Bicultural or multi-cultural? (Defining some vocabulary – and why it’s important)

This article is written in the hope that it might help us, as the Christian community across this nation, find some needed simple answers to some simple questions. Here are thoughts on a small handful of questions. What do you think?

How about the idea that we are concurrently both!

• ‘Bicultural’ – is like our ‘constitutional’ identity, affecting protocol in formal gatherings, and in greetings, laws and language. (Te Tiriti was an agreement between Māori and the British Crown – bringing two distinct people’s together under one Government).
• ‘Multicultural’ – is our daily relational reality, with sensitivity to each individual.

It is the same as being concurrently a ‘Christian’ nation and a multi-religious nation

• We are ‘Christian’ – in the sense that it is this faith’s values that we so very clearly embraced together early in our bicultural history (though with Māori leadership notably not present in the first Parliament)
• We are concurrently ‘multi-religious’ – because our Christian heritage affirms the freedom of the will, so faith cannot be coerced. There is therefore the freedom of religion.

As with being both bicultural and multicultural, the former could rightly affect public gatherings and protocols, while the latter is about giving common grace, and showing appropriate sensitivity. to all people.

Q2 – Of what importance is Te Tiriti o Waitangi to a Pākehā?

For some backdrop to the question, New Zealand was recognised by Britain as a sovereign Māori state from 1835 onwards as a result of He Whakaputanga – The Declaration of Independence. This is why a Treaty was needed for before the British Crown could assume any  jurisdiction over / responsibility for the behaviour or welfare of non-Māori here – because the various Māori people’s were collectively recognised as the sovereigns!

 

Te Tiriti o Waitangi was therefore an agreement between Māori and the British Crown, uniting Māori and Pākehā with implications for both groups.

• For Māori – it gave protections
• For Pākehā – it gave the right to be on and in this land.

To note it, without Te Tiriti o Waitangi, all uninvited Pākehā would be intruders. Non-Māori are only rightfully here because of Te Tiriti.

 

Why then is Te Tiriti viewed more as a document belonging more to Māori than to  Pākehā?

• It is because the promises to Māori that were betrayed. We are therefore now trying to work out how to rectify that.

 

Some resulting vocabulary:

There are therefore two distinct people groups, and we are all a part of one of these groups (though some are a part of both groups).

• Tangata whenua – referring to Māori, who are ‘the people of the land.’
• Tangata Tiriti – referring to non-Māori, who are ‘the people of the Treaty.

Q3 – Is a person who is not a Māori a ‘Pākehā’ or a ‘non-Māori’ – and what’s the difference?

‘Pākehā’ means foreigner, but also has the connotation that someone is of European decent. Pākehā (Paakehaa) meant to be pale, or to be an imaginary being, resembling a man.

• Incidentally, a kaumatua I met with early in January 2021 prior to publishing this article told me his ancestors through the white man looked like a ‘ghost’, and this is what caused many of his elders early on to revere and listen more openly to the first Europeans.
• In consideration of the innuendoes, another Māori, when introducing me on one occasion, was careful to point out that I was not a Pākehā – because the innuendos of that term were to him synonymous with a colonialists value system. Another kaumatua this past year told me how he viewed many of his fellow kaumatua (who are Māori) as being Pākehā – by which he meant their values were wrapped up in money and gain for themselves more than their people or any reverence for the sacredness of their lands. Aka, to some, the term Pākehā is now being used in reference to a value system.

This is why some Chinese New Zealanders might sometimes see themselves as a New Zealander of Chinese descent, rather than as a ‘Pākehā’.

However, it remains that the Chinese New Zealander is only rightfully allowed here because of the same Treaty as the rest. They are ‘Tangata Tiriti’ just as much as a New Zealander of European descent. Hence why ‘non-Māori’ as a common term, rather than ‘Pākehā’.

Here are some options for our vocabulary:

• Māori and Pākehā
• Māori and non-Māori.
• Iwi and tauiwi (foreigner).