Forming an Indigenous Identity

Diversity in Health and Care, 2009

2007

In 1985, I sat in an introductory social psychology lecture by Dr Michael Hills of the University of Waikato. I was excited by the content of the lecture. Dr Hills said something like: An identity is a good thing to have for if it were not for an identity many of us would be lost to suicide, mental illness, and not have a very positive sense of being in the world. This agreed with my thinking, but, as a first year student, Dr Hill's explanations and theories did not quite satisfy the questions spinning in my head and my yearning for concrete examples and rich detail about me as Maori, as a tribal being, as a minority being, as an indigenous being, moving forward in a modern world. I longed to attend lectures where I did not have to forever convert the lecturer's examples and explanations of behaviour to my own Maori experience. I found some relief from this in courses taught by Professors James and Jane Ritchie and David Thomas on 'working in the Maori world', 'crosscultural psychology' and 'growing up in New Zealand'. They had lived experiences that resonated with me and allowed my thoughts to fall on lines of enquiry helpful to unpacking my life and my experience of the worlds I was moving through and of others I was moving with. These early encounters with psychology spawned, for me, a continuing interest in Maori social identities, culture change and resilience. Through this PhD study, I have had the opportunity to explore how Maori conceptualise and enact their social identities in a New Zealand context and to explore how the same is achieved by Maori living in Hawai'i. These are the topics that this thesis is concerned with. Of necessity, I have broken my review of literature into five separate chapters. The first deals with social identity theories. My intent in this chapter is to demonstrate that psychological theory helps to answer some questions about Maori social identities, but also raises a whole host more. I raise some of these questions as a first step towards exploring the detail, drama and complexity of Maori social identities. The second chapter, called 'revealing Aotearoa' reviews how the inhabitants of these south sea islands were discovered and revealed to the world, why the 'world' came to New Zealand, and the responses made by its inhabitants. Differences in cultural understanding, worldviews, technologies and beliefs systems are significantly to the fore when culture groups encounter each other. From my 21st century position, reviewing the culture clashes of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries reveals much about the progression and development of Maori social identities, over time. Central to this review is the Treaty of Waitangi 1840. The signing of the Treaty marks a significant transition period in New Zealand history. Traditional leadership, community cohesion, resources and identity were to become increasingly pressurized by large numbers of migrant settlers to New Zealand, hungry for a slice of 'gods own' and expectant that they would receive. Settler arrivals were so many that, by 1858, Maori had become a minority within their own lands. No amount of resistance, active or passive, could stem the demands of the settler government, the spread of disease, or the alienation of resources and land. Tribal leadership had to make sense of these developments and negotiate what it meant to be a tribal being at a personal and collective level, and at an emerging pan-Maori level. These changes gave rise to new forms of leadership that sat alongside traditional forms. In this connection, I review the emergence of the pan-tribal movements of Kingitanga, Paimarire and Ringatu. While there were others, a selective review of these movements is enough to demonstrate the capacity of Maori leaders to merge their own worldviews with that of Christianity to effectively sustain followers in the face of severe adversity. The third chapter is called 'New leaders and Assimilation'. At the turn of the 19 th century, the Maori population was at an all time low, so low that the commonly held view was that Maori would become extinct. Assimilation was seen as the way forward and remained as the solution to the 'Maori problem' until the late 1960's when more culturally plural views began to come into vogue. Up until that time, new Maori leaders like Apirana Ngata, Maui Pomare, Peter Buck and others had to uplift a people depressed by the events of the previous century. A focus on their strategies lets us learn something of the strength of relationships within and between tribal groups, and the resilience of spirit, culture and identity during this period. 