What does it mean to be Anglican? Actually the question needs to be asked what does it mean to be Maori Anglican? Like many Maori we esteem from the Anglican Church largely due to our colonial past with England. I remember in one of the common prayer books we were encouraged to pray for our Queen (not Te Atairangi Kaahu) but HRH Elizabeth II who as a symbol of faith was the Head of the Church – The Church of England! Now that I am older and more informed on our Anglican history I began to realise that being Anglican was nothing more than being a colonised Maori, our prayer books and the way we conducted ourselves was always dictated by some higher realm leading all the way back to England. Yes we spoke Maori, our tipuna led the Church and we had Maori evangelist but Maori were nothing but a product of England’s influence upon us all.
Yes of course our constitution has changed and we, Maori, have full autonomy over the way we practice our faith but there is still a nexus or an invisible line that some how continues to pull us into a very colonised Anglican mind frame and expression of theology. Of course Maori have paved the way and express their own theology seeking an expression of God that is purely from a Maori perspective, but what I have seen is that we are still somehow bound to our colonial past. Maybe its not just Maori Anglican! Maybe its the general identity change that is happening throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific also in Australia among Maori there too?
Anyway is being Maori and Anglican a colonial farce? Do we still bind ourselves to England? In some ways yes and in some ways no! The Pihopatanga o Aotearoa still has a long journey ahead to break away from its colonial roots. Although I’m not at all convinced that having a three tikanga church is the answer. I seem to think that having a three tikanaga church is still at large nothing different then ghettoising ourselves from our Pakeha and Pacific roots too.
I think no matter how we label our religious identity first and foremost is that we should identify ourselves as Maori, this I feel incorporates the other identities of ourselves. But of course then again we come to that forever brooding question that lurks in the back of our heads – what does it mean to be Maori. I won’t get into that debate but it is cause for reflection and discussion. I’ll write about that in my next blog entry.
I remember when I was a Theology Student at St Johns College there were two things that rubbed me up the wrong way! As a Maori student we had to assert ourselves more aggressively not because we felt we had to prove something to our Pakeha and Pacific peers, but because being part of the 3 tikanga get up put an invisible boarder as to how we were to interact with each other. And honestly it still happens! The 3 tikanga approach to being Anglican is always a highly volatile and political arena and unfortunately faith is always caught up in the science of politics.
Secondly, the 3 tikanga model has become an opportunity for people to assert their power and position in the Church not merely as Anglicans, irrespective of our cultural identities, but rather as another form of power shifts and changes to benefit the leaders and powerful elite to make their mark in the overall church. It is still a colonial church and like many religious institutions still fall prey to power, money, politics and gender!
I remember during the electoral college 10 years ago for it was mentioned that CVs should be circulated about each candidate seeking the role of Bishop for Taitokerau. This idea was not encouraged. In the words of one of the priest at the electoral college (Rev. K) reminded us that if we are going to go through this process in pure tikanga Maori fashion then we let the people speak as testimony and not CVs, he quoted:
“e hara te kumara e korero ki toona reka…” “The kumara does not boast of its own sweetness”
In other words someone does not boast of themselves, it is in their work, support of others and the words of others that one is recognised for their own worth.
YET! Several years later during the electoral college held in Ngaruwahia for the candidacy role of Bishop of Aotearoa the very same priest (Rev. K) who said it wasn’t tikanga Maori to put together CVs had a change of heart. He put his name in for this position and campaigned himself by distributing a full booklet and colour bound CV alongside that of others. Therefore using our 3 tikanga privileges according to who we are as Maori Anglican, to me, feels like a farce when it comes to dealing with the shift of power and roles in the church. We tend to use tikanga when it suits us especially at highly volatile politically powerful situations in the shift of power for leadership.
So is the 3 tikanga set up a farce? Yes it is when people use it for their own benefit and not for the true meaning of bringing people together. As a student of St Johns College the best relationships I had with other Anglicans was not in the 3 tikanga model but rather in the relationships I sought outside of this: the churches, picture theatres, pubs, nightclubs, camps, and with friends and family. Not by some document set out by the constitution of the Church only to enable others to assert their power over others. The 3 tikanga model was set up in the vision of our tipuna, but somewhere others took it to mean blaming Pakeha for our wrongs and using it as a means of power, politics and greed!
