Icebreaker

(I said to Bill the other day. If one of us doesn’t post a blog soon, we never will. So here it is, the icebreaker, just a little verbal stretch to get us back in the groove …)

When I was a girl growing up in Lachine Quebec, stores closed early most days and nothing was open on Sunday. All the business of daily life had to get done Thursday or Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. Remember that? I got through the CÉGEP years with a part-time retail job at the cosmetic counter at Miracle Mart – which is hilarious, because I never could do much with make-up, and I still can’t!

Anyway, it’s like that even now here in New Zealand. Cities and towns are closed up on Sundays – not everything, not the big grocers, but lots of stuff, closed on Sunday. And most days they close up tight around 5 o’clock, except on Thursdays and Fridays.  Feels like a throwback to a different time, many decades ago, when Sunday was a day of rest. Life was simple – or inconvenient – or both.

Not that NZ a particularly Christian or religious place. No visible religious fanaticism. A secular society, for sure. And more tolerant of differences than some other places. More than that, I think – not just tolerant – respectful even celebratory of other’s ways.

B&B (bilingualism and biculturalism) have taken hold here in Aotearoa New Zealand more successfully than our version of B&B at home. For over 50 years, Māori and Pakeha (European) heritage have been recognized equally. Two official languages, Māori and English flourish, with a sprinkling of Maori words frequently used by English speakers in everyday conversation.

Now, that’s not universally true, and there is some growing intolerance in Aotearoa, like in many western democracies around the world.  New Zealanders recently elected its most conservative government in decades. Not super far-right, the governing National Party is more like our PC party used to be at home.

But it’s a coalition government, what we’d call a minority government, and depends to some extent on support from the two minority far-right parties, ACT and NZ First. They advocate for a fundamental re-interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is the 1840 deal between Māori chiefs and the British Crown that gave birth to New Zealand as a British colony. As you’d expect, the reinterpretation would greatly diminish Maori rights, language, history, and culture. And undoubtedly would sow the seeds for greater intolerance in general.

I’m told, it won’t go anywhere, it’s a fringe movement at best. But still, it’s having its day in parliament and perhaps winning a small place in polite conversation. And as we have been recently reminded, yesterday’s lunatic fringe can gain control of tomorrow’s conversation, even today’s conversation. We need to be vigilent in defending what we hold dear.

But just as I’m hard-pressed to meet an American who admits they voted for Donald Trump, you really don’t find Kiwis over here bragging about having supported the new far-right fringe …

The first and most obvious example of Kiwi mutual respect presented itself to us on the second day of our campervan road trip.  We had spent the night in Rotorua – on the North Island, renowned for both its extensive network of hot pools and as a hotbed of Maori culture. 

We stopped in the next day at the lakefront suburb/village of Ohinemutu, a modern Māori community.  There we came upon St Faith Anglican Church.

The Church itself and the people we met are a fascinating medley of Christian faith and Māori spirituality. From the physical structure of the Church itself to their unique bilingual Māori-English bible. Open, tolerant, mutually respectful.

Services alternate in one language or the other, sometimes a bit of both. So interesting. And Maori-led St Faith is a big deal in the Anglican Church structure.  It’s a bishopry, South Pacific headquarters, so to speak, for the Church.

Equally interesting, the Bennett clan are a big deal over here. An extensive and important Māori family for the last 200 years. The first Bennetts originated in England, but the clan around Rotorua is now mostly Māori. In fact, two of the first three bishops of St Faith were Bennetts. Bruce, the friendly Pakeha parishioner, welcomed us warmly and told me my great grandfather lay at rest at the altar – made me feel included!

And the other very dominant Māori name in the area is Morrison. Not Morris, but Morrison is awfully close. Isn’t that wonderfully weird?