If you don't like to happily debate or discuss deeper issues then don't read any more.:)
<3
This is just my opinion and experiences.
And only between Pakeha (White Kiwis) and Maori.
---------
Growing up in the UK was amazing. My mum and dad where both into Motorbikes from a very young age so I got brought up in a great community of their friends. They both were not close with their parents, so this community was basically my extended family.
I went to very classic English schools mostly beginning with St... where in primary school you learn the lords prayer & Maypole dancing was a big event!
There was a community. There was a Spa shop up the road where you would have everything! And whilst walking up the road you would have to at least stop and talk to 3 people.
When I was 10, my mum and dad took us on holiday to New Zealand to see my Auntie who had immigrated over 2 years prior. It was amazing! Beautiful sunny weather, lots of beaches....totally different culture to our simple country bumpkin, pub going lifestyle.
We came back over to England feeling excited and hopeful. New Zealand would be an amazing place to move to. Right?
Well 2 years later, my dad found a job as a Stone Mason in Whangarei NZ. Of course as a father you want to provide for your family. So seeing how much my Auntie's husband was succeeding in his job in New Zealand and how much England was changing, he thought that it would be a better and easier place to live.
However My uncle is a business man, my dad is a builder. My Auntie's family are in the Mormon Church, and we are not. They live in Auckland, we moved to Whangarei. SO it did not go the way we hoped.
Anyway we moved to NZ when I had just been at secondary school for 4 months. I had made some really good friends and had just started to like my new school. When yaaay I have to move to New Zealand and go back into Intermediate. WHERE it was pretty much like a middle way from Primary to High school, where you learn nothing and pretty much just do shit loads of sport.
As you may be guessing, I hated it. And I was really shy. Also, as I came from a very country town in England, the vast majority of people at my school were white. I think there was only about 3 people at my school who were black or Indian, and were a lot older so I wasn't friends with them.
So, a really white kid who was really shy who had what non English people would classify as a 'posh' accent (which it was not) + A new School where most of the people were Maori and Geography isn't even a topic. I didn't get a long so well.
Only one girl spoke to me the whole of my first day. And my teacher had me stand up in front of the class and give a speech on where I come from and who I am. What sane teacher does that!!!
In said speech all that came out was, 'HI I'm Hannah Bradley, I'm from Glastonbury England and I have a big family and have Jamaican cousins(true fact)'. JUST so they new I liked black people and a wasn't racist. What an idiot. I told my now kiwi friends that's what I did, and they just started crying with laughter.
In NZ they are all so comfortable with saying 'that white chick' or that Black fella over there' that It just wasn't an issue. Which was SO hard for me to do as where I come from & in America, if you say anything regarding black people in that sort of way, it would be really bad and racist that you would be shunned for saying such a thing.
However Racism is a very big problem in New Zealand, and was the hardest to understand. Not a lot of outsiders would think this of New Zealand. But it is.
My own experience was that Kiwi's have a nickname for British people, 'Pommy'. So my nick name at school for a couple of years was Pom Pom. Said in a mocking way at first and then a nice way when I became a normal part of their life, and they didn't think of me as different any more.
There are Major class distinctions. Mostly between the Maori and whites. For example....
When I was at school it seemed to me that all of the Maori people lived in a normal home like me. And all of the white people seemed to have boats and batches and surf boards and ski's....the list goes on.
I found myself gravitating towards the Maori people as a found I resonated more with them. They are more family orientated and made do with what they had. As where I come from in England it was exactly the same. We never had beaches, we never had batches... Our holidays where going camping in the cold weather in the hills by a river, (love). So as I gravitated towards this society, I felt the judgement from the other. I literally found myself being the only white person at a party because all of my white friends where to nervous to go. Even one of my friends family members said to him when I left 'that was the coolest white chick I have met'. This is so wrong. Because its reality, everyone is nervous to hang out with each other. Especially the older generation.
A constant phrase that people said to me was. 'your such a horey Maori', even the Maori saying it to me....but then the opposite to one of my Maori friends 'your so white'.Why do they put themselves down I keep asking myself. Its just how the vast majority of society thinks of them. This is wrong.
The Maori people were not allowed to speak their own language for a long period of time and were treated really badly. Hence why there are now loads of Maori trying all their mite to be classified as a separate people.
Is this right or wrong? It is neither.
They have their own culture and language. This is beautiful and must be preserved.
Then It gets controversial....
They have their own party. They have their own flag. They have their own land. They are fighting for water rights. They get granted more money.
Yet they want to be equal and treated with the same respect by society?
Everyone else are jealous and infuriated that we work the same amount but get granted or given less because we are not Maori.
Obviously this is not everyone. But it is an undercurrent in the New Zealand system that people should be aware of when moving. All I can say is that don't be scared and show the system that there needs to be a change. And no favouritism.
