Thursday, 28 July 2011, 10:36 am Press Release: Manu Caddie
27 July 2011
Rites of passage researchidentifies keys for healthy, prosperous communities
Whatlife lessons did previous generations of young people needto learn before they became adults? Could these rites ofpassage provide some answers to the multiple challengesfacing young Maori today? These two questions were thefoundation for a three year national project led by Gisborneresearcher Manu Caddie and a team of youth workers fromaround the country.
Youth workers from Christchurch,Wellington, Whanganui, Whangarei and Tairawhiti interviewedMaori elders in their community with a focus on theirexperiences as children and adolescents. The interviews werefilmed and key messages from the stories compiled into awritten summary.
On Sunday night, 6pm at the Dome Cinemain Gisborne, the findings from the project will be releasedat a public screening of “Hei Tikitiki” a new DVD featuringhighlights from more than 30 interviews. A 90 page reportsummarising the research findings will be available alongwith copies of the DVD.
The project received financialsupport from the Lottery Community Sector Research Fund andwas based on a proposal Mr Caddie prepared for Te Ora HouAotearoa in 2008. Te Ora Hou is a national network offaith-based Maori youth and community developmentorganisations established in 1976. “Te Ora Hou youth workershave contact with hundreds of young people and familiesevery week, we decided this research was essential to do ifwe wanted to assist with healthy transitions into adulthood”said Mr Caddie. “The 21st yard glass, passing exams andmaking babies are modern day rites of passage but there aresome fundamental life lessons that aren’t being taught toyoung people, in fact advertising, entertainment media andconsumer culture promote the exact opposite of valuesprevious generations were required to accept before beingconsidered responsible adults.”
“It’s been a fairlydrawn out process, some of the people interviewed have sincepassed away, so the footage we have of their stories is verysignificant to their families” said Mr Caddie. “It was areally special inter-generational experience for the youngpeople and youth workers to interview their elders. I wouldlike to see an on-going project established in Gisbornewhere we support young people to record the stories andreflections of our elderly. The way society is structurednow we tend to segregate the age groups and the wisdom ofolder people is lost if they do not have the opportunity toshare it with the younger generations comingthrough.”
Anthropology has for at least the last 200years looked at the purpose of rites of passage withincultures. “A rite of passage deals with entering a newstage of life, maturation in physical, social and sexualstatus and membership of a new group” said Mr Caddie. Theresearchers important theme running through much of theliterature is that rites of passage do not exist for thebenefit of the individual participating in the process butfor the benefit of the community and culture to which theperson belongs.”
Most of the interviewees had grown upin communities and a time where Te Reo was the dominantlanguage and tikanga Māori was still the dominant culture.A few had direct experience of traditional institutions likethe whare wananga or were mentored by tohunga and kuia bornin the 19th Century who ensured certain processes andrituals were in place for the child and adolescents.
Manyof the interviewees felt that their experience of rites ofpassage was more a general process of development ratherthan an explicit event or an intentional set of lessons thatthe teachers and learners were consciously participatingin.
Interviewees identified a range of experiences moreclosely assigned with western or contemporary rites ofpassage including leaving home, first job and working tosupport parents and siblings, getting a mortgage, generaleducational advancement including Māori trade trainingschemes, personal rites of passage, legal marriage, beinggiven or taking responsibility for housework and farm work,choosing own clothing, fashion as a symbol of independenceand enlisting in the military.
Common themes that emergedabout the purpose and outcomes from experiences that theyconsidered rites of passage include the intergenerationaltransmission of:
- Maramatanga / essential values:manaakitanga (hospitality), respect for and valuing theguidance of elders, strong work ethic, personal integrity,contribution to the wellbeing of the whole community,respect and care for the natural environment and othercreatures, etc.
- Mātauranga / essentialknowledge: whakapapa (genealogy and how different whānau,hapū and iwi are connected), wahi tapu (sacred places),wahi kai (food sources), battle-sites, astrology, astronomyand patterns of natural phenomenon that guide certainactivities, roles and responsibilities of particular whānauwithin the hapū, cross-cultural comparisons, etc.
- Mahitanga / essential skills: cultivating food, hunting andcollecting food, preparing and storing food, communicationskills (whaikōrero/karanga/kōrero/karakia) and hostingskills, house building, martial arts, creative arts andcrafts, caring for the natural environment, etc.
Lessintentional lessons were also learnt through someexperiences such as the importance of alcohol in whānaulife, the gendered nature of work, the cyclical nature ofviolence, etc.
All of the interviewees were able toprovide examples of what they considered rites of passage.These were all personal experiences from their childhood andadolescence, in some cases pre-birth and for a few therewere experiences they had in late adulthood – a few spokeof practices common in their community that they were awareof in their lifetime or their parents life.
Only a fewinterviewees were able to share stories of how theyparticipated in particular rituals, institutions or eventsthat would adhere to the famous three stage (separation,transition, and reincorporation) rites of passage. Howevernearly all of the experiences shared were consistent withthe idea of rites of passages being markers of transitionfrom one state of being to another, of being directed by andfor the benefit of the wider community and of beingessential for the intergenerational transmission of culturalvalues and community knowledge.
The interviewees storiesvalidate the claim of other recent research that the rite ofpassage process not only guides the individual’stransition to a new status, but, equally important, itcreates public events that celebrate the transition andreaffirm community values, which inform and guideexpectations for behaviours essential for the group’ssurvival.
Mr Caddie said he hopes the project will providea useful resource for anyone interested in positive youthdevelopment, social progress and how we pass on values andknowledge between generations. While the project focused onMaori experiences, Mr Caddie believes the principles andlessons learnt can be applied across any culturalgroup.
“While government advisors and think-tanks like theNew Zealand Institute have identified the real social andeconomic crisis New Zealand young people find themselves in,we think there are some solutions emerging from the storiesof our old people and we need to think about how thoseexperiences might be translated into a contemporary context.There are implications from this research for employment,enterprise, mental health, parenting, education and crimeprevention. That’s the next piece of work to be done as weconsider the learnings from this report for a broad range ofsocial, cultural and economic issues.”
ENDS