The above clip is a group of New Zealanders who have completed (or are in the process of completing) a six week course in the Limited Service Volunteer Program. Why did I post this clip? Well...in a word (actually two)...Alan Duff.
Alan Duff strikes a nerve with me. It is not just the Faulkner meets Harriet Breacher Stowe writing style he employees in his novel Once Were Warriors, or his pompous "Maori must pull themselves up by the bootstraps" attitude toward self determination, or even the frightening thought that someone might mistake him for the voice the Maori. No...what really irks me (and please remember...this is subjective) is the simplistic, unrealistic manner in which he interprets both the problem and designs the solution.
In her article In Whose Face? An Essay on the Work of Alan Duff, Christina Thompson questions Duff's position in regard to Maori values which "he consistently renders...in negative terms, recasting Maori virtues as Pakeha vices. Generosity becomes an inability to practice self-restraint, family loyalty becomes a bar to self-improvement, modesty becomes poor self-esteem, casualness becomes sloth, and pride becomes arrogance. Pakeha values are never critically examined. Competition does not involve oppression, individualism cannot be read as selfishness, upward mobility never translates as greed." Duff admits to having little traditional Maori cultural training until late in life, and then only begrudgingly. I suggest that his prejudice and, perhaps even self hate, cloud his vision.
When interviewed by Vilsoni Hereniko for a chapter in Inside Out, Duff stated that he has always considered himself a Maori (for those who don't know, Duff is half-caste) and claimed to be a strong supporter of Maori culture. However the opinions he expressed in Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge which suggest that only Pakeha culture is complex, alive, and vibrant, while Maori culture is "simple" and "stone age" would seem to counter this statement. Duff criticizes Maori oral culture/knowledge, stating that it was privileged. I suggest that written knowledge was/is equally privileged, as it is all contingent on who is doing the writing. He states that Maori did not/do not think...do not question. This is ludicrous. What then was/is the purpose of the marae? The wharenui? He speaks of Maori as being undisciplined yet, in the next breath, extols their virtue as warriors. How do warriors fight a battle (as a unit) without discipline? In fact, how does one learn marae protocol, dance a haka, chant a prayer if he/she lacks discipline? And, is it not in that pride of knowing where one comes from, that one gains confidence about where he/she will go and how to get there?
Duff claims to have come from the element he writes about. I do not dispute that. In fact, that element is one of the few things Duff and I have in common. This having been said, what never fails to set my teeth on edge is his idea that books and a desire for change will magically lift one out of the system. Will pacify the violence and dispel the darkness, revealing a shinny, yellow brick road to "success." It's just not that easy! Wanting out, does not equal knowing how to get out. Also, what Duff fails to mention is that for every family fitting the stereotype, there is one that does not. Desire and books are not enough, and the Pakeha dream is not universal. Not only do I see nothing wrong with "walking backwards into the future while facing the past," I feel it is essential. If we do not know where we came from, how will we know where we are going. Change is inevitable as culture and language are not stagnant. Granted, in his interview with Hereniko, Duff does admit that culture has its place. I'm not sure exactly what he means by this but, I do think the above clip is a small example of moving toward the future with and eye on the past. Though the Limited Service Volunteer Program http://www.msd.govt.nz/what-we-can-do/children-young-people/lsv/index.html is based on military discipline, it is a haka - a challenge to, not only Maori, but all the disenfranchised youth of New Zealand. Now...I don't know how Mr. Duff would respond to this program, as it is financed by the government, so in a sense, it's still the dole. However, it is a start. But, then again...what do I know?
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