New Zealand Books

The book by Michael King, Revised Edition of a photography and social history, which submission all the facts of life among Maori before the Euporean time of settlements in NZ, what are the Maori like in past and today are totally different

Gaelyn Gordon's quirky humour and wonderful story-telling skills are nowhere near as widely appreciated as they should be. Children all over the world should enjoy this book. Although it makes gentle fun of New Zealand's politicians and New Zealand's big weekly lottery, Lotto, I suspect things are much the same in their own countries.

Not enough books discuss race, gender, class, and nationality simultaneously. Not enough authors produce comparative work on indigenous peoples. Not enough work looks at less common interracial pairings. Dr. Ellinghaus' book is a strong intervention and contribution in so many ways.
Paula Gunn Allen once wrote something to the effect that people focus upon Native Americans' disappearance and not enough on their survival. The author here emphasizes that Natives and Aborigines did not die off as colonizers expected, thus Australians tried to "absorb" Aborigines and Americans tried to "assimilate" Natives. She goes on to say Aborigines were given educations and thus weren't desirable as marriage partners they way educated Native Americans might have been. Then she states that white Americans of the time period were so busy trying to prevent Black-white unions that they didn't give Native-white unions as much thought, but Australia had no group of color as numerous and with the history of African Americans.
Many readers ignore beginning pages written in Roman numbers and start with pages that have Arabic numbers. That would be a mistake here: the introductory chapter is the most informative. This reminds me of how professors only assigned the introduction to Sedgwick Kosofsky's "Epistemology of the Closet" when I was in college. Rushed students can get away with just reading that chapter and skimming the rest.
In the book "Interracial Intimacy," Rachel Moran totally dismisses interracial couples based upon partners of color. Here, Ellinghaus writes that Australians did fear that Aborigines would marry Asians and that Native Americans at Hampton would marry African Americans. I appreciate the way this author moved beyond thinking that race can only involve two groups.
Honestly, the author's ideas about assimilation and absorption are not clear cut. She mentions sundry Aboriginal men that were still oppressed by the larger white society though they had married white women. The author purposely excludes white man-indigenous woman marriages and non-marital copulation of any kind. That's great in focusing upon this coupling, however, I sometimes wish she had made comparisons. She includes the photo seen in "Rabbit-Proof Fence" where an Aboriginal line becomes whiter by the generation, but they focus upon women/mothers, not Aboriginal men. Before the Emancipation Proclamation, white men forced Black women to engage them sexually while forbidding Black men to get with white women. In the Australian context, I really wonder if Australian men believed they could get with Aboriginal women, but Aboriginal men should get with no one. Keeping men of color away from white women plays a large role in anti-miscegenation movements in many countries. That double standard is not adequately addressed here.
Ellinghaus only discusses a handful of marriages. She doesn't emphasize how rare these couplings may have been. It may feel like gleaning to some without the basis for solid conclusions (too small a sample). Further, if I recall Wilma Mankiller, the first female Cherokee chief, never mentioned whether society was biased against her Native father and white mother. I think I read that Elias' Boudinat's white wife's family first objected to her interracial marriage, but then accepted it. The first anecdote happened after the period in this book; the second example happened before it. Still, I wish the author could have stated whether matters and dynamic changed before 1880 and after 1930.
If you look carefully, there are photos of Native men, but none of Aboriginal men. The author includes Australian marriage certificates, but no photos. I wonder if that means Americans embrace photography before Australians or if Australians made a point not to photograph Aboriginal men.

Hazeldine clearly explains the loss of good will and community experienced in New Zealand society since the reforms of 1984 through the 1990's. He cares about NZ, and is not beholden to left/right labels
Reference: http://physed.otago.ac.nz/sosol/v6i2/v6i2_2.html

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The Experiment

From 1984 until 1999 New Zealand was subject to a radical experiment in free market economics. An economic miracle didn't occur. Prior to 1986, 15 to 25 year old New Zealanders were making a median income of $14,700 a year. By year 2000 the same group were making $8,100 and youth suicides were higher than in comparable countries. As well, living standards had plummeted and 70 percent of households were worse off than counterparts ten years earlier (Boshier, 2001).

Cabinet briefing papers spoke of "a sense of unease about the country's social fabric ... the fraying state of the nation's families, children and the socially excluded" (Clark Finds New Energy, Sunday Star-Times, January 23, 2000, p. C2). `Efficiency' and the `free market' meant the already disadvantaged - young Maori and Pacific Islands women - were even more seriously jeopardised (Peters, Marshall & Massey, 1994).

