New MP's view about cultures spot on

Ms Fox stressed the concept of equity, of both cultures having solidity and validity in New Zealand.

I WAS deeply impressed with the maiden speech of Maori list MP Marama Fox, who really touched on a lot of the conflicts our country's Maori and pakeha cultures have with each other.

Ms Fox stressed the concept of equity, of both cultures having solidity and validity in New Zealand. I especially noted her comment about "entertainment fluff", suggesting this was how the Maori culture was viewed.

I can relate to the latter comment because it can, God help me, feel precisely like that, especially when the powhiri seems out of proportion or simply too long. And it's a terrible thing to say, because a powhiri confers colossal respect on both sides. It is an honour. But they can seem out of kilter to the situation.

When I was growing up, in the Hokianga, Maori practices and greetings were part of day-to-day life. I mean, as a kid you pretty much go along with anything, and you didn't blink an eye to your class going to the marae for the morning and your teacher performing flawless greetings in Te Reo. Commands at school were interspersed with Maori words. I can still remember the slang words we used which I now know were distorted Maori phrases. This is a time, in the seventies, when the Maori language was feeling threatened.

That was normality, back then. You didn't have to think about it. Now I'm the guy, as I noted in a previous editorial, who isn't easy about saying kia ora as a greeting.

There have to be reasons why the Maori culture sometimes seems to sit as an adjunct to the New Zealand way of life. The difficulty is that life - the European system of life - is just overwhelming, demanding and gets in the way. The concepts of commercialism, capitalism and a general fight-your-way-forward takes up too much attention.

As a European New Zealander, I really envy the Maori culture and pride and whakapapa, in the manner of a first-generation New Zealander with somewhat disparate roots. But it isn't my culture to have.

In the end, people have to feel comfortable in who they are and where they stand, right now, but also where they are going to. And it's the "going", with little time to reflect on who we are and where we come from, that makes us adaptable - but also degrades our concept of culture.