It has been said that New Zealand Has a multicultural policy and aims to treat all individuals the same. Multiculturalism as a framework accepts the co-existence of various diverse cultures (including racial, religious and cultural groups) and believes they all warrant equal respect, representation and scholarly interest. I would argue that a discourse such as this has the ability to empower disadvantaged citizens and gives them some chance for equality. There may be some people who think that New Zealand has already adopted this way of thinking but when you explore frameworks operating in New Zealand society such as orientalism, colonialism, racism and stereotyping we are a long way off!
Orientalism is defined in the film Edward Said and Orientalism as the depiction of Eastern "oriental" cultures and stretches to all cultures and people deemed Middle Eastern, East Asian, African and South Asian. Stewart Hall talks about 'The West and the Rest' which lumps all non Western cultures together into one inferior group. This is closely linked to Orientalism where all non Western cultures are grouped together, identified and subordinated (Edward Said on Orientalism). Orientalism has a colonialist attitude which aims to subordinate all those that are not white and does this to achieve power and status (Edward Said on Orientalism). Colonialism had the objective to assimilate natives to the Western way of life and civilize them through religion. However in this day and age we seem to have given up altogether in trying to convert and better people, now we lump them together using frameworks such as Orientalism to marginalize them (Edward Said on Orientalism). It can also be stated that like a lot of other dominant frameworks they are socially constructed and almost taken as common sense because they have become so embedded in our society.
Therefore how can a country like New Zealand ever get to a place where it can call itself truly fair and multicultural when there are active discourses such as orientalism, racism and stereotyping that are all linked to the very founding framework of New Zealand which is colonialism. With modern New Zealand being built on forceful colonialist ideas around dominance and power multiculturalism seems impossible and perhaps it is. For a society to function does there need to be a social and cultural hierarchy that advantages some and dis-empowers others? All I am trying to argue is that because New Zealand is such a diverse place in terms of its population do we not owe it to our immigrants to treat them equally and aim for a fair society? But as I have previously stated I believe this is near impossible due to how embedded ideas and discourses like colonialism, orientalism, racism and stereotyping are in our society. For as long as they exist along with their ideals New Zealand cannot move towards becoming a truly multicultural society.
After all we were all immigrants once, the difference is contemporary ones don't arrive and take over with force like colonial powers did to the Maori.
Works Cited:
Edward Said on Orientalism. Sut Jhally, Smith Jeremy, Sanjay Talreja and Nessim Watson. Media Education Foundation Collection, 2014. Film.
Thanks for your post, James. I agree in that it is hard to get to a multicultural society in reality (despite the claims made that NZ is already there) and I think the focus should be primarily focusing on getting New Zealand towards a more equal, coexisting, bicultural society, where Maori and Pakeha are both equally represented. As a nation I believe it is important to firstly focus on Indigenous rights, not to say other culture's rights don't matter, they do. But we have an obligation to try and make some reparations to Maori and acknowledge the fact that Pakeha are still actively benefiting from hegemonic and Western-dominant structures.
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