Hey all.
Canadian here. A number of years ago my family visited New Zealand, and while falling in love with the country and the culture, I also discovered the Hei Matau - the Maori fish hook.
This has haunted me ever since, and I want to carve one for myself. However, we’ve spent the last decade starting to understand the relationship between European settlers and the North American Indigenous people.
So what I do in my basement with carving tools is my own business, but I ask honestly if wearing a Hei Matau in public is considered respectful or appropriation. And also if the material matters in this context. (It would likely be from a tagua nut - “vegetable ivory” - although it’s possible I could get some whale bone from my coastal friends.)
Maori here, not massively into our exact history and culture but also not blind to it, nor do I speak for all of us.
Our culture is dying, and we actively have politicians that oppose using our language and measures to protect it.
If you want to use a part of our culture, can be respectful of it, and don’t profit from it then go hard. Fuck the purists, share it as much as you can
Love this answer. :-)
Also, from the perspective of an outsider, your culture is far from dying. Here in Canada, we started down the long road of reconciling our history towards our Indigenous population a handful of years ago - and when we were in New Zealand, it felt like the country was a decade ahead of Canada. (which in turn is probably at least a decade ahead of the USA.)
There will be retrograde motion, and there will always be asshole xenophobic politicians; but it certainly felt like on the whole NZ was getting it more right than wrong.
Maori themselves play a huge part in that though - the gains here have always been hard-fought-for by Maori.
Obviously there are historical differences like method of assimilation and resulting population proportion, and political biculturalism (which wouldn’t work in Canadian context due to Francophones, Metis and “salad” multiculturalism, etc). But at every step of the way, Maori have been at the forefront.
For that reason, it’s important that people like @[email protected] continue to call out Govt when it is wrong. Because that’s how progress happens. Complacency about not being even worse shouldn’t stand in the way of continuing to strive for something better, especially in the face of what feels like a massive swerve backwards by our current govt.
Wearing them is no problem. They are common gifts for people leaving, we give carved greenstone to friends from overseas who vist. It’s customary to only wear it if it’s given to you, it’s bad luck to buy yourself one. Though carvers will make a show of gifting it to you for koha if you really do want to buy one for yourself.
Learn the customs and the meanings and spread the Tikanga as you wear it.
It would probably be considered as appropriation by Māori, but I’m reluctant to (can’t) speak authoritativly for Māori on this. I think that public display (by wearing) would be the line not to cross with out permission/blessing.
Māori experienced similar colonial problems as experienced by the indigenous north Americans.
Having said that, often one only needs to ask permission (per se).
If you do a search for “New Zealand iwi” you’ll find contact details for different Māori iwi (tribes). I recommend finding one that’s local to the area you’ve visited and just ask if they’re OK with you reproducing their art and wearing it as it has considerable meaning to you too, and you want to respect their tīkanga (customs).
Edit: it’s very cool that you even asked!
Thanks for the info. I’ll do some digging.
Edit: it’s very cool that you even asked!
If we’ve learned anything in Canada in the last 15 years, it’s that finding out about a culture before adopting it is kind of important.
