Something Thoughtful

 Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.    

                               SPEAKING OF ETHNICITY                                

I recently reviewed a book about how different New Zealand political parties dealt with immigration. It set me thinking about how New Zealand has changed, in terms of ethnicities, since I was young.

I was born in the 1950s and raised in Panmure on the eastern side of Auckland right next to the Tamaki estuary. The primary school I went to would have had, approximately, about three-quarters Pakeha and one-quarter Maori pupils. This was at a time when more Maori  were moving from rural areas and into cities. Among the Pakeha pupils there were some whose parents came from Croatia, and some whose parents came from the Netherlands. So, to all appearances, New Zealand was a “bi-cultural” nation, Pakeha and Maori. Yes, of course there were a handful of people who came from other countries. We knew a very few Chinese people, but we saw them only in the context of market-gardeners and fruiterers; and we knew there were small communities of Greeks [in Wellington] and Italians [working in engineering]. But the great majority of New Zealanders were Maori and white people whose grandparents and great-grandparents had come from Britain: Ireland, England, Scotland and a few from Wales.

Things changed in the 1960s. By the time I was in high-school, more Pasifika people were settling in New Zealand (in those days they were commonly mis-called “Islanders” by Kiwis). They were here to work, to raise families and often to send back money to the families they were supporting. Later in the 1960s, more people came in from Asia with students wanting to study at New Zealand universities. By the 1980s it was common to see Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan and Filipino students and entrepreneurs in Auckland… and at the same time more Maori were living in the city – or rather in the environs of the city…. And so it continued.

So [skipping some decades] we come to the present time. In Auckland there are now more Pasifika and Asian people than there are Maori; and, like it or not, New Zealand could now reasonably be called a “multi-cultural” society. At the same time, the largest ethnicities in New Zealand as a whole are Pakeha and Maori. European Pakeha are still by far the largest ethnicity, while Maori make up approximately 18-per-cent of the nation. But here we have to consider one problem when it comes to ethnicity. Very many who identify as Maori have as many European forebears as they have Maori forebears.

On the whole, I like the fact that New Zealand is now made up of many different ethnicities. Variety warms the country.

Some personal observations. My wife‘s forebears were one-hundred-per-cent Irish. My forebears were a mixture of Scottish and Irish with a few Sassenachs. We can both say that our great-grand-parents arrived in New Zealand the late 19^th century. We  live on Auckland’s North Shore. We do not live in a mansion. Our suburb is what I would call middle-middle-class. On one side of our house, our next-door neighbours are Cook Islanders - Christians. On the other side of our house is an Indian family. They are Sikhs. Excellent  neighbours both. My G.P. is a Chinese man. My dentist is a Chinese woman. The last time I had a colonoscopy [yes, I am that old, but I’m just being careful because two of my brothers died of cancer] the nurses who dealt with me were Syrian. The barber I go to is Armenian.

My wife and I have a larger family than most but [without going into details] we have eight children – now all mature adults. Their spouses and partners are Chinese-Malaysian; Indian; English; Italian; Croatian; a Kiwi bloke; an Aussie whose parents came from Germany; and another Indian. Great variety indeed – and all happy to be New Zealanders [well, apart from the Aussie, who lives in Oz.]

I support the idea that the Maori language should be taught in schools. I understand   that Maori culture is very important and should be both preserved and enhanced. I have read, and admired, the works of many Maori poets, novelists and non-fiction works. I am also aware that many Maori live in impoverished areas that should be helped. But [and here comes my heresy] I do not fetishise the Treaty of Waitangi. And I do not accept the idea that  Pakeha are merely “guests” in Maori land – a term that has been used by some radical Maori orators. I am not a guest.