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NEWS from Churches’ Agency on Social Issues
(Presbyterian, Methodist, Churches of Christ, Quakers)
<typohead type="3">Race Relations and Community Relationships </typohead>
“We need to understand and accept the relationship of others to the land in which we live, even if it differs from our own,” said Sir Rodney Gallen at the recent Capital City Forum in Wellington on race relations and community relationships.
Capital City Forum is a joint initiative of the Churches’ Agency on Social Issues and the Catholic and Anglican social justice agencies in Wellington. The forum was chaired by Sir Paul Reeves, attended by close to 100 people and took a full day. A total of eight speakers combined exploration of the issues with practical examples of race relations in action, involving everyone in discussion and feedback about their experiences of different forms of meeting between peoples and ideas for discussing difficult topics in a constructive and positive way.
In his paper Sir Rodney Gallen emphasised that for most New Zealanders this is the only country with which we have a significant relationship. “Because for most of us the land gives us our first identity, we start from a unifying factor and can reasonably build on that.”
Misunderstandings can be unhelpful, he warned. “We do not always appreciate the significance of the sacredness for each other of particular places and associations. There is a tendency in Pakeha society not to take seriously Maori claims that certain areas are sacred or have associations which will be damaged if certain other uses are permitted.
“For many Pakeha it is impossible to see why some misunderstood mythical story should stand in the way of material progress such as the building of a road.
“Because we live in this land together we need to get along. We are more likely to do so if we respect each other’s attraction to the land we share and the concerns which we all have for particular places within it. Churches because of their concern for the sacred are uniquely placed to understand attitudes of this kind.”
Working with local Maori over the historic Korokoro cemetery was a practical example of cooperation outlined by Sharron Cole of Sacred Heart Parish in Petone. She told the Forum that, following years in which the cemetery was neglected and suffered damage caused by roading, research into ownership and responsibility for the land led to joint kaitiakitanga or guardianship of the cemetery, beginning with a service of healing, reconciliation and commitment.
Constitutional lawyer Alex Frame put forward a one-page draft of legislation, the Treaty Title Bill, which could deal with land ownership issues (such as the foreshore and seabed) in an innovative, Treaty-based way. Other speakers included Manuka Henare, who summarised race relations issues for Maori as he saw them, Susan Healy of the Ecumenical Coalition for Justice, who has been developing discussion resources for churches, Archdeacon Leo Te Kira of the Wellington Maori Pastorate who led an interactive exercise on making contact between community groups, and Bill Hamilton who has been coordinating the Treaty dialogue work for the Human Rights Commission.
Race relations commissioner Joris de Bres took a long-term view of race relations progress. He looked back 35 years, when the human rights and race relations legislation was in development, and the notion of assimilation of Maori to the predominant Pakeha culture was still a driving force in politics.
“There are no doubt some who would prefer to return to those days,” said Joris de Bres, “but most New Zealanders recognise and value the changes that have taken place, which have made New Zealand a more vibrant and culturally diverse nation. Equally, in another 35 years, we will be able to look back to the debates and controversies of today as the beginnings of that change.”
He suggested that the Maori powhiri (ceremony of welcome) offered a conceptual framework to address issues of being indigenous, identity and race relations.
“The powhiri presupposes a recognition of the tangata whenua,” he said. “The manuhiri present themselves at the entrance to the marae, are challenged and tested to see if they come in peace and with goodwill, hear the whakapapa of the tangata whenua including their relationship to the whenua. They respond by paying their respects, acknowledging the mana of the tangata whenua, drawing whakapapa connections, stating why they have come, and laying down a koha to the hosts. When the hosts accept the koha and acknowledge the mana and good intentions of the manuhiri, they hongi, mingling their breath. The manuhiri then join the tangata whenua, and relationships are sealed with further whaikorero and the sharing of food. When new manuhiri arrive, the earlier arrivals sit alongside the tangata whenua to welcome them.
“This offers a clue to the prerequisites for harmonious relations in Aotearoa New Zealand: recognition of the tangata whenua; encounter based on peace, goodwill and respect; giving of gifts; exploration of relationships and coming together over talk and food while retaining one’s own identity; and then standing together as tangata whenua to welcome new arrivals.
“I believe we can use this concept to reframe our current debates and actions into an overall framework to achieve human rights and harmonious relationships for all New Zealanders.”
<typohead type="3">Resources </typohead>
The CASI library is now catalogued, shelved in order and ready for use. It is a specialist collection of nearly 300 books and other publications on social issues, with particular emphasis on New Zealand works on bioethics, environmental issues, race relations, social welfare, Christian ethics and economics with a social justice perspective. Recent Government statistical and social issues reports are also available, along with reports from social service agencies and the NZ Council of Christian Social Services. Periodicals include the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Future Times, Pacific Ecologist, Pacific World, NZ Political Review, Nathaniel Report and NZ Bioethics Journal; most sets go back to 1990.
The catalogue comes as an Excel file of three sheets, listing entries by author, by Dewey classification number and by title. We are happy to email it anywhere on request; it is not yet on the website. We can also easily check for you by return email or phone if we have a particular publication on the shelves.
With office reorganisation and more shelf space in the library, we have also managed to make available the background material that goes into preparation of CASI resources and publications. Anyone wanting to explore in depth topics such as immigration and refugee issues (particularly in the Pacific); Treaty and Constitution; peace; law and penal policy; ethical investment; eco-theology and environment; climate change; poverty & health, housing etc is welcome to come in and browse through the files and papers.
We are still developing protocols for library use, but would like to do a few test runs to work out the simplest way to facilitate borrowing and safe return. Current thinking is to ask every borrower to register and give us a parish/church link as well as personal contact details. Rental time is a calendar month unless other arrangements are made.
Visitors are always welcome. There is a table you can work at and photocopying can be arranged. The library is open when the Presbyterian Church office on the first floor of 100 Tory Street in Wellington is open (8 am-5 p.m. weekdays). There is a “borrowing book” to enter details of anything taken away.
We are happy to research information about a social issue, whether from our library or elsewhere in Wellington. Postal book borrowing is also available; we’ll work out charges (if any) when we get an idea of the level of demand.
Contact us at casi(at)casi.org.nz, P O Box 9049, Wellington or tel 04 381 8295, fax 04 801 6001.
For reflection:
The Author of This Poem is a Number
I do not know
what will happen after I die.
I do not want to know.
But I would like the Potter to make a whistle
from the clay of my throat.
May this whistle fall into the hands
of a cheeky and naughty child
and the child to blow hard on the whistle continuously
with the suppressed and silent air of his lungs
and disrupt the sleep
of those who seem dead
to my cries.
- From an unknown prisoner at the Baxter detention centre in Australia
“You can judge politicians by how they treat refugees; they do to them what they would do to everyone else if they could get away with it”.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London