Pacific.Scoop
By Steve Chae

Having a Kiwi sense of identity in the future will not be possible without having multicultural citizenship, says a Massey University sociologist.

Professor Paul Spoonley says New Zealand is multicultural in the sense that a huge range of people live in the country but it will not become a multicultural society without an official multicultural policy.
“What should we do to acknowledge cultural diversity? I think we as New Zealanders haven’t got our heads around diversity,” he says.

Professor Spoonley ... honoured for his contribution to race relations. Photo: Steve Chae/PMC

Professor Spoonley was this month awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Science and Technology medal for his work on race relations in New Zealand.

The major question he asks is: “What does multiculturalism look like in a bicultural society?”

He says New Zealand needs to bring in multicultural policies like Australia and Canada.

But it’s not just about social policies, he says, as Kiwis already have a notion of better race relations than Australia.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres says: “There has been 50 years of denial in that New Zealanders thought we were in some race relations paradise.”

Hard evidence
He says people shut down when talking about racism, but when there is hard evidence in the annual report on race relations released by the Human Rights Commission, that can be a risk.

“My major concern is to monitor racially motivated crimes,” he says.

“Harassment of international students is a problem. This is from the changing patterns of migration where a significant number of them are from Asian countries.”

He says New Zealand’s demographic profile has changed a lot in the past 20 years.

During his seven years in the post, he says he has seen a lot of improvement in New Zealanders embracing religious diversity and there has been an increase in the public acknowledgment of Māori language.

However, de Bres says his job is not all about serious things.

“There is a fun side to it as well,” he says. “There has been an explosion of cultural festivals which show the growth of cultural diversity.”

He says this is because different communities want to share with others more.

“There is a conscious effort to reach out. There definitely has been more communication across different communities in New Zealand.”

Progress doubtful
But he is doubtful whether there has been progress.

“My role is to monitor race relations and advocate for equal enjoyment of human rights,” he says. “But we can go backwards.”

Veteran Māori media commentator Derek Fox says: “Race relations in New Zealand goes all along ok, and then there is resistance – there are glitches.”

“The Rugby World Cup bid is part of it, Auckland Super City seats is part of it.”

He says the controversy around the Māori Television bid for the Rugby World Cup and the Auckland Super City Māori seats all had a deep-seated prejudice.

Broadcaster Derek Fox ... Māori TV "justifiably grieved". Photo: OnScreen

Fox, a publisher of Mana magazine and also a founding chairman of Māori TV, says there were prejudiced views by the government on the recent Māori TV’s free-to-air broadcast bid against other TV stations, namely TV3 and TVNZ.

“Māori TV is justifiably grieved since it was all done in proper time with a proper bid. Then the bid was interfered with by the government,” says Fox.

He says Māori TV is trying to connect with the rest of New Zealanders but there was a strong resistance from Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully.

“Māori TV was born out of great struggle,” he says. “There was resistance from Pākehā but you can’t blame us for wanting this.”

Weak argument
For Farah Palmer, an ex-Black Ferns captain who led her team to all three victories in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cups, the argument for Māori TV not having a sole bid is weak.

“There are no valid reasons. The bid was legitimate and could have exposed Māori language to all New Zealanders,” she says.

Palmer is also a senior lecturer of sports management at Massey University with her research interests including race relations in sport, in particular, regarding Māori women and mothers.

She says although Māori TV had mandatory Māori language it was only 5 to 10 percent, and it was a waste of a good opportunity for people to learn Māori.

Now in its fifth year, Māori TV provides diverse programming but with a bicultural focus.

“It is a bicultural argument,” says Fox. “I also accept the multicultural argument. But it is just about what original culture deserves.

Steven Young, president of New Zealand Chinese Association (NZCA), says New Zealand has in the past 20 years got a strong bicultural underpinning to the society.

‘Post-bicultural NZ’
Young sees this as the way forward, or what he calls “post-bicultural New Zealand”.

He says this is positive and has made New Zealand distinctive, placing Māori people at a more prominent place.

He says the multicultural imperative is strong with him “with one foot in three camps”.

“Just as 20, 30 years ago we couldn’t see bicultural having positive outcome for New Zealand. If people work on the multicultural aspect we will see it in the next 20, 30 years.”

However, Fox says some people have suspicion that multiculturalism will weaken the Māori position.

“And we will resist that,” he says.

“Māori are coming to grips with multiculturalism. Twenty years ago there were only two cultures.”

Fox says Māori can do better with diversity.

He says the rest of New Zealanders are “trying to find a place on the TV dial” by watching multicultural programmes such as Stratos TV.

Māori word
Professor Spoonley suggests the word for “multiculturalism” could be replaced by a word in Māori just like other English words that are used with a Māori counterpart.

Palmer says kotahitanga or unity can be used, and it will benefit all New Zealanders as long as it does not overshadow issues and rights that Māori have.

She says people use multiculturalism versus biculturalism arguments to paint Māori as anti-multicultural.

“New Zealand is a young country and we’re still struggling to acknowledge the bicultural identity. How can we be able to grasp multicultural concept when it is difficult to grasp the bicultural heritage?”

Palmer says New Zealanders don’t like talking about race because Kiwis think New Zealand has good race relations.

“It’s done behind doors – there’s a lot of fear,” she says.

NZCA’s Young says how Chinese culture has been absorbed by New Zealanders through festivals such as Chinese Lantern Festival.

“But festivals are festivals. We need something more substantive.

De Bres says the Human Rights Commission tries to connect organisations together but social networking sites such as Facebook are doing more and more to connect individuals together.

He says the ultimate goal would be to see people taking on the ownership role of multicultural initiatives such as Diversity Action Programme.

‘Grassroots action’
“I believe in grassroots action,” he says.

Professor Spoonley says there is an emerging multicultural citizenship in New Zealand that need to be more encouraged within the core institutions.

“Do we have a voting system that encourages participation from a variety of different groups?”

He says it means more rights not just to voting but media, health and many other social structures citizens can identify in society.

“It’s about politics,” he says.

Steve Chae is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at AUT University.