Cook Islands dancers at Auckland's Pasifika festival
The largely rural life in early New Zealand led to the image of New Zealanders being rugged, industrious problem solvers. Modesty was expected and enforced through the "tall poppy syndrome", where high achievers received harsh criticism.[263] At the time New Zealand was not known as an intellectual country. From the early 20th century until the late 1960s Māori culture was suppressed by the attempted assimilation of Māori into British New Zealanders. In the 1960s, as higher education became more available and cities expanded urban culture began to dominate. Even though the majority of the population now lives in cities, much of New Zealand's art, literature, film and humour has rural themes.
The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand (Aotearoa). They probably arrived in south-western Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300, although dates of up to 2000 years ago still attract some support. The Māori settled the islands and developed a distinct culture.
Maori oral history tells of a long voyage from Hawaiki (the mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) in large ocean-going canoes (waka). Māori mythology is a distinctive corpus of gods and heroes, sharing some Polynesian motifs. Some notable figures are Rangi and Papa, Māui, and Kupe.
Central to many cultural events is the marae, where families and tribes gather for special occasions, such as pōwhiri or tangi. Māori often call themselves "tāngata whenua" (people of the land), placing particular importance on a lifestyle connected to land and sea. Communal living, sharing, and living off the land are strong traditional values.
The distinct values, history, and worldview of Maori are expressed through traditional arts and skills such as haka, tā moko, waiata, carving, weaving, and poi. The concept of tapu (meaning taboo or sacred) is also a strong force in Māori culture, applied to objects, people, or even mountains.
Europeans migrated to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the weapon technologies and diseases they introduced destabilised Māori society. After 1840 and the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori lost much of their land and mana (prestige and authority), entering a period of cultural and numerical decline. However their population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s, sometimes known as the Maori Renaissance.
Pākehā culture
Pakeha New Zealanders circa 1906.
Pākehā culture (usually synonymous with New Zealand European) derives mainly from that of the British settlers who colonised New Zealand in the nineteenth century. Although it is recognisably related to British culture, it has always had distinct differences, and these have increased as time has gone on. Things which distinguish Pākehā culture from British culture include higher levels of egalitarianism, anti-intellectualism, and the idea that most people can do most things if they put their minds to it. Within Pākehā culture are sub-cultures derived from Irish, Italian and other European groups, as well as various non-ethnic subcultures.
It has been claimed that Pākehā do not actually have a culture, or if they do it is not a distinct one. Part of the problem is that high culture is often mistaken for culture in general, and the lack of recognition historically given to New Zealand's artists, writers and composers is seen as evidence of a lack of culture. In contrast, Pākehā pop culture is generally highly visible and often valued. This is observable in the common belief that kiwiana, a category of kitsch 1950s-style artifacts, is a defining cultural touchstone.
Others argue that belief in the 'absence' of culture in NZ is a symptom of white privilege, allowing members of a dominant group to see their culture as 'normal' or 'default', rather than as a specific position of relative advantage. One of the goals of Pākehā anti-racist groups of the 1980s was to enable Pākehā to see their own culture as such, rather than thinking what they did was normal and what other people did was 'ethnic' and strange.
Cultural borrowing and adaptation
Māori borrowing from Pākehā culture
Since the early stages of colonisation, Māori have been receptive adopters of aspects of Pākehā culture. From the 1830s many Māori converted to Christianity and in the process learned to read and write, to the extent that it has been claimed that in mid nineteenth century New Zealand, Māori were more likely to be literate than Pākehā. A number of religions, such as Pai Marire and Ringatu, arose in the nineteenth century, blending Māori tradition and Christianity. Similarly Māori traditional chants were put to Victorian music, or written to European tunes, European designs and metal tools adopted by carvers, altering their style and British fabrics and cloth, such as blanketing adopted to form new dress. The horse was adopted, particularly on the East coast. European tools and particularly weapons were frequently decorated with traditional motifs, for example wooden musket and rifle stocks acquired elaborate carving. From the 1820s Maori began building vessels in the European boat building tradition. Many of these activities were conducted in collaboration with Pakeha traders and settlers.