After 1984, foreigners came to observe The New Zealand Experiment. Most were already convinced of the supremacy of Friedmanite economics. For Friedman the only thing that matters was shareholder profit. That the company might also think about its workers, community, society or planet was dismissed as quaint rubbish. Comfortable at the Hilton or Hyatt, visitors were in no position to witness the precipitous decline in literacy and numeracy rates, escalating expulsions from school, a deepening problem of Maori underachievement, confusion of demoralised and underpaid teachers, dismissal (through restructuring) of large numbers of skilled workers, 78 per cent cuts (in a single year) to adult education and emergence of an underclass. Apologists were also in no position to observe the collapse of conviviality, the belligerence of political discourse, and the consternation amongst people with lives turned upside down.

Given conditions at work and a growing divide between farmers and wage earners, trade unions took root in New Zealand and resulted in formation of the Labour Party in 1916. The depression of 1931 created hardship in households, riots, relief work and new theories about social policy and government. In 1935 the Labour Party swept to power on a landslide. It was this government that created a welfare state. By 1984 conditions for radical change were in place. How new right members of the inner cabinet and lobbyists persuaded Labour to jettison social democratic traditions and commit to total capitalism is described by Douglas and Callan (1987). Kelsey (1995) identified the anti-democratic nature of the reforms. The following were significant:

*** Policy changes were made with lightening speed. No time was given for reflection or discussion. As Douglas (1993) said "Implement reform by quantum leaps. Moving step by step lets vested interests mobilise. Big packages neutralizes them. Speed is essential. It is impossible to move too fast" (p.3). Critics called this a blitzkrieg and antidemocratic approach.

*** There was a constant stress on globalisation and TINA (`there-is-no-alternative'). Voices which articulated alternatives were discredited or dismissed as `unrealistic.'

*** The past (particularly pre-1984) was dismissed as irrelevant - an embarrassing welfare state muddle (Boshier, in press).

*** Consultation was used for implementing - not changing - the thrust of reforms.

*** A democratically elected government in an advanced state rather than a developing country trying to curry favour with international financiers undertook large-scale and radical structural adjustments.

*** Pure economic theory was applied in a manner that had little regard for social (even electoral) consequences. Opponents were `benighted.' They `didn't get it.' It was not a matter of `politics,' just `reality.'

*** Labour, a party traditionally opposed to such policies, initiated the restructuring.

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Market rationality

After 1984, the rationality of the marketplace would prevail. It didn't work. Instead, society "lost cohesion and continuity .... industries closed, communities withered, people moved out of employment, change has been so constant that many people are disoriented. People wander through life relating to no social group wider than the family, and often not even that" (Jesson, 1999, p. 211). Expatriate New Zealanders (like the author) noticed how, despite extraordinary accomplishments in many fields, the post 1984 neo-liberal rendering of globalisation eroded confidence.


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It's just globalisation

A stark example of the sea change in cuultural attitudes, and the dichotomy between nouveau riche and grassroots kiwis, was during the bitter "Blackheart" and "Loyal" campaigns during the Auckland America's Cup regattas.

A centrepiece of the neo-liberal (radical right) post-1984 `reform' of New Zealand society was the need to forget the collectivism of the past and embrace individually oriented entrepreneurship in the global economy. Because of the post-1984 experiment with neo-liberalism, many New Zealand citizens were sanguine about defections from Team New Zealand. Young people had grown up with lectures about wealth creation. Having lived in a `cult of finance' (Jesson, 1999) they were used to the idea that `money talks'. Defections were an inevitable consequence of globalisation.

The rightwing Business Roundtable was untroubled by the notion of people selling New Zealand intellectual property abroad; i.e. that humans act out of self-interest and material wealth is the prime motivator. Hence, they abhorred fretting about migration losses. People must "do the best for themselves and their families" (Kerr, 2001, p. 4). "Does it matter if Brad Butterworth takes his skills and money offshore?" asked the Business Roundtable.

Defections are part of headhunting and a salient attribute of professional sports. But, in a small country with a fragile economy, where every taxi driver, farmer and student has an opinion, losing six of the world's best sailors was a serious problem. Hence, the 2003 America's Cup was not a `friendly contest between nations' (as anticipated in the Deed of Gift). It was a regatta like no other.

