encompass and hold together ways of thinking (whakaaro nui) and ways of doing (mahinga), principles and practice.

Ngā tikanga Māori are by de...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• PART I : IN SEARCH OF UNDERSTANDING
• PART II : THE WHĀNAU AS PROCESS
• PART III : WHAKATUPU TAMARIKI—GROWING CHILDREN
• PART IV : TAMARIKI ATAWHAI—MĀORI ADOPTION
• PART V : LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD
• Notes
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• GLOSSARY
• INDEX
• Copyright