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from The Dominion Post....

Editorial: On Waitangi Day we can celebrate
the Treaty as well as other cultures

5:00AM - Monday, 06 February 2017

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/News/20170206_1486072969241s_zpspih1u838.jpg~original) (https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/9/5/s/3/x/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1h0stv.png/1486072969241.jpg)
Waitangi Day Family Celebrations in Auckland. — Photograph: Fairfax NZ.

WAITANGI DAY has become a day of celebration for many cultures, and not just of Maori culture. All the major cities now have multicultural fairs and festivals, Wellington included. These events have grown as attention has shifted away from the often-fraught official ceremonies around the treaty grounds.

The celebrations are welcome and add to the colour and excitement of the national day. But they also implicitly raise a question about multiculturalism and the official bicultural creed. Some fear that multiculturalism might supplant biculturalism; some, on the other hand, want it to happen. Why should Maori culture have a special place?

In fact there need be no conflict between the two. The bicultural relationship must come first, but that does not mean other cultures are not respected and celebrated. It just means that the nation's founding document was a pact between Maori and non-Maori.

The treaty entailed obligations that do not go away, even though for many decades the treaty was effectively a “simple nullity.” Those days are now thankfully past and the Treaty is embedded in many of our laws and a great part of our political practices.

Some Maori have worried that immigration and demography will dilute the special place of the tangata whenua in New Zealand. A few have explicitly opposed Asian immigration on these grounds. Certainly the population mix is changing rapidly, with Asians now making up nearly 12 percent of the total, a group which is growing more quickly than Maori (now just under 15 percent.)

The political power of people of Asian ethnicity is inevitably growing; there is now even a political party dedicated to their interests. The mainstream parties have also been responding to the growing number of Asian voters, with National clearly ahead of Labour in choosing Asian candidates.

Does the growth of the Asian population pose a threat to Maori treaty interests? Not necessarily. A growing number of Asian people recognise that they too are “people of the treaty” and that their right to be here hinges off the pact signed in 1840.

On the other hand, not all Asian immigrants understand this, and some conservative immigrants will be unsympathetic to treaty claims just as a sizable number of pakeha are. The treaty remains contested in all parts of the community. Nobody knows whether these conflicts will grow.

The treaty, however, is a symbol of respect for other cultures and it is natural that Waitangi Day should also encourage other cultures to flourish and show themselves. In that sense, too, there is no conflict between biculturalism and multiculturalism.

If pride in one's culture is conceded as a right to any cultural group it must be conceded to all. That includes the pakeha culture as well.

In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, where the great English-speaking nations are wanting to slam the door on foreigners and fling innocent refugees back to the hell-holes they are trying to escape from, these truths about cultural understanding do matter.

Respect for other cultures might seem a bland or even banal idea. In fact, it's under increasing attack. On Waitangi Day, we should reaffirm its value.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/89057011 (http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/89057011)

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General Category => General Forum => Topic started by: Lovelee on February 06, 2009, 06:05:05 am