Alinghi vs. Team New Zealand: A study in contrasts
(GLOBALISATION vs LOCALISATION)

Main sponsor: Swiss billionaire's personal fortune,
vs. `Family-of-five' N.Z. companies

Estimated Cost: $150 million,
vs. $85 million

Boat name: Postmodern signifier; Brand with no meaning
vs. Country

Logos/branding: Postmodern swirls
vs. N.Z. Silver Fern

Staffing: Worldwide headhunting
vs. Mostly N.Z. nationals

Relationship to nation-state: None
vs. Considerable

Operational foci: Individual `excellence'
vs. Team building

Motivation: Money/Global Marketing
vs. Country/Pride

Leadership Orientation: Great men
vs. Team

Syndicate Organisation: Corporation
vs. Whanau [Extended family]

Links to Indigenality: None
vs. Considerable

Historical Consciousness: None
vs. Considerable

Focus of rewards: Private interests
vs. Public good

Meaning of `home': Poorly defined
vs. Well-defined

These engaging, informative profiles combine to build a history of New Zealand music for the highbrow crowd. The 14 subjects are all forthcoming and opinionated in their interviews, and the breadth is wide. Frank Gurr talks of the excitement of building a symphony orchestra from scratch after the Second World War (the weekly pay cheque was a generous £10), composer Dorothea Franchi of early discouragement playing the harp (an influence was Harpo Marx). Edwin Carr - the proudly conservative and accessible orchestral composer - is acerbic of "narrow nationalism" and recent cultural cross-pollination in music ("You don't plunder the temples," he quotes a friend), while Jack Body shrugs off accusations of exoticism. "One of the functions of art is to be outrageous, provocative, politically incorrect ... one has to learn not to become an embittered, grumpy old man. There's a few of those around. I hope that I can grow old joyful and unrepentant." Peter Scholes passionately parries criticism of the Enzso project from both classical and rock critics as "conservative and limiting"; he also describes his despair at sitting on arts council panels with such limited funds to share as "like walking into a nuclear bomb zone with a suitcase full of medicine".
It's invigorating to read such articulate opinions about music - especially for those jaded by musician interviews which are so often more about marketing - and no matter what your discipline, there is plenty here to inspire any musician.

As a background work on ethnicity and identity, you would go a long way to find such an accessible overview. The context is New Zealand and people who have settled there from the rest of the Pacific or who have been born in that country. However, the book has a much wider value - the issues covered are central to every country with large ethnic minorities or immigrant populations. New Zealand has used a contural self-identification way of defining ethnicity which is now at the heart of the debates on this subject in the US and other countries. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the identity, settlement issues, and culture.

Hi our names are samee and liyya, as a child me and my freind liyya read this book as children of 6. AFter that we forgot about this magical book. Now we are 14 and 15 and are over joyed to read this book and retrace our chillhood through this humerous book of limericks and poems. A great read for anyone any AGE!!!

I HAVE REVIEWED THIS BOOK......AND IT DOES ME ALOT OF HELP THROUGH MY ASSIGNMENTS ......IT IS A TRADITIONAL MAORI ARTS WEAVING BOOK AND IRECOMMEND THAT MAORI'S READ THIS BOOK

THANK YOU

Te Wai Pounamu is a beautifully written and comprehensive history of the history of the ngai tahu claim, and as a result, a history of the ngai tahu people from european settlement. The book appears balanced and extremely detailed with more references than you could want, and a huge bibliography. (Not that youd need to refer to any other book after reading this one.) I adored reading it and constantly refer back to it. Anyone interested in Maori, in Ngai Tahu, or in indigenous histories should enjoy it.

The Team

The late Ian McNeill's authoritative account of the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam is now a classic. It is rare to read a book that drips courage and resourcefulness from every page. Australia, like most countries, employs myth makers to tell stories that reinforce national stereotypes. This book peels back the hyperbole that often surrounds really brave soldiers and in un-emotive language lets the deeds tell the stories.

A key problem for Australian troops operating in Vietnam was the lack of compatibility between the Australian jungle training emphasis on patrolling and ambushing, and the American pursuit of large unit engagements. This was a false dichotomy because the nature of guerrilla warfare is not one or the other, but both. McNeill addressed this issue and showed how both armies worked with the Vietnamese relatively successfully.

Army advisers, whether American or Australian were marked men and the Communist forces tried hard to kill them because of their ability to rally troops and call for air-strikes and medevacs. Often the only Western troops with indigenous units, the Australian and American advisers formed agreements that they would not leave each other behind. Some of the most heroic acts in the war occurred when the advisers tried to rescue each other in battle. A story that is truly moving is that of Dasher Wheatley who tried valiantly to rescue the wounded WO Swanton and rather than leave him to the advancing enemy, Wheatley stayed with his mate and they were both killed. Among soldiers, Wheatley's action epitomised the Australian digger tradition and he was awarded a Victoria Cross, the first awarded since WW2.

I remain in awe of those brave men (The Expendables) who served from the DMZ to the Delta.

This book is now a definitive classic that will appeal not only to the cognoscenti but also readers who are really interested in irregular warfare and the role of special forces. The problem will remain for prospective readers that copies of this book are as scarce as hens' teeth, but it is worth the effort.