I can relate to Andrew Judd’s story of being a ‘recovering racist’. I’m about the same age as Andrew and grew up in a New Zealand where assimilation was the goal, which meant Māori largely becoming like ‘New Zealanders’ (aka like their Pākehā colonisers).
In primary school, I knew just one Māori person—a boy called Rangi.
The only Te Reo I learnt was how to count to 10, and my cultural awareness of Maori tikanga consisted of little more than a visit to the Māori exhibit at the old Wellington museum, where I gave a woeful performance in a poi dance.
And so I have felt the poverty of having no strong cultural identity from my own immigrant ancestors (Denmark, Norway, Northern Ireland and England), while also having no real awareness of New Zealand’s own indigenous culture.
It is almost exclusively through The Salvation Army that I have had this poverty addressed in more recent years. As The Salvation Army has taken steps towards a more determined bicultural commitment—a journey of justice that has faltered in the past but gains ground every year—I find myself gaining a richer sense of place and people.
The word ‘repent’ is a significant word for Christians. It describes our turning from wrong and turning to face forward to a new life led by Jesus. My husband recently reminded me that the key to repentance is that you have to keep going forward in that new life-giving direction, leaving behind the old. Thank God for people like Andrew Judd and others like him who are calling us Pākehā forward to a better way.
Christina Tyson
Editor
Proverbs 4:23 Common English Bible
More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.
Ngā Whakatauki 4:23
Kia pau ōu mahara ki te tiaki i tōu ngākau; nō reira hoki ngā putanga o te ora.