From the 1860s, the adoption of Pākehā culture became less of a free choice as Pākehā began to outnumber Māori. A Pākehā-dominated parliament had free rein to pass legislation affecting Māori, such as the Native Schools Act (1867) which required English to be the dominant medium of instruction for Māori children. So, while majority of Māori encouraged their children to learn the English language and Pākehā ways of life in order to function economically and socially, Māori were pushed as well as pulled into changing culture. From the early twentieth century and especially from the 1970s, Māori began to protest against this Eurocentrism and demanded equal recognition for their own culture.
Many Māori have become successful practitioners of European-derived art forms; indeed many of New Zealand's biggest arts success stories are Māori or part Māori. These include opera singers Inia Te Wiata and Kiri Te Kanawa, novelists Keri Hulme (winner of the Booker Prize) and Alan Duff, poet Hone Tuwhare and painter Ralph Hotere, actors Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis and director Lee Tamahori. Māori culture has also provided inspiration to Pakeha artists.
Pākehā borrowing from Māori culture
A multi-ethnic All Black squad perform a haka.
Since the late nineteenth century, Pākehā have used many of its forms when they required something distinctively New Zealand. The most famous example of this is the haka of the All Blacks, a Māori posture dance which is performed before international rugby matches (there are many non-Māori Polynesian All Blacks, thus making this a multi-ethnic borrowing). However Pākehā artists such as Colin McCahon and Gordon Walters have also incorporated Māori motifs into their art, and a number of early Pākehā writers used Māori themes and topics in an effort to create an authentically New Zealand literature. The tourist industry has also made heavy use of Māori culture in an effort to present tourists with distinctly New Zealand experiences and items. This may show that Pākehā are not entirely confident that they have a culture of their own, or if they do, that it is interesting or distinct. Many Pākehā in other countries use Māori culture in order to express their New Zealandness, even if they take little interest in Māori while in New Zealand. An example of this is the mass haka which takes place in Parliament Square in London every Waitangi Day. Although Māori are generally involved, most participants are Pākehā.
For many years Pākehā did not consult Māori over the use of their culture, and Māori generally did not protest loudly unless a symbol was being used in a particularly inappropriate way. From the 1970s, Māori began increasingly to object to Pākehā use of their culture, especially when this use was disrespectful or ignorant. One example of this is the 'haka party incident' of 1979. University of Auckland engineering students had a tradition of performing an obscene mock haka at graduation. After pleas from Māori students to discontinue the practice were ignored, a group assaulted the engineering students. They were later charged with assault but defended by Māori elders who testified that the engineers' haka was deeply offensive. Most Pākehā are now more respectful of Māori culture and often consult Māori before using Māori cultural forms. However despite some attempts to copyright cultural intellectual property this does not always occur and forms are still sometimes used in inappropriate ways.
Nonetheless, some Pākehā have been deeply involved in the revival of otherwise lost Māori arts. In the performance of traditional Māori musical instruments Richard Nunns has earned wide respect; as have the contributions made by many academics, for example, Dame Anne Salmond in the area of traditional rituals of encounter, or Mervyn McLean in the analysis of traditional song.
Borrowing from overseas
Both Māori and Pākehā have borrowed cultural forms and styles from other countries, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. Most popular New Zealand music derives from Anglo-American styles, particularly rock music, hip-hop, electronic dance music and related sub-genres. Although there is evidence of a 'New Zealand style', many groups incorporate New Zealand themes into their work, however this style effects each genera differently. More recently however from the start of the 21st century Dub-step, Drum and Bass, Jungle Trance and related sub-genres, derived from England, has been further developed by New Zealanders into a unique sound, exemplified by Salmonella Dub, Shapeshifter and many others.
The visual arts have also shown the influence of international movements, for example cubism in the early work of Colin McCahon. In general, the development of international mass media and mass communication has meant New Zealanders have always been aware of developments in other countries; this lends itself to the adoption of new forms and styles from overseas.
Languages
New Zealand has three official languages: New Zealand English, Te Reo Māori (the Māori language), and New Zealand Sign Language. In practice only English is widely used although major efforts have been made in recent years to nurture Te Reo. Numerous other languages are spoken in New Zealand due to its high racial diversity as a multicultural country.
