Alan Duff has a go at Tuku Morgan, his greed and lack of a "self-regulation" button. He proceeds onto the lack of Treaty money spent on creating employment and helping "flax roots Maori."
Then he takes an interesting turn.
You live overseas for a few years and come to realise it's quite an advantage being part-Maori.
There's the warrior bit that makes you feel pretty safe in most situations and not afraid of being mugged or attacked on some dark city street. (And anyway, it just about never happens, or not in France; they're a civilised people, the French. Booze does not give them an excuse to be violent.)
There's the musical side, and when you get a group of Maori and a guitar or two, it is quite a neat feeling all singing together at least knowing you're in tune and by French musical standards pretty damn good.
Just being an expat Kiwi feels great - our friendliness, our love of rugby, the people we know in common.
By French drinking standards, we're a bit thirstier and definitely rowdier. However, we have all embraced the behavioural code here.
But I believe being a Maori in Enzed is a more negative experience. All that compulsion to live by the myth of whanau, hapu and iwi. Ask many Maori who have moved to Australia; they'll tell you living as an individual is infinitely better. If I was a benign dictator I'd pack every Maori off out of the country so they could realise what a wonderful thing it can be to be Maori and Kiwi and individualistic at the same time.
Many of our Maori leaders have to invest in this potential and step away from the Champagne tap.
(The "warrior bit" worked for him second-time around. First time he ended up in a British prison.)
3 comments:
Sure, but isn't Duff just exhibiting more of the same Maori racial superiority complex that we're sick of hearing about here in New Zealand? Does he really expect us to believe that people of Maori descent are braver or more musical than people of any other racial descent?
Maoridom is still very tribal where the ruling elite control and enjoy all the wealth and have all of the power, while the rest of the tribal members are considered serfs or slaves.
And notice how the media simply don't want to explore in any way this aspect of Maori social layers which are very real as I found out when teaching in a school with Maori students. This is really a lack of trickle down economics as the Maori elite make themselves ever richer at the expense of the others. How is that this can be constantly ignored?
I too find some of the things Alan Duff says quite strange for someone who has lived overseas and yet still seems to buy into the myths about Maori.
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