Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Auckland history and scenery: April 18
This morning we visited Auckland’s War Memorial Museum (http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/). This fine museum has fine exhibits of New Zealand military history and unique flora and fauna and an exceptional collection of Maori and Polynesian art and artifacts. We were given a terrific tour by Barry, a retired gentleman who is an enthusiastic and very erudite docent. Afterwards we roamed the museum independently for a while before attending a Maori musical performance.
A few words about the Maori (pronounced “Maw-ri” with a rolled ‘r’) are appropriate at this point. The native people of New Zealand have fared better than the aboriginal peoples of many other lands colonized by Europeans. The Maori were a fierce and warlike people with a strong sense of pragmatism. They were notoriously tribal and cannibalistic, and during the years of English settlement, they may have fought more with each other than with the English. They adapted European weapons and religion, put up fierce resistance to English authority, and yet learned to negotiate with the colonials and to exploit them as trading partners. As a consequence, they were never swept away into reservations or marginalized into the realm of alcoholic unemployment. They intermarried extensively, to the point where few “pure-blooded” Maori remain today, but they also retained their language, their tribal affliations and music, and their meeting places, the marae (“muh-rye”), which include ceremonial structures, community dining halls, and gardens. They formalized their relationship to the Crown during the time of Queen Victoria in the Treaty of Waitangi, an important document that forms the basis of English-Maori relations in modern New Zealand. Unfortunately, the Maori and English versions of this document describe aboriginal sovereignty in slightly different terms, a semantic inconsistency that has imbued ethnic and political relations with a degree of ambiguity and tension. A special commission is charged with the task of applying the Treaty of Waitangi to legal cases.
New Zealand, like other nations within the British Commonwealth, does not have its own constitution, and the Queen remains the formal head of state. National offices are “Crown” agencies, and the Queen appoints a governor who is the ceremonial head of state. NZ has a parliament; the current prime minister is Helen Clark, a political scientist and leader of the Labour Party who was formerly a university lecturer. Certain government posts and parliamentary seats are reserved for Maori citizens. Aotearoa, as it is known in Maori, is an officially bilingual nation, and most public signs and government documents use both languages. School teachers must know some Maori phrases, and Maori have risen to prominence in many arenas. Perhaps the most famous of modern Maori is Tiri Te Kanewa, the great soprano, but many civic leaders, artists, and athletes are Maori. When Maori people address the general public, they typically begin with a few sentences in Maori and then continue in impeccable English, delivered with an English accent. A degree of “political correctness” prevails in government and public culture: considerable deference is paid to Maori history and cultural views, though privately some resentment of these concessions is expressed by individuals of European ancestry. Predominantly Maori neighborhoods or suburbs are usually less affluent than those that are primarily populated by European Kiwis. Museums often contain lavish exhibits documenting the Maori view of the origins of the world and of the Maori people; neighboring exhibit halls present western descriptions of the migrations that brought humans to New Zealand (about 1,000 years ago) and of the evolutionary processes that generated the country’s native flora and fauna. The institutions do not attempt to reconcile these widely disparate narratives.
Auckland, which is home to more than one quarter of New Zealand’s four million people, has become the largest Polynesian city in the world due to recent immigration. Most of New Zealands 435,000 Maoris live on the North Island, and many reside in Auckland, where they have been joined by large numbers of Samoans and other Pacific Islanders. The growing number of non-Maori Polynesians has perhaps weakened the Maoris’ special status as the primary non-European population segment.
Later this afternoon we drove up Mt. Eden, one of the 48 volcanic cones that dot the Auckland landscape. Mt. Eden is in a large park, and a one-way road brings vehicles to its grassy summit. A small herd of cattle was grazing down inside the crater, probably to suppress shrubs and tree saplings. The summit provided a commanding view of the greater Auckland region and of its convoluted harbor. Busloads of Japanese tourists came and went while we took in the sights. Road-hardened runners pounded their way to the top and paused for breathe before descending back to the city.
From our hotel we walked a couple of blocks to the largest cinema complex I have ever seen, where we ate in the food court and then viewed “Sione’s Wedding,” a comedy about a group of young Samoan men living in Auckland who are banned by a priest from attending weddings due to their drunken misbehavior. They will be allowed to attend a friend’s wedding only if accompanied by a real girlfriend; the movie follows their efforts to establish genuine relationships with women, and although the plot is formulaic and the outcome highly predictable, we enjoyed the perspective it offered of Samoan-Auckland social life.
