While in New Zealand and Australia, I marveled at all the different cultures present. We got in-depth with the Maori in New Zealand and learned about Aboriginal ways in Australia.
Through both of these experiences, I realized something important: They are trying to hang onto their heritage.
We all have traditions that are important to us. Nobody had better dare to mess with making Christmas cookies with your family or the traditional grill-out on Memorial Day or what the side dishes are at Thanksgiving. As they sing in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, tradition! This is the way it’s always been and how it will always be.
Until it’s not.
The countries in the southern hemisphere are a lot like the Americas. At one point, they were settled by people who were the first to be native to the country. We’ll probably never really be sure how that worked. Did people walk across the Bering Strait to settle North America? Did people come in seven canoes, as is the Maori mythology, to live in New Zealand? Were people just always there, as is the story of the Aboriginal people of Australia?
Eventually, European colonizers came and decided that they were in charge of all these places. They deemed themselves superior, often because of the color of their skin, and just took over. And part of taking over was trying to eliminate the ways of the people who had already been in those places.
Our group got to tour a Maori village and see some of the ways of the people that have survived to this day. They cook and bathe using steam to heat the food and water. They have their own immersive language schools for their young children to be taught the words and ways of their people. For many decades, that was illegal. There were generations who did not get to know all the traditions and knowledge, except in secret.
We also attended a feast. As part of this, I got a chance to take part in a sacred ceremony and represent our “people” as a chief. I accepted the totem of peace that was offered and then was able to sit and watch the native dances and songs before we ate a buffet of steam-infused food.
We also visited a rainforest area and took part in Aboriginal culture. There was an opportunity for some to join the men on the stage in dance. We learned about playing the didgeridoo, which tradition says can only be played by a man. We watched a spear-throwing exhibition. Plus, we all got a chance to throw an authentic boomerang, used by their people to hunt.
The Aboriginal people were also taken from their culture when England set Australia as a prison colony. The English removed children and forced them into an education of English ways. Some people today are still trying to trace their family trees to their original families.
We know these same things occurred in North America. But when you see that it didn’t just happen here, but all over the world, it really drives home the importance of tradition. It shines a light on knowing your family and where they are from.
When Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson wrote the lyrics for “We Are the World,” they tried to show that we are all one people and should treat each other with dignity. “We are the world. We are the children. We are the ones who make a brighter day.” They are saying that it doesn’t matter what age or race or religion we are, we’re all humans and all the same in the ways that count.
I thought of that song as I watched the dances of the Maori and Aboriginal people. I thought of it as we studied the history of the Hyde Park Barracks, where convicts and natives both were taken to be retrained. I thought of it as we were told of the Maori people being forbidden from teaching their language to their children.
None of us want to change our traditions. We do at times, because our families change or new ideas appear, but deep down we buck against anything that we are not comfortable with. And that’s for things that really don’t make a difference in the world in the long run. If you don’t make lefse one year or don’t have stuffing or don’t create s’mores after your cookout, the world will continue to spin.
The world continued to spin when the Maori and Aboriginal and Native Americans were forced to change their traditions. But that was a deeper impact by far.
Sure, I know that the Maori and Aboriginal people are making money by putting on those shows. But that’s what they must do to educate us about their culture and to try to claw back to respectability and equality. It’s important to realize what’s important to others and respect that, instead of always thinking we’re doing things the best way.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is gaberlunzie, which means a wandering beggar, as in, “The native man was forced to become a gaberlunzie when he refused to go along with the plans of the colonizers.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!