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Nga Kahui Pou Launching Maori Futures
by 2051 the ethnic Maori population will almost double in size to close to a million, or twenty-two percent of the total New Zealand population. Even more dramatically, by 2051 thirty-three percent of all children in the country will be Maori ...' This substantial change in our society will have major implications for Maori and wider society. Professor Durie discusses traditions and customs and addresses contemporary needs in order to build development strategies for the launch of the Maori population into the new millennium.
- GenresNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2022
An extremely interesting book, though a bit of a slog. It's taken me a while to get through, though admittedly I haven't been reading it consistently - it's one of those books where you read a chapter at a time and then wander off and think about it for a bit. That usually doesn't give the most cohesive reading experience, but then this isn't an entirely cohesive book. It consists of twenty academic papers, presented by Durie at various conferences over the years, all loosely themed around the title: establishing strong futures for Māori here in New Zealand.
Around half the papers are on solidly political topics, such as Māori in government, or parliamentary devolution and what this might mean, and so forth. The other half are grouped around one of Durie's primary research interests, which was health. There are chapter-papers on mental health in youth, on caring for the elderly, on tackling diabetes within Māori communities, for instance. I admit to finding the health-focused papers more interesting, as they seemed in many ways less theoretical. I can wade through a certain amount of theory, but by the end the six-part outcomes and six principles and four key tasks were beginning to blur together a wee bit.
One of the things that struck me most here was Durie's very sensible suggestion that comparisons were not always helpful, and that Māori progress in areas such as health or education could more reliably be assessed when compared to past performance by Māori, instead of being solely compared to current performance by non-Māori. It's not that the latter isn't a useful metric, and of course the differences between populations must be acknowledged in order to equalise outcomes, but the sustained argument here on building up Indigenous potential, and centering it all the way through, even to assessment, in multiple interconnected ways, is genuinely convincing.
Also, it has to be said, some of those outcomes and principles aside, Durie is enormously clear in his academic writing. I say that as an academic myself... if only my papers were this reliably lucid.
Around half the papers are on solidly political topics, such as Māori in government, or parliamentary devolution and what this might mean, and so forth. The other half are grouped around one of Durie's primary research interests, which was health. There are chapter-papers on mental health in youth, on caring for the elderly, on tackling diabetes within Māori communities, for instance. I admit to finding the health-focused papers more interesting, as they seemed in many ways less theoretical. I can wade through a certain amount of theory, but by the end the six-part outcomes and six principles and four key tasks were beginning to blur together a wee bit.
One of the things that struck me most here was Durie's very sensible suggestion that comparisons were not always helpful, and that Māori progress in areas such as health or education could more reliably be assessed when compared to past performance by Māori, instead of being solely compared to current performance by non-Māori. It's not that the latter isn't a useful metric, and of course the differences between populations must be acknowledged in order to equalise outcomes, but the sustained argument here on building up Indigenous potential, and centering it all the way through, even to assessment, in multiple interconnected ways, is genuinely convincing.
Also, it has to be said, some of those outcomes and principles aside, Durie is enormously clear in his academic writing. I say that as an academic myself... if only my papers were this reliably lucid.
December 10, 2018
Not exactly an easy read but an important one, as NZ maps out a roadmap to honour its treaty obligations
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews