What’s the Importance of Biculturalism?

Well, it’s the 21st century, this is not the time of black and white. Today’s day an age is constantly been challenged and flipped upside down or downside up. Biculturalism is so bloody important and is something NZ as a whole was struggling with THIS bicultural thing ever since the Tiriti o Waitangi came about. I am glad more and more indigenousness storytellers are coming out of the shadows and not only indigenousness storytellers but storytellers who continue to disrupt the status quo. This is important because NZ is not just full of Kiwi’s. Aotearoa is home to the Māori tangata whenua of this land, but not only that we have Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Cook island, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European and the list goes on.

Why is this important?

Well look as a Māori born and raised in the city, I have had the privilege of being brought up in a Māori world and when I have left the comforts of my Māori world I see sadness and anger. Why do I see this? firstly, these stories of the land that these tauiwi a living on having no clue what stories lay beneath their feet. As a Māori I would love to share our stories with the world with Aotearoa and that can only be achieved if more people accept the concept of Biculturalism. I guess as a performing artist it is a goal of mine to challenge the status quo and bring light to stories that are not usually shared and like Todd Karehana and Piata Gardiner-Hoskins I was inspired that they were a part of the many faces challenging the others that Māori can tell better stories such as the violent, drunk drinking, poor, gangs, woman bashing stereotype movies that currently are genres drawn to Māori stories.

TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO IS TO CHALLENGE THE BICULTURALISM IN AOTEAROA.