'Pakeha Maori', as Bentley (1999) terms them, who choose to, or who were captured into Maori communities were, initially, highly valued by Maori. Those Maori communities that had Pakeha Maori had an advantage over those who did not. Pakeha Maori could translate English, explain European customs and events, the meaning and use of new technologies, and act as intermediaries and "trader go-I a King at home, I a cook at Port Jackson (cited in Salmond, 1997, p.420). Travellers like Kawiti, Hongi Hika, and Ruatara, all from the North, were not simply carted off by passing ships as involuntary parties -they actively sought intelligence about these foreigners, their ways, technologies and what they valued from New Zealand. Certainly Belich (1996) identifies Ruatara, who spent a significant amount of time with Marsden at Parramatta in Australia, as responsible for the establishment of massive intensive gardening programmes in the North. These, in turn, impacted so significantly on customary food growing, harvesting and storage cycles, especially white potatoes which totally supplanted taro and nearly kumara too, that Hongi Hika and the iwi of the North were readily able to engage in long distance warfare with other iwi. They had food, they had arms, and they had time. They also had Pakeha Maori, and, now, the missionaries who served their purposes well. Marsden's purpose in sending Kendall and Hall to Aotearoa was to lay the initial foundations of the Anglican Church, and to pave the way for subsequent voyages and arrivals organised by the Church Missionary Society. Indeed, they were the advanced guard for the establishment of a British colony in Aotearoa. These early voyages, the interests of competing monarchs and nations, the search for trade goods, the desire to save the souls of the noble savages of the South Seas all increased the need for land for settlement. At the same time, this was a period of great excitement for Maori. New technologies were being mastered, trade was actively engaged in and different ways of knowing were being considered. Without doubt, Maori actively sought to discover, master and control those opportunities and knowledges that were being made known through encounters with Europeans. As much as Europeans found benefit in coming to Aotearoa, Maori at that time, saw benefit in having them here. Both were in a position to gain. Both stood to mutually benefit from a continued relationship. But there were also disadvantages. In the decades leading up to 1840, the small number of Europeans living in Aotearoa was steadily added to by arrivals from Australia and Europe, and more were soon to arrive. This created friction between the settler population and Maori, especially in the area of land sales, many of which were highly questionable. Unruly social behaviour, exploitation of women, lack of national flag, "so that New Zealand built and owned ships could be properly registered and could freely enter other ports" (King, 2003, p. 153). In October 1835, Busby persuaded the same chiefs and others to sign 'A Declaration of the Independence of the United Tribes New Zealand', a measure designed to foil the interests of the French who planned to establish an independent state in the Hokianga -a declaration that was neither widely understood by Maori nor endorsed. The flag, and Declaration, were not viewed seriously by the foreign office in London. Busby's alarmist reports and demands on both the foreign office and on the Governor of New South Wales were characterised as "whining" (King, 2003). But what was taken seriously, were the reports of, firstly, the increasing volatility between Maori and settlers resulting in numerous petitions to the foreign office for stronger intervention, and, secondly, a plan by a private firm, the New Zealand Company, to formally colonise New Zealand and establish a separate government of its own. Both King (2003) and Belich (1996) concur that it was these two influences that motivated the despatch from London of William Hobson in 1839. It was he who brokered the Treaty of Waitangi. On the 6 th February, 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Governor Hobson, on behalf of the British Crown, and 43 northland rangatira. Over subsequent months in various parts of the country, almost 500 more rangatira signified their assent, the notion of 'consent' to the advent of Pakeha state and society taken to be the act of "agreeing to the treaty, welcoming agents of the state and selling land" (Belich, 1996, p.198-197). It needs to be noted though that for tribes south of the northland region, that the horrors of raids by northern tribes in the late 18 th century advantaged by having muskets were still considered recent history, as it still is for many today. Northern tribes were not to be completely trusted. What exactly did this treaty say? Again, Belich (1996) provides a crisp summary of the treaty and issues that I have summarized or quoted in part below. According to Belich (1996, p.198-197) rangatira were looking for a mutually understood device to ensure the protection of tino rangatiratanga, of Maori custom, lifestyles and property. At the same time they were also seeking to encourage and allow for settler control over settler behaviour. They were seeking a way to ensure a) Of half or more New Zealand Maori origin. b) As...