I would love to hear your opinion or experiences.
xxx
<3
This is just my opinion and experiences.
And only between Pakeha (White Kiwis) and Maori.
---------
Growing up in the UK was amazing. My mum and dad where both into Motorbikes from a very young age so I got brought up in a great community of their friends. They both were not close with their parents, so this community was basically my extended family.
I went to very classic English schools mostly beginning with St... where in primary school you learn the lords prayer & Maypole dancing was a big event!
There was a community. There was a Spa shop up the road where you would have everything! And whilst walking up the road you would have to at least stop and talk to 3 people.
When I was 10, my mum and dad took us on holiday to New Zealand to see my Auntie who had immigrated over 2 years prior. It was amazing! Beautiful sunny weather, lots of beaches....totally different culture to our simple country bumpkin, pub going lifestyle.
We came back over to England feeling excited and hopeful. New Zealand would be an amazing place to move to. Right?
Well 2 years later, my dad found a job as a Stone Mason in Whangarei NZ. Of course as a father you want to provide for your family. So seeing how much my Auntie's husband was succeeding in his job in New Zealand and how much England was changing, he thought that it would be a better and easier place to live.
However My uncle is a business man, my dad is a builder. My Auntie's family are in the Mormon Church, and we are not. They live in Auckland, we moved to Whangarei. SO it did not go the way we hoped.
Anyway we moved to NZ when I had just been at secondary school for 4 months. I had made some really good friends and had just started to like my new school. When yaaay I have to move to New Zealand and go back into Intermediate. WHERE it was pretty much like a middle way from Primary to High school, where you learn nothing and pretty much just do shit loads of sport.
As you may be guessing, I hated it. And I was really shy. Also, as I came from a very country town in England, the vast majority of people at my school were white. I think there was only about 3 people at my school who were black or Indian, and were a lot older so I wasn't friends with them.
So, a really white kid who was really shy who had what non English people would classify as a 'posh' accent (which it was not) + A new School where most of the people were Maori and Geography isn't even a topic. I didn't get a long so well.
Only one girl spoke to me the whole of my first day. And my teacher had me stand up in front of the class and give a speech on where I come from and who I am. What sane teacher does that!!!
In said speech all that came out was, 'HI I'm Hannah Bradley, I'm from Glastonbury England and I have a big family and have Jamaican cousins(true fact)'. JUST so they new I liked black people and a wasn't racist. What an idiot. I told my now kiwi friends that's what I did, and they just started crying with laughter.
In NZ they are all so comfortable with saying 'that white chick' or that Black fella over there' that It just wasn't an issue. Which was SO hard for me to do as where I come from & in America, if you say anything regarding black people in that sort of way, it would be really bad and racist that you would be shunned for saying such a thing.
However Racism is a very big problem in New Zealand, and was the hardest to understand. Not a lot of outsiders would think this of New Zealand. But it is.
My own experience was that Kiwi's have a nickname for British people, 'Pommy'. So my nick name at school for a couple of years was Pom Pom. Said in a mocking way at first and then a nice way when I became a normal part of their life, and they didn't think of me as different any more.
There are Major class distinctions. Mostly between the Maori and whites. For example....
When I was at school it seemed to me that all of the Maori people lived in a normal home like me. And all of the white people seemed to have boats and batches and surf boards and ski's....the list goes on.
I found myself gravitating towards the Maori people as a found I resonated more with them. They are more family orientated and made do with what they had. As where I come from in England it was exactly the same. We never had beaches, we never had batches... Our holidays where going camping in the cold weather in the hills by a river, (love). So as I gravitated towards this society, I felt the judgement from the other. I literally found myself being the only white person at a party because all of my white friends where to nervous to go. Even one of my friends family members said to him when I left 'that was the coolest white chick I have met'. This is so wrong. Because its reality, everyone is nervous to hang out with each other. Especially the older generation.
A constant phrase that people said to me was. 'your such a horey Maori', even the Maori saying it to me....but then the opposite to one of my Maori friends 'your so white'.Why do they put themselves down I keep asking myself. Its just how the vast majority of society thinks of them. This is wrong.
The Maori people were not allowed to speak their own language for a long period of time and were treated really badly. Hence why there are now loads of Maori trying all their mite to be classified as a separate people.
Is this right or wrong? It is neither.
They have their own culture and language. This is beautiful and must be preserved.
Then It gets controversial....
They have their own party. They have their own flag. They have their own land. They are fighting for water rights. They get granted more money.
Yet they want to be equal and treated with the same respect by society?
Everyone else are jealous and infuriated that we work the same amount but get granted or given less because we are not Maori.
Obviously this is not everyone. But it is an undercurrent in the New Zealand system that people should be aware of when moving. All I can say is that don't be scared and show the system that there needs to be a change. And no favouritism.
I would love to hear your opinion or experiences.
xxx
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