No shortcuts

Pākehā musings

As a Pākehā completely dedicated to and immersed in te ao Māori for decades, my older sister, Jo has more insight to these challenges than I. But this post captures my shared values and is an important kaupapa to grapple with. I was really moved by her post yesterday about the role of Pākehā in the revitalisation of te reo Māori.

We 'get to choose' whether we engage or not in this process of 'becoming bicultural', another privilege not afforded to non-Pākehā in Aotearoa. And decolonising our thinking and our values, learning to read and speak te reo Māori is so much work. It’s arduous! But I believe that’s exactly how it should be. Pākehā don’t deserve shortcuts or easy access to these taonga that have been so damaged by our own ancestors and government. In recent history, the survival of the language and culture of this land was uncertain, it has been fought for by generations of iwi for whom it should have been a birthright. When Māori choose to generously and graciously share stories, art, history, tikanga, language and ceremonies with us, it is a koha that we are not entitled to and should be accepted with much gratitude and respect. And why shouldn’t they be paid for their time and talent like any other expert?

Non-Māori in New Zealand today continue to benefit from the power and land stolen, confiscated and unethically acquired from Māori in the 1800s. We do not have rights to indigenous knowledge and reo, to be consumed, to satisfy our curiosity or tick a box professionally. To placate our nagging guilt. Our best intentions are not good enough.

So what can we do?
* humble ourselves and forget what we think we already know
* throw away tokenism, the quick win, the gold star we want for giving it a go
* learn our own history; genealogy and that of this land, push past the point where it gets uncomfortable
* do the mahi ourselves
* do more mahi, over and over again - 22 years on in my own journey as a tangata Tiriti, I am just a pēpi noa iho, the more I learn, the more I realise I need to learn. I fuck up time and again despite my earnestness. Or perhaps because of it. But I truly believe that through decolonisation, we as Pākehā can be transformed ourselves and together can contribute to changing Aotearoa for the better.

Ka nui tēnā. I’m so proud to know so many non-Māori who are my hoa haere on this journey, and forever grateful for those who have given me opportunities to learn and grow from their taonga tuku iho.

Check out Andrew's Robb's article for more https://e-tangata.co.nz/reo/the-role-of-pakeha-is-to-support/

2 May 2019