Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: What to Do?

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  • Logan O'Callahan,

    Doesn't nearly every country use its nationality as a core ethnicity in census questions?

    well no actually, some are more blunt about the purpose of the question:

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=273
    http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/racefactcb.html

    And Australians have social science rivalled only by the French:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_in_Australia
    Ethniicity standard

    Since Apr 2008 • 70 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Interesting. I can't imagine "White" going down too well as a category in our country. And who knew the Brits were so un-diverse? 92% pale!

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Sacha- 'tauiwi' literally means 'stranger tribe/foreign race' (and I've loudly objected at hui for it being used as an equivalent for "Pakeha.")

    Which had the meaning 'a person of predominantly European descent' ascribed to it by the 1870s. (That's the main noun: the other one refers to its probable antecedent, the sea fairy thing-)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    I would say in modern usage there's a much stronger case for tauiwi referring to all/any people other than Maori (so of foreign origin from a Maori perspective, and as such probably excluding PIs in many contexts. While Pakeha is more specifically of European descent and generally but not essentially British/Irish descent or with English as mother tongue ("te reo Pakeha" is a common expression) with additional connotations of some familiarity and standing here if not several generations-worth.

    That it is now customary to capitalise Pakeha, but not tauiwi is evidence in favour - cf European or British on the one hand, cf foreigner.

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Chris W - evidence 'in modern useage'...'for tauiwi referring to all/any people other than Maori"?? It's a very 'radical' academic & Auckland thing- & your later comments contradict your earlier ones.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    I've heard 'tauiwi' in the spoken language many times in non-academic non-Auckland settings - in this broadly East Coast region - to include all others, including recent immigrants, and we have a longstanding "Chinese" mayor (Meng Foon) of the Gisborne District, born here, who is not Pakeha but might be referred to as tauiwi in some contexts though since he's pretty fluent in te reo (and I don't mean te reo Pakeha) he gets a special category in other contexts.

    The contradiction?

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    Sorry for clumsy writing, I'm a morning person. And I'm not meaning these to have any direct relation to that multi-dimensional concept of ethnicity, just focusing on the language as she is spoke.

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    That's what I was after, thanks, and I was expecting it might differ with iwi.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Thank you both.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    No probs Chris W - only used by (non-Kai Tahu generally) academics in the South, and by visiting other iwi up here :)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Amy Gale,

    The wording is just too vague. Do I get to correct any and all parents? Or just my own?

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    For avoidance of doubt, in this clause 'parent' shall include the plural and plural the singular, and shall include grand-parent and grand-parent's parent, yea, even unto the seventh generation. :)

    Provided you smite them only with a mote, I think, or is it a moat in British Tory usage.

    On ethnicity, and seriously, I think half the problem stems from its root in Greek and Biblical Greek in particular, where ethnos meant a foreign nation (of heathens etc), hence the US or US-Anglo concept of 'ethnics' being everyone else but the plain vanilla whites; ethnicity applies to them, not 'us'.
    The other half of the problem being the effluxion of time and all that goes with it, migration, breeding, cultural change .... Still there's something useful in there.

    On Pakeha and tauiwi, and iwi or regional differences in usage, don't expect consistency within any iwi or region either, but there are tendencies, changing over time no doubt.

    Here establishing evidence for my 'morning person' tendencies in NZST time zone - I was up past my normal bed-time, having watched All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) for first time.

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Amy Gale,

    (Disclaimer: poor attitude aside, I do actually answer ethnicity questions "correctly" just in case it really is important.)

    The main problem for me with a lot of ethnicity questions is that the concept is so confused and the domain so oddly calibrated. I wish the questioners would actually ask the question they want answered, instead of trying to proxy for it.

    Are they interested in health planning? Then it probably matters whether "European" ancestry is Greek or Norwegian.

    Are they interested in social trends? Then it probably doesn't matter whether a 5th generation NZer is descended from Chinese settlers or British ones.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report Reply

  • Lyndon Hood,

    Do I get to correct any and all parents? Or just my own?

    No, no, you don't understand at all. Parents get to correct anybody.

    Dealing in press releases, I've found the most notable feature of the debate to be David Lane somehow getting even weirder.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

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