1996

Moeke-Pickering, T. (1996). Maori Identity Within Whanau: A review of literature. ... The location, nurturants, socio-economic realities and exposure to traditional cultural practices influenced somewhat how each individual and whanau formed and maintained their Maori identity. ...

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

The Treaty of Waitangi (1840), signed between Māori (indigenous people) and the British Crown is today narrated as the foundation of New Zealand's sovereignty. The theory of history and identity is mobilized to (1) articulate how historical narratives such as the story of the encounter between Māori and Pākehā (European New Zealanders) and the signing and subsequent violation of the Treaty between them furnish symbolic resources and possibility spaces that construct, mobilize, and manage ethnic identities; (2) deploy this historical narrative to make sense of the changes to Māori identity in the 20th century and its status and construction today; (3) consider the implications of this historical trajectory in describing mental health situations for Māori people today, including how indigenous values, processes, and constructs might be employed in mainstream, bicultural, and indigenous spaces (from clinical therapy and community-based interventions to social welfare delivery). Indigenous values such as whanaunganga (family relationships), wairua (spirituality), and whakapapa (geneology) are introduced as indigenous concepts in mental health therapy, and linked to recent initiatives by government and iwi (tribes) to improve health and mental health for Māori through different implementation pathways involving more collectivistic structures. "Mai i te urunga o Ngai Tāua te iwi Māori ki roto i ngā kāwai mātauranga ō Tauiwi, ina, honotia te peka Māori ki te rākau rāwaho, he rerekē tōna hua me te rongo ō tōna kiko, he kawa. Kāti, tēnei te whakahoki ki ngā paiaka ā kui mā, ā koro mā." "Let us return to our origins. Since the time we as Māori were immersed in the knowledge streams of tauiwi we have become like a branch, grafted to a foreign tree, producing fruit of a different quality and somewhat unpalatable. It is time we returned to the rootstock of our ancestors." − Rangitihi Tahuparae The Treaty of Waitangi (1840), signed between Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa-the "land of the long white cloud") and the British Crown is today narrated as the foundation of New Zealand's sovereignty. A giant copy of the Treaty is enshrined as the symbolic heart of Te Papa ("Our Place"), the national museum in the nation's capital, with one wing opening up into a Māori space and the other to a story of subsequent settlers. Such a bicultural approach to telling the story of the "Making the Peoples" of Aotearoa/New Zealand (see Belich (2007) and King (2003) for authoritative histories) is unique in the post-colonial world. The Principles of the Treaty are part of the charter of most public institutions, and Treaty is recognized as the basis of the nation's claim to sovereignty. Despite this, Māori people are over-represented in negative social statistics in a manner quite similar to other indigenous peoples who have suffered colonization (Lawson-Te Aho & Liu, 2010). This intertwining of the positive and negative is at the heart of

2019

I salute my children and extended family for their love and support. Most of all, my husband Paul, your unwavering enthusiasm, unending love and support. You made it possible for me to travel the world to attend conferences, also my unlimited trips to Aotearoa/New Zealand, I am forever grateful. Identifying with relearning and unlearning has been a critical component of the research area of performing Maori/Pākehā identity in a cross-cultural corridor. I had to unlearn my Anglocentric knowledge and begin to see life with a Māori lens. I am challenged to relearn my history and to know who I am and where I fit, but most importantly I found that I do have a place, a place that was contested by living my earlier life as a white girl. Through the discoveries and insights achieved-outlined in the conclusion-I seek to contribute to the continuing debates regarding racial identity by renegotiating a space to perform and by promoting a greater understanding of cultural in-betweenness. aerial, but I was still happy. From the outside, it looked like we had a television and I could pretend that we were rich, just like I pretended we were white. This was the first moment I can remember being confronted by my identity and by the choices I made at that time. That day we were just like everyone else in the neighbourhood. A family coming up in the world, I knew then that we really belonged to this lifestyle; we had the proof that we belonged. That metal television aerial announced to the world, "Look at us, we had made it just like everyone else". Now I look back and see how superficial this all is, one metal aerial sitting on our rooftop to proclaim, "Look at us". That day I felt superior. That superficiality continued with me for many years; it covered over the hollowness lurking inside of me, the triviality of things seems to be all that I needed. The term Pākehā is used in this study to denote the cultural experiences and practices of the dominant white population in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Pākehā represents a historically and culturally specific understanding of white identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Aotearoa will also be used with New Zealand to acknowledge the Māori name for New Zealand. It has a literal translation, Land of the Long White Cloud (Encyclopedia of New Zealand 1966).

