What place does the Maori culture hold New Zealand today?

Résumé du document

New Zealand, made with several small islands and two main ones, is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, around 2,000 kilometres far from Australia, New Caledonia and Fiji Islands. It is 270,000 km² large, with three million people living in the northern island and one million in the southern. The main economic resource stands in sheep breeding, for wool, meat and dairy products which constitute the most important exports. Tourism is also an essential source of incomes for the country, which welcomes around 1.5 million foreigners every year. New Zealand is seen abroad as a young and dynamic nation, with spectacular landscapes and a unique natural environment. New Zealand was unknown until the 19th century when European explorers came and marked the beginning of the colonisation and the settlement of many English entrepreneurs. Culture assimilation is a hot topic in the current civilizations, since the number of empires is decreasing and newly independent countries are trying to make their way on the international scene by asserting their own specificities. Mentalities have changed since the time of colonisation, and people are more likely to revive old extinct traditions today. The recurrent question is: how can two cultures coexist without trying to override each other and lead the daily life of a country?

Extraits

[...] Little by little, they began trading: Maori would provide meat, fruits and vegetables, while the whalers would give them money or useful objects such as blankets, nails and weapons. They even hired Maori to work with them on the boats, establishing a peaceful collaboration. The first explorer to come to New Zealand was the Dutch Abel Tasman in 1642. He was sent by the Dutch East India Company, but came back to Germany immediately because of the hostility of Maori people. [...]

[...] An important representation of Maori culture is the Te Papa museum in Wellington. It was created in 1998, but the idea of a museum about Maori cultural heritage was born in 1984: the Maori” exhibition that took place in the Metropolitan Museum of New York that year clearly made people become aware of the fact that Maori culture had unexploited riches. In its first year of existence, the museum attracted more than two million people, and it has gained since then an international reputation, thanks to the original way it presents the numerous treasures and history of the nation. [...]

[...] The raising question about the limits of the implication of the government in the Maori matters should be solved with the allowance of concrete means such as education and job creation instead of only money and land. BIBLIOGRAPHY - Nouvelle-Zélande: du duel au Essai d'histoire culturelle, par Francine Tolron. Presses Universitaires du Mirail - Zealand identities, departures and destinations”, edited by James H. Liu, Tim McCreanor, Tracey McIntosh and Teresa Teaiwa - “Sociology of everyday life in New Zealand”, edited by Claudia Bell. [...]

[...] In the 1970's, there has been a renewal for Maori culture, especially concerning language, politics and literature. Maori people today Some remains of an old culture Despite the huge losses Maori people suffered during the years of colonisation and the fact that everybody thought they would be extinct soon, they succeeded in keeping an important part of their habits and traditions, and perpetuating them until today. The essential remains of their culture stand in the language: while borrowing some English words, Maori people also introduced a lot of their language into the everyday vocabulary of New Zealand, which people call the “Newzild”. [...]

[...] They are still considered as in an effort to preserve Maori identity. - One traditional form of Maori way of cooking is the Hangi: it is a feast cooked in the earth with stones heated in the fire and covered in cabbage leaves or watercress to stop the food from burning. Mutton, pork, chicken, potatoes and sweet potatoes are then lowered into the pit in a basket. The food is covered with Mutton cloth or similar and traditionally with flax, and earth is placed on top of it to keep in the steam. [...]