THE IMPACT OF WESTERN INVASION ON MAORI CULTURE

The Impact of Western Invasion on Maori Culture in New Zealand

Table of contents

Chapter I3

Introduction3

Maori culture in general, their tradition and values3

Chapter II5

Treaty of waitangi5

Protest at Waitangi10

Representations of Maori in the centenary celebrations11

Tourists' appreciation of host culture16

The study19

Chapter III21

Cultural Tourism that came in the later years, whether its reviving their culture or harming it21

Method21

Tourists' appreciation of Maori culture24

Results25

Perceptions of Maori culture25

Extent of cultural motivation28

Tourists' experiences of Maori culture31

Lifestyle34

Conclusions42

References47

Impact of Western Invasion on Maori Culture in New Zealand

Chapter I

Introduction

Maori culture in general, their tradition and values

In February of 1840, 512 Maori chiefs and the British Crown, represented by William Hobson, signed a treaty and formally ushered in the era of the Pakeha into New Zealand history. Even today this Treaty of Waitangi, as it is known, remains the foundation of Maori-Pakeha relations. It is also the root of Maori-Pakeha tensions. The story begins with the fact that the document was, of course, drafted in two languages ( two languages, two cultures, two peoples. For some Pakeha, it is merely a matter of semantics, but for the Maori, the wording is illustrative of all the injustices that have been dealt to their people at the hands of these European settlers. Either way, the Treaty of Waitangi is amazingly symbolic of the distance between the Maori and the Pakeha as there was in the beginning, and as there is now. This paper, then, is an attempt to understand the development ,the achievements, and the controversies of Maori ethnic mobilization as they pertain to the Treaty of Waitangi and the disparity, real or imagined, that exists between the Maori and the Pakeha. (Altman 2005, 62-78)

The British version of the Treaty granted the Maori the rights of citizenship and obliged the Crown to protect the Maori "in the exercise of their government over their lands, villages, and treasures."These parts are made clear in both languages. In the first Article of the Treaty, however, it was written that the Maori were, in exchange for these services, to: cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or posses over their respective Territories as the sole Sovereigns thereof. The Maori chiefs, on the other hand, had signed a document which translated: The Chiefs of the Confederation and all the Chiefs not in that confederation cede without reservation to the Queen of England forever the Governorship of all their lands. (Altman 2005, 62-78)

The discrepancy lies in the use of the word kawanatanga instead of mana in the Maori version, when governorship is the translation and sovereignty is intended meaning in the English version. It is clear from an earlier work that the translator was aware that the term for sovereignty in the Maori language is mana. It is here, then, that the nature of British intentions is first cast in ...