Mana Tamariki: Cultural Alienation

Abstract

Māoridom has been rocked by a number of high profile child homicides in New Zealand. Many Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent) commentators attribute this to deficits in Māori culture. Māori, on the other hand, tend generally to hold that the high level of Māori child homicide and abuse is a recent phenomena related to colonization. This paper examines pre-European Māori parenting and finds that violence towards children was not common practice. It examines the origins of violence towards children in cultural alienation and looks at the role of the Māori renaissance and re-enculturalization as solutions.