A few words about the Maori (pronounced “Maw-ri” with a rolled ‘r’) are appropriate at this point. The native people of New Zealand have fared better than the aboriginal peoples of many other lands colonized by Europeans. The Maori were a fierce and warlike people with a strong sense of pragmatism. They were notoriously tribal and cannibalistic, and during the years of English settlement, they may have fought more with each other than with the English. They adapted European weapons and religion, put up fierce resistance to English authority, and yet learned to negotiate with the colonials and to exploit them as trading partners. As a consequence, they were never swept away into reservations or marginalized into the realm of alcoholic unemployment. They intermarried extensively, to the point where few “pure-blooded” Maori remain today, but they also retained their language, their tribal affliations and music, and their meeting places, the marae (“muh-rye”), which include ceremonial structures, community dining halls, and gardens. They formalized their relationship to the Crown during the time of Queen Victoria in the Treaty of Waitangi, an important document that forms the basis of English-Maori relations in modern New Zealand. Unfortunately, the Maori and English versions of this document describe aboriginal sovereignty in slightly different terms, a semantic inconsistency that has imbued ethnic and political relations with a degree of ambiguity and tension. A special commission is charged with the task of applying the Treaty of Waitangi to legal cases.
New Zealand, like other nations within the British Commonwealth, does not have its own constitution, and the Queen remains the formal head of state. National offices are “Crown” agencies, and the Queen appoints a governor who is the ceremonial head of state. NZ has a parliament; the current prime minister is Helen Clark, a political scientist and leader of the Labour Party who was formerly a university lecturer. Certain government posts and parliamentary seats are reserved for Maori citizens. Aotearoa, as it is known in Maori, is an officially bilingual nation, and most public signs and government documents use both languages. School teachers must know some Maori phrases, and Maori have risen to prominence in many arenas. Perhaps the most famous of modern Maori is Tiri Te Kanewa, the great soprano, but many civic leaders, artists, and athletes are Maori. When Maori people address the general public, they typically begin with a few sentences in Maori and then continue in impeccable English, delivered with an English accent. A degree of “political correctness” prevails in government and public culture: considerable deference is paid to Maori history and cultural views, though privately some resentment of these concessions is expressed by individuals of European ancestry. Predominantly Maori neighborhoods or suburbs are usually less affluent than those that are primarily populated by European Kiwis. Museums often contain lavish exhibits documenting the Maori view of the origins of the world and of the Maori people; neighboring exhibit halls present western descriptions of the migrations that brought humans to New Zealand (about 1,000 years ago) and of the evolutionary processes that generated the country’s native flora and fauna. The institutions do not attempt to reconcile these widely disparate narratives.
Auckland, which is home to more than one quarter of New Zealand’s four million people, has become the largest Polynesian city in the world due to recent immigration. Most of New Zealands 435,000 Maoris live on the North Island, and many reside in Auckland, where they have been joined by large numbers of Samoans and other Pacific Islanders. The growing number of non-Maori Polynesians has perhaps weakened the Maoris’ special status as the primary non-European population segment.
Later this afternoon we drove up Mt. Eden, one of the 48 volcanic cones that dot the Auckland landscape. Mt. Eden is in a large park, and a one-way road brings vehicles to its grassy summit. A small herd of cattle was grazing down inside the crater, probably to suppress shrubs and tree saplings. The summit provided a commanding view of the greater Auckland region and of its convoluted harbor. Busloads of Japanese tourists came and went while we took in the sights. Road-hardened runners pounded their way to the top and paused for breathe before descending back to the city.
From our hotel we walked a couple of blocks to the largest cinema complex I have ever seen, where we ate in the food court and then viewed “Sione’s Wedding,” a comedy about a group of young Samoan men living in Auckland who are banned by a priest from attending weddings due to their drunken misbehavior. They will be allowed to attend a friend’s wedding only if accompanied by a real girlfriend; the movie follows their efforts to establish genuine relationships with women, and although the plot is formulaic and the outcome highly predictable, we enjoyed the perspective it offered of Samoan-Auckland social life.
# posted by Ken @ 9:24 AM 