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is close to Australian English in pronunciation, but has several differences often overlooked by people from outside these countries. The most obvious difference is in vowel pronunciation. The Australian i-sound is like the New Zealand e, and the New Zealand i like the Australian u. New Zealand vowels in general are softer. (What does this mean?) Some of these differences show New Zealand English to have more affinity with the English of southern England than Australian English does. Several of the differences also show the influence of Māori speech. The most striking difference from Australian and other forms of English (although shared partly with South African English) is the flattened i of New Zealand English. The New Zealand accent also has some Scottish and Irish influences from the large number of settlers from those places during the 19th century. At the time of the 2006 census, English was spoken by 3,673,623 people: 91.2% of the total population.
Te Reo Māori
An Eastern Polynesian language, Te Reo Māori is closely related to Tahitian and Cook Islands Māori; slightly less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Niuean and Tongan. The language went into decline in terms of use following European colonisation, but since the 1970s mildly successful efforts have been made to reverse this trend. These include the granting of official language status through the Māori Language Act 1987, a Māori language week and a Māori Television channel. The 2006 census found Te Reo to be spoken by 157,110 people, making it the most common language in New Zealand after English.
New Zealand Sign Language
New Zealand Sign Language has its roots in British Sign Language (BSL), and may be technically considered a dialect of British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL). There are 62.5% similarities found in British Sign Language and NZSL, compared with 33% of NZSL signs found in American Sign Language. Like other natural sign languages, it was devised by and for Deaf people, with no linguistic connection to a spoken or written language, and it is fully capable of expressing anything a fluent signer wants to say. It uses more lip-patterns in conjunction with hand and facial movement to cue signs than BSL, reflecting New Zealand's history of oralist education of deaf people. Its vocabulary includes Māori concepts such as marae and tangi, and signs for New Zealand placenames. New Zealand Sign Language became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006. A total of 24,090 people in New Zealand use New Zealand sign language.
Other languages
According to the 2006 census, 174 different languages are used in New Zealand (including sign languages). After English and Māori, the most common are Samoan (85,428 speakers), French (53,757), Hindi (44,589) and Cantonese, spoken by 44,154 people). The number of French speakers is probably due to the popularity of French as a subject in schools rather than evidence of large scale Francophone immigration.
Arts
New Zealand has two 'high cultural' traditions: Māori and Western. However most cultural material consumed in New Zealand is imported from overseas, particularly from Britain and the United States. Because of this and New Zealand's small population, most New Zealand artists, performers and writers struggle to make a living from their art.[citation needed] Some funding for the arts is provided through a specific arts based government department, Creative New Zealand. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage are national bodies that assist with heritage preservation. Most towns and cities have museums and often art galleries, and the national museum and art gallery is Te Papa ('Our Place'), in Wellington.
New Zealand art
Pre-European Māori visual art had two main forms: carving and weaving. Both recorded stories and legends and also had religious roles. When Europeans arrived, they brought with them Western artistic traditions. Early Pākehā art focussed mainly on landscape painting, although some of the best known Pākehā artists of the nineteenth century (Charles Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer) specialised in Māori portraiture. Some Māori adopted Western styles and a number of nineteenth century meeting houses feature walls painted with portraits and plant designs. From the early twentieth century Apirana Ngata and others began a programme of reviving traditional Māori arts, and many new meeting houses were built with traditional carving and tukutuku (woven wall panels) were built. A longstanding concern of Pākehā artists has been the creation of a distinctly New Zealand artistic style. Rita Angus and others used the landscape to try and achieve this while painters such as Gordon Walters used Māori motifs. A number of Māori artists, including Paratene Matchitt and Shane Cotton have combined Western modernism with traditional Māori art.
Performing arts
Kapa haka
Kapa haka, (kapa meaning 'rank' or 'row' and haka referring to a Māori dance), is the 'cultural dance' component of traditional Māori Performing Arts. Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express their heritage and cultural identity through song and dance. It has undergone a renaissance, with national competitions held yearly and kapa haka used in many state occasions. The haka (often mistaken as always being a war dance or ritual challenge) has become part of wider New Zealand culture, being performed by the All Blacks as a group ritual before international games and by homesick New Zealanders of all races who want to express their New Zealandness.
Drama
New Zealand drama, both on stage and screen, has been plagued during much of its history by cost and lack of popular interest in New Zealand culture. Despite this Roger Hall and, more recently, Jacob Rajan are two playwrights to achieve considerable popular success. In recent decades New Zealand film has grown dramatically, with the films Once Were Warriors, The Piano and Heavenly Creatures doing well both locally and internationally, and Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson becoming one of film's most successful directors. New Zealand's most popular comedian was the late Billy T. James.
