Schools were set up to teach Maoris a colonial curriculum and encourage them to live a European lifestyle. (103) The Maori people were forced to give up control of their own lives. Much as Beth was forced to do the same. Rosenfield wrote, “Maoris do not accept the universe is limited to the world in which men live and die. “(56) According to Metege, they see humanity in two different realms: Te Po and Nga Rangi. These two realms are the light and dark side of human nature.
One, Te po, translates to ‘night’ and the other, Nga Rangi, to ‘day.
‘ (56) This is interesting because Beth seems to have existed for many years only in Te Po. She is half a person. Being that she has been so colonized by Jake, you could say the Jake has become the other half of her personality. The whole Beth still resided in a dark place. Somewhere within her though, was light. When she lost her daughter to suicide, she found that light.
Slowly, the loss of Beth’s children begins to affect her. She watched her daughter Grace kill herself, her son, Nig, join a gang, her other son, Boogie, get sent to a boys home because a court deemed she and Jake could not take care of him.
When Grace died, the colonized Beth, died with her. She realizes her action, or rather inaction, is the cause of the distance between she and her children. She tells Jake that she is having Grace buried on the island she grew up on.
Here there is a change in her body language. She stands straight, looks him in the eye, and is not afraid. Even though Jake hates her family because they look down on him, and Beth knows he doesn’t want his daughter buried there, she does it anyway. During the years of colonization, Maori culture declined but did not die.
Pionair tells, “Colonization and Western settlement proceeded rapidly after 1840. In 1852, Britain granted New Zealand internal self-government, and by 1907 the nation became an independent dominion within the British Empire (later, Commonwealth). In the 20th century, the Maori population rebounded and the Maori people integrated with residents of European descent. However, the Maori maintain many distinct aspects of their cultural heritage. ” It took many “stubborn” Maori over many years to preserve this culture.
Once strong warriors were, for many years, mere inhabitants of a land that once was their own. It is amazing that any part of the culture survived but it has and more is being found. The key to the survival of any culture is education. When younger generations are taught about their culture, they can preserve it. Likewise is the demise of any culture; when generations are taught to renounce their history, they forget. After a few generations, the culture has disappeared. When Beth read her the entry in her daughter’s book of stories and found the cause of her death she got angry.
She came to understand how much her problems with Jake had affected her kids. If she had stopped Jake’s parties or left with the children Grace may have never been raped by Jake’s “friend,” Bully. Beth and Nig bring the journal to Jake (who has been at the bar while his family is at Grace’s funeral). He reads it and beats Bully half to death. He tries to leave the bar with Beth and Nig but it is obvious he’s unwelcome. Jake asks where they’re going and Beth’s reply is simply, “home. ” This time though, home is not the house they shared with Jake.
It is the island, her family, Maori. Maori people are close knit and hard working. Metege identified the most important part of Maori culture, Family. Not just the nuclear family unit but the entire extended family is treated with a special level of kindness. They share with any member in need transportation, money, an extra hand to work, food and anything else one person could give to another (125). Above all else, I believe this is the reason Beth goes back home with her children. She realized what they needed was a loving family, and she knew where to find that.
The Maori I believe understood how important this was. Especially after seeing, and being taught about, the “British lifestyle. ” The re-teaching of Maori traditions, and teaching them for the first time to children, has brought home a lost culture of people. The Maori people never entirely lost their culture. Beth Heke never entirely lost her family. The struggles they went through are most similar in that some things were lost – but not all, and that their culture is what eventually taught them how to be whole again.
Eventually Beth and the Maori end their struggle and begin healing. That healing starts with Maori culture, and family. Works Cited Metege, Joan. The Maoris of New Zealand: Rautahi. London: Routledge and Keagan Paul, 1967 Pionair Adventures, LTD. Pionair: Classic Adventure Travel. 14 Nov. 2001. <Http://www. pionair. com> Rosenfield, Jean E. The Island Broken In Two Halves: Land Renewal and Movements Among The Maori of New Zealand. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
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