2021

Tūhonotanga relates to one’s physical and spiritual embeddedness to the surrounding world, including to culture, to kin, and to Father Sky and Mother Earth. Kanien’keha:ka researcher Alicia Ibarra-Lemay from the community of Kahnawa:ke, interviewed Māori psychotherapist Donny Riki from Aotearoa, to explore her practice of healing in relation to her own connections to the Ngāpuhi and the Ngāti Paoa. As granddaughter to Ina Tepapatahi, Patara Te Tuhi, Puahaere, and Haora Tipakoinaki, Donny carries the responsibility for healing in the sense of helping her people find their way back home after 186 years of colonial violence and rule in her homeland of Aotearoa. This chapter discusses the way she works with tāngata whaiora (Māori people, seekers of wellness) and how the process of healing is conceptualized in her Maori worldview.

2015

Performance Studies as a methodology works at the interstices between theory and practice. Its theoretical reach ranges from anthropology and sociology to psychoanalysis and phenomenology, often intersecting with other 'studies' including indigenous, cultural, feminist, and so on. Performance scholars witness, create and participate in theatre and performance in a wide range of contexts, generally valuing the local with an eye to the global academic and artistic conversation as enabled and essential in the 21 st century. At the centre of Performance Studies is an understanding that almost any activity from theatre to ritual, sport and everyday interactions can be described and analysed as performance using diverse social frames and disciplinary perspectives. My decision to write this thesis using a Performance Studies methodology was based on its direct relationship to the act of performance and its socio-cultural theories. While my deep knowledge of te reo and tikanga Māori has been essential to my research, I have chosen to write in English, because I believe it is important for this knowledge to reach a wide readership, and because I can continue to develop this work in both languages and cultural frames. My key theoretical touchstones, as presented in the Introduction and thereafter, are Richard Schechner, Victor Turner, Rustom Bharucha and Diana Taylor. Taken together they allow me to consider Kapa Haka as a performance and cultural practice, based in ritual and as such an 'invented tradition' (following Bharucha), and in action as a form of 'repertoire' (in Taylor's configuration). Kaitātaki Tāne male Leader Kaitātaki Wahine female Leader Kaiwhiriwhiri judge Kaha strong Kākahu clothing Kahu kiwi kiwi feather cloak Kanohi kitea a person who is seen in attendance kapa haka a group that performs Māori Cultural performing arts Kapa Haka Māori cultural performing arts Karanga to call out Karakia prayer Karaiti Christ Karaiti titi kai Christ who was breast fed Ka rawe awesome Kaumātua elders Kaupapa subject; topic; sometimes means reason for doing something Kawa protocol Kawe to carry Kawe mate to take one's bereavement to another marae Kīngitanga The Māori King Movement Kīngi Tāwhiao The second Māori King Kōauau small flute Koeke adult, elders Kōhanga Reo language nest 8 By 'surrogate' I am referring, albeit obliquely, to 'surrogation'a concept introduced by Joseph Roach in Cities of the Dead. However, I prefer 'surrogate' because it conjures up more directly the idea of a substitute parenting and as such allows me to remain true also to the twin ideas of whakapapa and iwi, the ancestral lines that bind the living to their ancestors.

Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand, 2019

Whānau Ora (which can be translated as 'family wellbeing') 1 is an innovative approach to Indigenous health and social services policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. The initiative empowers whānau (family) as a whole and devolves to whānau members self-determining processes to improve their cultural, social and economic wellbeing. The initiative's designers aimed for 'the potential of whānau to do for themselves' (Humpage 2017: 480) by minimising their dependence on state-delivered benefits and interventions. Building whānau resilience, and the skills and resources of members to manage their own affairs without interference from others, is critical. Intrinsic to this approach is the concept of a 'strengths' perspective. 2

Ruptures in identity occur through the sudden discovery of a part of our selves that has been hidden through family trauma and secrecy (Sztompka, 2000). Auto- ethnography seeks to uncloak a secret past, and amplify muted voices (Denzin, Lincoln & Smith, 2008; Ellis, Adams, Bochner; 2011; Reed-Danahay, 1997; Smith, 2012;). This is my journey of cultural healing through immersion within the principles of Kaupapa Māori (Pihama, Cram & Walker, 2002; Walker, Eketone & Gibbs, 2006). This immersion aimed to transform the colonised self into a cultural self through a transformative process of cultural recovery. This is my answer to the ancestors call for action. Through Kaupapa Māori I embody the knowledge of my ancestors who guide and support my transformations, awakening the sleeping self and lighting the fire of knowledge.