Music of New Zealand
New Zealand music takes most of the same forms as that of other 'Western' countries, with hip-hop being particularly popular amongst young Māori and Pacific Islanders. New Zealand hip-hop tends to be more humorous and much less violent and sexist than in other countries. There are small but thriving live music and dance party scenes. Classical music has less popular support, but New Zealand has produced several successful composers and an internationally famous opera singer (Kiri Te Kanawa). There is also a strong indie music scene present in New Zealand. Reggae is also considered popular within Maori and Pacific Island communities, with bands such as The Herbs, Katchafire, 1814, House Of Shem, Unity Pacific, to name a few, all reflect and express their roots, perspectives and cultural pride and heritage through their music. The collective consciousness of Reggae in Aotearoa New Zealand all embodies the universal message of Love, Peace, and Unity under Jah.
New Zealand humour
In recent decades New Zealand comics have risen in popularity and recognition. In the 1970s and 1980s Billy T James satirized race relations, and McPhail & Gadsby lampooned political figures, especially Rob Muldoon. John Clarke aka Fred Dagg joked about rural life. From the 1990s onwards the Naked Samoans expressed a Polynesian sense of humour to the nation, and Raybon Kan is a prominent Asian comic and columnist. The Topp Twins are an off-beat comic/country music duo, and Flight of the Conchords have become famous throughout the English-speaking world for their self-effacing show.
New Zealand literature
New Zealand's most successful early writers were expatriates such as Katherine Mansfield. From the 1950s, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame and others had (non lucrative) writing careers while still living in New Zealand. Until about the 1980s, the main New Zealand literary form was the short story, but in recent decades novels such as Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors, Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck and others have achieved critical and popular success. Māori culture is traditionally oral rather than literate, but in recent years Māori novelists such as Duff, Witi Ihimaera and Keri Hulme and poets such as Hone Tuwhare have shown their mastery of European-originated forms. Austin Mitchell wrote two "Pavlova Paradise" books about New Zealand. Barry Crump was a popular author who embodied and expounded the myth of the Kiwi larrikin and multi-skilled labourer. Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick are well-known poets. James K Baxter was an eccentric but admired author. Maurice Gee is also a household name for his novels about New Zealand life.
New Zealand cartoonist David Low became famous during World War II for his political satire. Gordon Minhinnick and Les Gibbard were also witty political observers. Murray Ball drew a widely popular syndicated daily strip Footrot Flats, about farm life.
The kiwi female
There are few stereotypes surrounding New Zealand women, and these stereotypes are not as strong as those involving men. The two strongest stereotypes are:
Independence: New Zealand women are sometimes thought to be more independent than women elsewhere. New Zealand being the first country in the world to give women the vote and the only one to have all its most important positions of state power simultaneously filled by women is seen as evidence of this. This ignores the century in between these two events in which New Zealand was far from progressive on women's rights: for example rape within marriage was only criminalised in the mid 1980s.
Lack of femininity: Women in New Zealand are supposedly unfeminine, for example wearing masculine clothing and spending little time on makeup and other forms of personal grooming. This can also be seen in a positive light; Kiwi women are portrayed as not being held back by ideas about being 'ladylike' and are therefore willing to take on 'masculine' tasks such as car maintenance and playing rugby. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark is often seen as an embodiment of this stereotype, for good and bad: critics point at her lack of children and her choice on one occasion to meet the Queen while wearing trousers; supporters like her passion for mountain climbing and ability to hold her own in parliamentary debates.
Attitudes
Anti-intellectualism
Unlike many European countries, but in common with other 'Anglo' countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia, New Zealanders do not have a particularly high regard for intellectual activity, particularly if it is more theoretical than practical. This is linked with the idea of 'kiwi ingenuity' (see above), which supposes that all problems are better solved by seeing what works than by applying a theory. This distrust of theory manifested itself in social policy of the early and mid twentieth century, which historian Michael Bassett described as 'socialism without doctrines': although the policies of the first Labour and other governments pursued traditionally socialist goals, they were not based on any coherent theory. A major break with this tradition came in the 1980s when the fourth Labour and fourth National governments enacted a series of reforms based on free market ideology. This reinforced many New Zealanders' distrust of intellectual theory, as many consider that the reforms increased poverty and inequality in New Zealand. Despite the prevailing mood of anti-intellectualism, New Zealand has reasonably high rates of participation in tertiary education and has produced a number of internationally renowned scholars and scientists, including Ernest Rutherford, J.G.A. Pocock and Alan MacDiarmid. It should be noted that both Rutherford and Pocock spent most of their professional lives in Britain. For many years this was a common occurrence, and a consequence both of New Zealanders' attitudes and the low population which made it hard to support major research.
