-indigenous, ethnicity, multi-cultural, immigration, language, culture, relationships -
"Families, like trees, grow and develop with their surroundings.
Seeds are blown by the wind and new trees are born elsewhere.
Roots sink into the ground from which the new tree draws life.
Children, like branches, stretch out. Families and trees have similar destinies"
(Mirella Ricciardi African Saga, cited in Michael King's Being Pakeha, 1985, p8)
Living in a multi-cultural world, it is good to understand the terms, and the feelings behind the terms, of culture. Some words are not easily defined, can be emotionally charged or can be changed and used for political purposes. Many terms have to do with "us and them" but were not originally intended as divisive or used with animosity. They were just descriptors, differentiating without rancor. For the vaShona of Zimbabwe, a munhu is a person ( one who speaks the language) while a murungu is a white, generally one who couldn't be communicated with. It was about language, and not racially charged.
A recent seminar on Islam differentiated behind the culture and the religion of a Muslim person. Variations on both of those, culture and religion, will also vary from country to country. A Saudi follower of Islam will think and have different expectations than a Malaysian Muslim.
What is cultural? What is truly religious?
What must we accommodate as we choose to live life in closer proximity to each other
and what must be held loosely as immigration integrates us all?
and what must be held loosely as immigration integrates us all?
The following highlights some of the terms and gives a simplified peek in to foundational issues of New Zealand bi-culturalism with no real reference to the mosaic of cultures we enjoy today. Comments welcomed!
____
What is ethnicity? The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Sykes, 1982) defines ethnicity as ‘n.; of a specified racial, linguistic, etc., group’. An ethnic group is described in broad terms in Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities (NZ Department of Labour, 1985) as ‘people who are aware that they share a common ancestry, culture and history and who maintain their
cultural identity’. This definition complicates the notion that ethnicity is self-attributable as some surveys and census forms allow.The term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside immigrants which have populated the region and which are greater in number.[1] However, several widely accepted formulations, which define the term indigenous peoples in stricter terms, have been put forward by prominent and internationally recognized organizations.
Other related terms for indigenous peoples include aborigines, aboriginal peoples, native peoples, first peoples, first nations, Amerigine, and autochthonous (this last term having a derivation from Greek, meaning "sprung from the earth"). Wikipedia
The adjective indigenous has the common meaning of from or of the original origin Therefore, in a purely adjectival sense any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as being indigenous in reference to some particular region or location.
Key to a contemporary understanding of "indigenousness" is the political role an ethnic group plays, for all other criteria usually taken to denote Indigenous groups (territory, race, history, subsistence lifestyle, etc.) can to a greater or lesser extent also be applied to majority cultures. Therefore, the distinction applied to Indigenous ethnic groups can be formulated as "a politically underprivileged group, who share a similar ethnic identity different to the nation in power, and who have been an ethnic entity in the locality before the present ruling nation took over power" (Greller, 1997).
However, the specific term indigenous peoples has a more restrictive interpretation when it used in the more formalized, legalistic and academic sense, associated with the collective rights of human populations.Specific to New Zealand the discussion continues:
The English – Maori: Maori English Dictionary (Briggs, 1990) defines ‘Maori’ as "native, indigenous, ordinary". Kiwi Words and Phrases (Campbell, 1999) defines ‘Maori’ as "indigenous people of New Zealand". According to a contemporary Maori kaumatua Ross Himona, ’Maori’ itself is not the primary term we (the Maori) use to describe ourselves (the Maori). We were, and are, a tribal peoples, we describe ourselves according to our tribal membership, rather than as a Maori. I am Maori only in relation to Pakeha. Maori means ‘normal’, i.e. in relation to Pakeha, I am Maori. These definitions indicate that ‘Maori’ was adopted initially to enable a linguistic differentiation between the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa and the early European settlers, the Maori and the other. The definition of ‘Maori’ does not appear to have changed over time. However, the definition of the other, or ‘Pakeha’ has altered to some extent.
By 1985 a significant development occurs with the definition when King (1985, p12) defines Pakeha as "denoting non-Maori New Zealanders". There is nothing in the definition referring to colour. It is merely all those people who are of non-Maori descent. King’s definition of Pakeha is given weight when we define the term Maori as ‘normal’, that is to say that, in relation to Pakeha, I am Maori. It is merely a means by which the peoples of Aotearoa differentiate between the indigenous peoples and the early European Settlers, or the Maori and the other, irrelevant of race, colour, ethnicity, and culture.
Both ‘Pakeha’ and ‘Maori’ terms instead offer us a way to differentiate between the historical origins of our settlers, the Polynesian and European. "In the beginning we were all immigrants to these islands, our ancestors boat people who arrived by waka, ship or aeroplane. The ingredients of our indigenous cultures too were imported: the East Polynesian language that became Maori, and English; Papatuanuku, and the Bible; Maui and Tane Mahuta, Robin Hood and Horatio Nelson; the kumara and the kiwifruit . . . An understanding of our respective origins is the beginning of our present selves" Michael King in Being Pakeha Now, 1999, p11.
"Is it not true that we "become indigenous to New Zealand at the point where our focus of identity and commitment shifts to New Zealand, and away from our countries and cultures of origin" (King, 1999, p235). It is certainly true that in a country that has been inhabited for little more than one thousand years everyone is an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants.
From Maori News online.
Comments