Editorial: Pakeha, the name we can embrace

Pakeha, the Maori word for white people, is said to have several impolite translations. The worst of them were dismissed by historian Michael King in the book he was proud to title Being Pakeha. King says Pakeha is an abbreviation of a term which meant pale-skinned people. We can live with that.

Or can we? Many New Zealanders of European descent now embrace the term, as our poll published yesterday confirmed. But just as many do not. Those of European descent were evenly divided, 49 per cent each way, on the question: "Do you think of yourself as Pakeha?" It is unlikely that most of those who resist the label do so out of mistaken fear for what it may mean. Perhaps they would prefer not to be known by a Maori word. Or perhaps they simply do not like this one.

People often do not have much choice in the names they acquire. Children quickly learn there is no more certain way to draw any sting from a nickname than to wear it cheerfully and use it themselves. Pakeha has been in common use for so long that the level of discomfort found in the DigiPoll sample is a surprise. As could be expected, older people disowned the word by a clear majority. But even among the young, nearly 40 per cent do not think of themselves as Pakeha. What, we wonder, would they prefer?

European? Most New Zealanders of that descent are three, four or five generations removed from Europe now. It is becoming a little odd to identify oneself by association with a continent on the other side of the world. We will always trace many of our cultural roots to Europe and value that heritage, along with the Polynesian, Asian and other components of our national character. But most Pakeha today are not Europeans, as they discover when they go to Europe. We are quite different.

So what should we call ourselves? "White" is, well, colourless. "Non-Maori" seems a negative and unduly amorphous description of people, though it is becoming the standard statistical label for most of us. "Kiwi," the national nickname, should not be appropriated for one group. And, no, we can't all be simply "New Zealanders." There is a need to identify the various ethnic strains in the population and no harm in it, so long as identification does not lead to discrimination.

In fact, there is value in it for the people concerned. Those who happily embrace the word Pakeha probably feel a good deal more content and secure about their place in the world than those who continue to call themselves, for want of something better, European.

One of the sharpest points of distinction between European descendants in New Zealand and those anywhere else in the world is that we live partly in a culture others know almost nothing about. The most monocultural of us will be found in conversation with foreigners explaining something of Maori and our history here in order that others may understand us. It is the most natural thing in the world that we should be known by the Maori word for us.

Nobody, of course, should be obliged to accept an identity they do not feel. But that cuts both ways. If the term Pakeha has been dropped from the forthcoming census to appease diehard "Europeans," it is time for Pakeha to protest. They have as much right as anybody else in this country to have their cultural identity acknowledged and respected. Let the census include both terms. Europeans and Pakeha are, in an important sense, culturally different. It would be interesting to have a measure of the numbers in each category. Our poll suggests they would be about equal at present.

Europeans and Pakeha probably differ in their conceptions of this country and their place within it. That is a much more important thing to measure than the number who trace descent from Europe. Ethnicity is no longer defined in social statistics by bloodlines alone. Self-selection prevails. Those who regard themselves as Maori or European are numbered as such. Those who regard themselves as Pakeha should receive the same recognition. And the more their number grows, the better the country might be.