Customs and manners are seldom cast in stone. In the Victorian era, it would have been unthinkable for a member of the aristocracy to be seen in respectable society in the company of a member of the working class.
Gentlemen doffed their hats to ladies, ladies wore gloves, ladies were
either respectable or ruined. There were rigidly defined rules that society adhered to.
That's changed now. The boundary between respectability and ruin has long been blurred and egalitarianism is embraced. And society is all the better for it. I'm all for Maori having their own rules on their own turf - when I go to marae, it's as a visitor, and, accordingly, I follow the customs of my hosts. Their place, their rules.
But when it comes to powhiri being conducted in state facilities, where there are Pakeha and Maori on equal footing, when there are women in positions of power at the gatherings, I think there should be room for compromise. Either come up with a custom-designed powhiri, that takes into account the diversity of cultures and the presence of women with mana, or don't have them at all.
A haka was written especially for the All Blacks to accommodate the presence of so many players of different ethnicities - why couldn't the same be done for powhiri?
Change is often painful. But unless Maori are able to compromise when it comes to incorporating their customs into mainstream society, they risk having those customs consigned to irrelevancy.
