"Twigs of the Same Tree": Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand Children's Literature 1944-1984

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to trace, and offer explanations for, changes in the portrayal of Maori-Pakeha relations in New Zealand children's literature between 1944 and 1984. I have drawn examples from New Zealand's award-winning and well-respected writing for children, as well as from the Government publication, the School Journal. Through examination of this material, various shifts in ideology have been identified. Furthermore, in consultation with the work of New Zealand historians, most notably Angela Ballara, these shifts are placed in their wider, social contexts. The thesis is comprised of six chapters. The first addresses issues concerned with the ideology in children's literature. The second abstracts the work of Betty Gilderdale in order to provide a survey of the larger body of New Zealand children's literature from which the examples are taken. In Chapter Three, five novels are compared and contrasted, and then set within their social contexts. This reveals several interesting points. Each novel portrays Maori-Pakeha relations in a positive light. What is also evident, however, is that authorial perception of what is positive is strongly related to contemporary social attitudes. Some authors' work espouses the commonly held attitudes of their time, while others challenge them. The novels provide evidence to support the argument that there is a clear shift in the treatment of Maori and Maori-Pakeha relations between 1944 and 1984. This shift is essentially a move from an assimilationist approach to one which recognises Maori culture as at once being distinct but equal to Pakeha culture. In the case of the later novels the authors' approaches can be seen to be in advance of the same shift which has taken place in popular opinion and Government policy. The fourth chapter repeats this exercise with the historical fiction of the School Journal. The finding here, though, is that no consistent trend is evident as it is in the case of the novels. The fifth chapter examines two very similar books, both of which focus on the everyday life of a contemporary Maori child. Written twenty years apart, however, they provide evidence of a large shift in Pakeha attitudes toward Maori. The Book of Wiremu (Stella Morice, 1944) espouses tolerance of and charity toward Maori. Turi: The Story of a Little Boy (Lesley Cameron Powell, 1963) promotes respect for and understanding of an evolving Maori culture. Chapter Six turns once more to the corresponding material to be found in the School Journal. Examination of this material supports the argument that there is a visible trend in this publication. Token inclusion of Maori characters and motifs are gradually replaced with deeper treatments, concerned to inform the reader of Maori cultural values. The title of this thesis derives from a passage in The End of the Harbour (Elsie Locke, 1967, p. 204). It is a metaphor employed by the two young protagonists of the story, David, a recent emigrant to New Zealand, and Honatana, his close Maori friend, to describe their relationship. As "twigs of the same tree" they are brothers in the common family of man, regardless of race -- different but equal.