ONE OUT OF THE BOX

I look forward to watching Dame Anne Salmond’s TV series on taonga (“Voices of the past”, May 12).

Dame Anne is a truly eminent woman, and her whakaaro, her understanding, in regard to relations between Māori and Pākehā indicates an instinctive grasp of the tikanga that we call manaakitanga. This is the discourse founded on mutuality and respect.

Those of us who are the uri of both Māori and Pākehā have experienced that dualism about which Dame Anne speaks. We understand the existential tension arising from inhabiting those two little boxes, Māori here, Pākehā there. The unfortunate outcome is often the conscious rejection of one box in favour of the other. I know many individuals of dual heritage who forcefully negate their taha Pākehā and many prominent Māori activists come from these ranks.

Perhaps this is at least in part a reaction to previous times when having a touch of the tar brush was considered nothing to be proud of. I came from this whakaaro, and was raised as a young Elizabethan in 1950s New Zealand. It was only in later years that I turned toward my taha Māori.

What began as curiosity has developed into a personal journey – taku hikoi. Along

the way, I have found that at least for me, there is a fundamental spiritual component to which I am drawn, te wairua. This is not necessarily some form of mystical experience, but rather the realisation that the boxes that separate us may be observed as constructs of cultural and intellectual conditioning. Our tūpuna, our ancestors, were drawn together by aroha.

Along with the artefacts, we – their uri – are their taonga tūturu, just as they are ours.

GM Tinker (Whangarei) LETTER OF THE WEEK