Māoriness

Māoriness is the state or quality of being Māori, or of embodying Māori characteristics. It comprises the qualities that distinguish Māori and form the basis of their peoplehood and identity, and the expressions of Māori culture — such as habits, behaviours, or symbols — that have a common, familiar or iconic quality readily identifiable with the Māori people.

Background

Māoriness has a multitude of dimensions, being expressed along many cultural axis points. The concept of Maoritanga, or Māori culture, such as in events like Te Matatini,[1] forms a significant part of the fabric of behaviours and habits that form a sense of Māoriness.[2]

In 1991, in a Hocken Collections study, Professor Atholl Anderson proposed that for many Māori, Māoriness had become confined to a simple acknowledgement of some native ancestry, especially for urban Māori people who may become isolated from their tribal roots.[3] In his 2001 book Paradise Reforged, historian James Belich outlines how the legacy of the Young Maori Party created a form of "benign segregation", creating separate Māori elements for military, sport and land development in New Zealand and therefore nurturing a sense of Māoriness.[4]

In 2017, scholar Elizabeth Kerekere has identified use of the term takatāpui as an important cultural bridging word, in rooting the LGBTQ community to its Māoriness and fostering acceptance.[5] In 2018, political commentator Lizzie Marvelly discussed the difficulty justifying her whakapapa (a native genealogical custom, which is closely linked to Māoriness)[6] as a "white Māori", and the societal need for a more inclusive description of Māoriness.[7]

Academic research

Published as research in the psychology department of Victoria University of Wellington, in 1960 Professor John Williams identified two forms of Māoriness;[8][9] by enculturation and by cognitive choice, proposing there was both a conscious and unconscious manifestation of its expression.[10] Williams created an "Index of Maoriness" questionnaire, which attempted to measure the socio-cultural make up of Māoriness.[11]

In 1971, Journal of the Polynesian Society formed another model for the measurement of its ethnocultural expression.[12] Dr Christina Stachurski has suggested that 1984's The Bone People provided a legitimate portrayal of Māoriness, partly due to the author Keri Hulme's Māori heritage.[13]

References
  1. Campbell, Georgina (21 February 2019). "Kapa haka festival Te Matatini set to light up Wellington". The New Zealand Herald. Te Matatini Ki Te Ao is important in terms of keeping our culture and also it's a chance for all iwi denominations to come together as one to showcase our maoritanga and our maoriness.
  2. Reade, Bryn (30 December 2019). "The perfect holiday in New Zealand – our expert's ultimate itinerary". The Daily Telegraph. For visitors, the experience of Maoritanga – Maoriness – paves a pathway inward to a place forgotten and obstructed by the absurd paraphernalia of modern life.
  3. Anderson, Atholl (1991). Race against time: the early Maori-Pakeha families and the development of the mixed-race population in southern New Zealand. Hocken Library. p. 1. ISBN 978-0902041547. Often these are said to be young urban Maori dislocated from their tribal roots. Although that might account for some, the greater number are people of all age groups and localities whose Maoriness is confined to acknowledging a degree of Maori ancestry.
  4. Bozic-Vrbancic, Senka (2008). "Self and Identity". Tarara: Croats and Maori in New Zealand memory, belonging, identity. Otago University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-1877372094. Belich argues that the main legacy of the Young Maori Party 'was not assimilation but a kind of benign segregation', as they managed to develop separate military, sporting and land development organisations which helped to preserve 'Maoriness' (Belich 2001: 206).
  5. Harris, Sarah (3 October 2017). "Elizabeth Kerekere speaks on Maori LGBTQ term takatāpui". The New Zealand Herald.
  6. Thomas, Carly (30 April 2015). "Asher Newbery's breathing life into art". Manawatu Standard. They are stories – Newbery's explanation to you, me and more importantly to himself – about his whakapapa, his Maoriness and his place in the world.
  7. Marvelly, Lizzie (3 March 2018). "Lizzie Marvelly: Race remarks make the blood boil". The New Zealand Herald. It's time we moved beyond surface discussions of "Māoriness". Being Māori cannot be reduced to a mere number, nor a kind of one-size-fits-all caricature. Indigenous experiences are diverse, depending on a number of factors.
  8. Plog, Stanley C. (1969). Changing Perspectives in Mental Illness. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 202. An item analysis and a factor analysis of the results showed that there were two kinds of "Maoriness" — that is, of Maori cultural self- identity — the two being negatively correlated with each other. They can be termed "Maoriness by enculturation" and "Maoriness by choice.
  9. Ritchie, James E. (1963). The Making of a Maori: A case study of a changing community. A. H. & A. W. Reed. The two might be termed "Maoriness by enculturation" and "Maoriness by choice". Williams found the two to be negatively correlated for his sample.
  10. Levy, Robert I. (1975). "Self and Identity". Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands. University of Chicago Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0226476070. John Williams (1960) found two types of Maoriness. One, un-selfconscious, "natural" Maoriness deriving from growing up embedded in Maori culture, he called "Maoriness by enculturation. The other, a willful and conscious, intellectual identification with and awareness of Maori culture he called "Maoriness by cognitive choice".
  11. Williams, John (1960). "The Uncontrolled Variable – Maoriness". Maori achievement motivation. Victoria University of Wellington. p. 33. Twenty questions of the socio-cultural questionnaire were designed as an Index of Maoriness (see Appendix C).
  12. "Socio-economic and cultural factors in Maori academic attainment". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 80 (1): 30. 1971. It becomes obvious, then, that in attempting to measure "Maoriness" a wide range of factors must be taken into account.
  13. Stachurski, Christina (1975). "the bone people". Reading Pakeha?: Fiction and Identity in Aotearoa New Zealand. Rodopi. p. 94. ISBN 978-9042026445. As well, Hulme's self-proclaimed and well-publicized status as a Maori writer lent validity − if not veracity − to the version of Maoriness offered by the bone people, and the novel's validation of a newly local identity for Pakeha.
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