"The Maori ethnopolitical movement threatens democracy"

"The ethnopolitical Maori-Pakeha movement in New Zealand is subverting democracy, erecting ethnic boundaries between Maori and non-Maori and promoting a cultural elite within Maoridom", Elizabeth Rata claims. She has just published her second book, "Public Policy and Ethnicity, the Politics of Ethnic Boundary Making". The book is written with 13 other academics, including anthropologists Jonathan Friedman and Alain Babadzan.

Her PhD was in the philosophy of education, her thesis was an investigation of Maori revival and retribalisation. In an interview with New Zealand Herald, she says:

My research threw up the opposite of what I thought I'd find - that retribalisation would serve the interests of social justice - so disproving my original argument.
(...)
Many New Zealanders originally supported Maori retribalism because they saw it as a means to much greater social justice - and my argument is that, in fact the opposite has happened - that group of poor marginalised Maori is in the same position now.

Rata discovered the emergence of "neotribal capitalism": Once Maori people were given back assets, they behaved just like white New Zealanders. The aggressive and adventurous grabbed the spoils, she claims, while the rest remained as poor as ever. Although it might have been an unintended consequence, the Maori movement led according to her to an ethnification of politics and society. It led to the belief that ethnicity was our primary identity - more basic than any other identity we could choose. People were classified ethnically within mental health, education. Ethnicity was institutionalised at all levels.

But the biggest problem, says Rata, is that no one will talk about what is happening.

>> read the whole article in The New Zealand Herald

Rata has received lots of criticism for her views. In a Call for papers for the Journal of Indigenous Nations Studies we read:

Rata's rhetoric bears a resemblance to global right wing conservative messages that promote the notion that when "traditional fundamentalists" succeed in intervening into western power structures they contaminate and weaken western democracy.
(...)
Through what amounts to unchecked media access, writers around the globe use their privileged positions to promote western bias and dogma, deepen colonial trauma, and undermine futures of Indigenous Peoples.

And the International Research Institute For Maori And Indigenous Education (Iri) And Te Aratiatia (Maori Education, The University Of Auckland states:

The recent attack by Elizabeth Rata on Kaupapa Maori developments highlights a disturbing trend of racism being disguised as public debate. Director of the International Research Institue for Maori and Indigenous Education, Dr Leonie Pihama, states that the comments by Elizabeth Rata where couched within an "almost unintelligible academic language" do in fact merely reflect the Don Brash position that Maori language and culture have little significance in this country.

I suppose one example of these racist attacks can be found in this article Gene linked to Maori violence

I've neglected Maori issues in this blog. For current news, see Waatea News Update by journalist Adam Gifford and for more links Wikipedia: Maori.

SEE ALSO:

Studies in the Making of the Maori: An Introduction by Jennifer Gin Lee

Stephen Webster: Maori hapuu and their history (Australian Journal of Anthropology, Dec 1997)

Judith Simon: Anthropology, 'native schooling' and Maori: The politics of 'cultural adaptation' policies (Oceania, Sep 1998)

Jeffrey Sissons: Anthropology, Maori tradition and colonial process
(Oceania Sep 1998)