SEPTEMBER 14 2019 LISTENER 41
GE
TTY (^) I
M
AG
ES
T
e Arawa’s Kingi Biddle is not only world
famous in Rotorua, but also a world-famous
orator. At last month’s New Zealand Psy-
chological Society conference in the tourist
town, Biddle opened proceedings.
He told attendees he was there because his uncle
asked him. He professed to know nothing about
psychology and said he would instead speak about
his patch of Rotorua.
He described the different personalities of local
ngāwhā (geysers), drawing analogies as he went.
He told attendees that even though these water
and steam gushers had different characteristics and
uses, they were all connected by the same aqui-
fer. He proceeded to weave a series of apparently
unconnected pieces of Māori lore into a compelling
treatise on relationships – how everything, includ-
ing us, is connected.
It was a tough act to follow, but Carla Houkamau
crushed it. Houkamau, intellectually born and bred
at the University of Auckland, describes herself as
a political psychologist and is now working in the
university business school. In her keynote address,
she built up to talking about the Māori Identity
and Financial Attitudes Study, or MIFAS, which
surveyed thousands of Māori.
A starting point in the build-up was a reference
to another piece of research, the New Zealand Atti-
tudes and Values Study. In a finding that mightn’t
make much sense to many mainstream Western
economists, Māori participants in one phase of
the study who reported strong feelings of cultural
connection were also less likely to be enrolled
in KiwiSaver. Yet these same folks were more
likely to say they felt optimistic about their
financial security in the future.
But how, says Mr White-mainstream-
economist, can you feel more optimistic
about having money in the future if you’re
not putting it away now? He asks this because
Collective thinking
Keeping the economy and
culture separate is not how
indigenous groups work.
it is a mainstay of modern economics
that people make rational choices –
they do things that will enhance their
wallets.
But this is not how things work
for many Māori, Houkamau told
her audience. In collectivist cultures,
such as those of Māori and many
indigenous peoples around the world,
cultural connection is also social con-
nection, and social connection has
capital all of its own. Using statistics
and interviews, she went on to show
that whānau, hapū and iwi are the
economy, rather than “just” the
money economy.
But she recalled asking her nana:
“What if, by giving what we have
away to others, we don’t have
enough for ourselves?” Her kuia
replied: “There’s always enough.”
I
ndeed, not only is it not how
things have traditionally and
culturally worked for Māori, but by
assuming and insisting that it is how
things work, we’re sidelining Māori,
recolonising them if you will (my
words, not Houkamau’s).
The argument reminds me a little
of the fact that, in the US, African
Americans are less likely to use
safe-sex practices, or follow medical
regimens, that would seem to be in
their best interests. One reason for
this is that it’s quite easy for African
Americans to point to times when the
Government told them to do things
“for their own good” that really
weren’t. A case in point is the 40-year
Tuskegee Study, which, without
informed consent, set out “to record
the natural history of syphilis” in an
untreated sample of 600 men. I, too,
would be cynical about an economic
system that appears to have sys-
tematically screwed me and my
people since its introduction.
So, two different pres-
entations, but both
fundamentally about
connections between
people. It’s hard to disagree
with the benefits, but the
wheels of the free market
feel like they have a lot of
momentum. l
by Marc Wilson
PSYCHOLOGY
I, too, would be cynical
about an economic
system that appears
to have systematically
screwed my people.
From left, Kingi Biddle and Carla Houkamau:
making cultural and social connections.