(no subject)
Skin to Skin
Carol Archie
2005/ Auckland penguin books
When I first started to read this article I already resented what it was saying. The article its self is supposed to be explaining points and views of Maori people in today’s society with mixed marriages, the treaty of Waitangi and so on. I myself am a New Zealand born European, and I personally resent with a passion the term pakeha. How are we as new Zealanders supposed to grow as a nation when everyone of European appearance is described, named and almost with a stigma called pakeha? Maori people are defined by their different tribes and regions define different art work and so on. They demand respect for the past mistakes of the treaty and demand compensation. However it is in my opinion that respect is earned rather than granted at will. The Maori of today must earn respect themselves in this day and age rather than relying on the respect of their ancestors. New Zealand is a cultural melting pot, there are numerous ethnicities that live here, some in greater number than others. The Maori culture is a minority; people of a European ethnicity are more dominant in numbers as well as people of Asian and pacific island ethnicity. I know this myself as I studied ethnicities in geography. I am for the bettering of Maori culture; I admire anyone who achieves greatness in today’s age. Should we as new Zealanders not focus on the bettering of all ethnicities, rather than just one? I cannot comprehend how people in New Zealand can say that the Maori people are still getting a bad deal when the government now is interested in bettering the culture if not embracing it with open arms. Maori people have easier access to benefits, cheaper education, and easier entrance to universities, special classes in universities just for them. Yet if we as new Zealanders cross the ditch to Australia conditions are much worse for their native people the aborigines. I apologise for my tangent but this article provoked this reaction from me. In New Zealand today should we as new Zealanders not be curious of all cultures interactions? Yes women and men marry out of race but is that really such a bad thing? I feel the article almost gives off the impression that even if you marry a person of different ethnicity you’ll never have any real sense of their culture and ethnicity because they are from a completely different mind frame / background. This should not be the case, cultures should welcome people into their way of life, and not the other way around with people of different background feeling out of place and not welcome when they are married to a member of the family.
Taking both sides
Simon Collins
2001/ may herald
In my opinion the problem with dealing with cultural identity is the choice of what box to tick on a census. There is no box for half cast, thee is no box for someone of a mixed heritage. Half the problem is in New Zealand’s government system, among other systems. The other half is our New Zealand cultural up bringing and acceptance of people in society. It is a tough decision for someone made up of two different ethnicities; however it is worse when someone is a melting pot of ethnicities. I identify with this article in the sense that I am not either one of the cultures I am made up of, I merely am. I do not let my culture define who I am as a being however I let my actions as a being define me. This is the day and age where a person should not be defined by race, colour of skin or sex. However should be defined by the actions and great things they can achieve as individuals in a community. Perhaps it would be a good idea to can the census all together but that is in an ideal world. But how do we as new Zealanders address the problem of our social up bringing? Introducing it in schools ahs been one option but I know from my own personal experience that some cultures do not mix, no matter how many good points about them you force into peoples minds in almost a form of brain washing. Children and teenagers aren’t stupid, and depending on their up bringing this can either be a passive or explosive combination. Racism passes from generation to generation. Racist insults pass from generation to generation if we as new Zealanders are to change the way we accept and think about ethnicities we must change the way our younger generations are brought up. Its is our social culture in new Zealand that needs to change, however this is a harder issue to address rather than a change of government policies. Government is a group of a hundred people or more, an entire society in New Zealand’s case is over four million people. Older generations are more set in their ways and the younger the generation gets the more accepting and open they are to new ideas; however this acceptance can be crushed at a young age due to a number of factors in their up bringing. There is contradiction in the system New Zealand uses and it needs to be changed now. Another point I feel strongly about in this article is how lucky the people in the article are in knowing their families on both sides, I would give my vital organs to know my other relatives, to even just get a sense of how they live and their own personal culture. I think New Zealand’s social culture as a whole should stop worrying about the cultural negative stigmas placed on being of mixed heritage and embrace it. My other members of my family I have never met, I don’t know who they are or where they live or their names, what they like to eat. These people know their family, they know who they are and they know their history. I can identify with people who are adopted and the sense that there is a void there. I know 3-4 generations back but I want and long to know more. I envy the people in this article who know both sides of their family, it’s not a curse being half cast or being of mixed ethnicity, it’s a blessing.
Reference list
Collins. S (2001, may 19-20) taking both sides. Herald pp.E2
Archie. C (2005) introduction, skin to skin Auckland: penguin books (pp.7-9)