Attribution
Because New Zealanders often have to relocate to achieve worldwide fame and fortune, New Zealanders are keen to claim famous people as being New Zealanders, however short their residency in New Zealand might have been. While people born in New Zealand are certainly identified as New Zealanders, those who attended a New Zealand school or resided in New Zealand also qualify, irrespective of national origin. This sometimes leads to famous people and innovations being identified as coming from both New Zealand and another country—such as the pop group Crowded House, the race horse Phar Lap and the actor Russell Crowe, all of whom have been associated with Australia and New Zealand.
Social conservatism and progressiveness
New Zealand social policy has tended to oscillate between high levels of innovation and progressiveness and equally high levels of conservatism. Social reforms pioneered by New Zealand include women's suffrage, the welfare state, and respect for indigenous peoples (through the Treaty of Waitangi and the Waitangi Tribunal). Having led the (non-communist) world in economic regulation from the 1930s, in the 1980s and 1990s the reforms of the Labour Government led the world in economic de-regulation. New Zealand was the first country to have an openly transsexual mayor, and later member of parliament, Georgina Beyer.
In contrast to this, New Zealand has a history of some very conservative social policies. Most notably, from World War One until 1967 pubs were required by law to close at 6pm. Until the 1980s most shops were banned from opening on weekends, and until 1999 alcohol could not be sold on Sundays.
In a rare occurrence, the 1981 Springbok Tour saw the two extremes very publicly clash with each other on a nationwide scale.
Attitudes to authority
As in most countries, many in New Zealand distrust politicians. This was particularly the case from the 1970s to the 1990s. During this period governments were seen as being autocratic and unresponsive to the will of the people. Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (1975–84), Finance Minister Ruth Richardson (1990–93) and many members of the Fourth Labour Government (1984–1990) were particularly disliked. This, and two elections in which one party lost the popular vote but still won the election, led New Zealanders to reform the electoral system, changing from First Past the Post to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), a form of proportional representation.
Despite this, most New Zealanders display faith in their democracy, with New Zealand being rated the second least corrupt nation in the world. Turnout for parliamentary elections is typically above 80%, which is very high by international standards and occurs despite the absence of any law requiring citizens to vote. However local government elections have much lower turnout figures, with an average of 53% in 2007.
New Zealanders, both those of Pākehā and Māori roots, have also been noted as very individualistic people, who take intrusion very personally, especially when it occurs onto private land (but also sometimes in a wider sense). According to psychologists, this is rooted respectively in the 'Frontier' image of the European settler culture, but also mirrored amongst the Maori, for whom land holds a lot of spiritual value in addition to its commercial use.
Attitudes to multiculturalism
New Zealand has for most of its modern history been an isolated bi-cultural society. In recent decades an increasing number of immigrants has changed the demographic spectra. In the larger cities this change has occurred suddenly and dramatically. There has been an increasing awareness of multiculturalism in New Zealand in all areas of society and also in politics. New Zealand's race relations has been a controversial topic in recent times. The political party New Zealand First has been associated with an anti immigration policy. The Office of the Race Relations Conciliator was established by the Race Relations Act in 1971 for the purposes of "promoting positive race relations and addressing complaints of discrimination on grounds of race, colour, and ethnic or national origin", and was merged with the Human Rights Commission in January 2002.
All about New Zealand:
- New Zealand
- History of New Zealand
- Politics of New Zealand
- Foreign relations and the military of New Zealand
- Local government in New Zealand
- Environment of New Zealand
- Geography of New Zealand
- Climate of New Zealand
- Biodiversity of New Zealand
- Economy of New Zealand
- Companies of New Zealand
- Demographics of New Zealand
- Religion in New Zealand
- Education in New Zealand
- Sport in New Zealand
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