Tracey McIntosh - Maori and Social Issues

Te Ahukaram Charles Royal
Director, Ng Pae o te Mramatanga

During the course of the nineteenth century, a new people emerged in our country, a group who were to become known in the present day as Mori. Comprising the aboriginal inhabitants of Aotearoa New Zealand at the time of European arrival, this new collectivity and identity arose primarily through the period of European colonisation. Since that time it has become usual for us to refer to a people in this country as Mori and yet one may wonder how meaningful the identity called Mori really was and is. For example, my Ngti Raukawa and Ngti Toarangatira ancestors migrated to the southern reaches of the North Island and the northern reaches of the South Island in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In doing so, they came into conflict with the Kurahaup peoples who were living there at the time.

When 1840 arrived and the identity called Mori began to emerge, one wonders how acceptable it would have been to the Kurahaup peoples to now be grouped into a new identity called Mori, a grouping which included my ancestors with whom they were in conflict. I suspect that it was only meaningful when these peoples were speaking in contrast or directly to the equally new identity called Pkeh.

Feeling the full onslaught of European arrival, the quest for some kind of pan-Mori unity grew expressed in such initiatives as the King Movement, the Kotahitanga Parliaments, the Young Mori Party and the Rtana Church. It is significant that, despite these substantial initiatives, such unity has never been finally achieved, suggesting a diversity greater than that symbolised by the word Mori.

Ought we to be surprised by this? I think not. It is a modern misunderstanding that suggests in an absolute and comprehensive way that there is a homogenous and unified Mori people. Indeed, there is a Mori people but the boundaries are porous and the picture is rich and complex. The foundations of the contemporary Mori world are the many iwi, hap and whnau found throughout the country, complicated yet further by experiences of urbanisation and the increasing diversity in our genealogies. If we were to trace the experiences and lifeways of all the descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants of this land at the time of European arrival, the picture would be rich, diverse and complicated.

Of course, it is possible to suggest that today Mori is meaningful because of the incidence of certain kinds of social experiences and issues that distinctively occur or feature in this group. Considerable effort has been exerted to identify those social experiences (health disparities, for example) which occur in certain unique ways in the Mori population. A secondary question relates to the degree to which these issues and challenges have arisen as a consequence of historical factors, particularly those which arose during European colonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand. We can ask to what degree can the disparities and challenges facing Mori today be attributed (partially at least) to experiences of colonisation, including land loss, fragmentation of families and community and cultural loss leading to poverty and impoverishment?

The Mori people remain today. For better or for worse, Mori is a distinctive identity and people in our nation, despite its imperfections as a way of labelling and identifying these people. This volume contains contributions concerning various social issues as they affect Mori people. It is the first of a planned series of edited collections on various topics by Ng Pae o te Mramatanga. A Centre of Research Excellence, our mission is to conduct excellent research designed to engage the creative potential of Mori communities to create positive change and transformation. We commission research which addresses needs and opportunities arising in those communities. This volume is an overview of some of the social issues and needs arising in those communities and how they might be addressed. By no means the last word, this volume represents an opportunity to provide an overview of social issues and how they affect Mori.