AlterNative

Abstract

There is a general acceptance of the view that today in the early part of the 21st century Mäori people experience diverse realities and live complicated lives that interact with or are formed out of a set of material, cultural, historical and discursive conditions that is understood in its short form as colonisation. Diversity of realities does not mean equal realities in the sense of cultural, social and economic equity. There is continuing evidence that as a minority indigenous peoples Mäori people are socially and economically disadvantaged in New Zealand and as a people are constantly vulnerable to the attitudes, perceptions, judgements and moral panic of the Päkehä majority. Challenging, resisting, mediating and negotiating the unequal relations of power in society have an impact on the ways in which Mäori communities and Mäori institutions such as the marae or the whänau function, develop and envision themselves.