The Government and the Tokelau Scandal
It is not good to impute motives to any person or group of people. Human motives are commonly very mixed. Therefore, in discussing the situation of Tokelau Islanders in New Zealand and the behaviour of our Government in relation to this Polynesian people, I imagine that the motivation of our Government lies somewhere in a middle area between a benign but clumsy paternalism and a cynical exploitation of one available source of manual labourers.
I am not trying to invent a new Devil. The old one is bad enough. According to our religion, he succeeded in afflicting the human race with the curse of universal stupidity. Darkness of the intellect is what the theologians call it.
Probably the destructive activities of our Government in the all-important sphere of inter-cultural relationships between people of European and people of Polynesiandescent, stems from nothingmoremalign than dense,prolonged and mind-benumbing social stupidity.
My contact with people of the Tokelau Islands began when Fr John Broadbent, now of Johnsonville parish, visited me at Jerusalem, accompanied by a young man named Hefo. One thing led to another. For a year at Jerusalem I had the privilege of Hefo’s help and company. Almost singlehanded he planted and cultivated a large garden to provide the less capable members of the community with vegetables. Whenever problems rose in the community I would discuss them with him. His wisdom and intuitive awareness of the feelings of other people, derived, I think, from his long participation in village life, were quite invaluable. I referred to him on occasions as the anchor of the Jerusalem community. When he left me to join his people in the towns I lamented his going.
He returned some time later on a day’s visit with his stepfather Kimi, an elder and leader in the Tokelau village community from which they both came, who had come to New Zealand to assist his people in the difficult task of adjustment to New Zealand social conditions. With Hefo as translator Kimi said to me: ‘The words of the Government are words of love. But I think their actions are not actions of love.’ He was referring to the programme of the Government to encourage young Tokelau Islanders to migrate to New Zealand. The emigration of young men had plucked the heart out of the Tokelau Islands economy. The old people and the children were left to do the village work. And the Tokelau Islanders who did emigrate found themselves in many cases employed by the Forestry Department, in unsatisfactory conditions. Our colder climate, to which they were unaccustomed, affected their health adversely.
Their chiefs were not treated with the respect owing to them. The offer of my friend Hefo, who is articulate both in English and in the Tokelau Island language, to act as interpreter between his people and the Government was inevitably rejected. As far as I am aware, no other person was appointed to fill the gap.
I do not wish to stress denominational matters. An issue of social justice is involved in our Government’s treatment of the Tokelau Islanders, and social justice is not a denominational matter. But Hefo and his stepfather are both Catholics. There are many Catholics among the Tokelau Islanders, many adherents of the London Missionary Society and a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses. All men are our brothers, but those who kneel at the altar rail with us are brothers twice over. I trust we will be able to rectify injuries that are being done to our brothers by our elected Government.
This year I visited members of the Tokelau Islands community in Petone and Porirua. I attended two meetings of the elders and discussed their problems with them. They gave me permission to write this article. And these are their problems, as clearly as I can set them down:
My joy at being among the elders of the Tokelau Islands people was great. The spiritual impact of direct contact with the communal Christ, expressed in ceremony and hospitality and the love of the group, is always like a wave lifting a boat towards the sky.
My sorrow was also great. I fear that the communal Christ will yet again be crucified among us – by the shattering of the Tokelau Islands culture, by the types of crime and sickness of mind and body that come when the small fish is swallowed by the big one, by the headless and heartless advance of commerce and technology that pays no heed to minorities. If that happens, it will be as if we had thrown the Crown Jewels out on the rubbish heap.
The Polynesian spiritual values are of enormous importance for the growth of our souls, we people of European descent, who are so often too arrogant to recognise what we lack. Even in a day and a night spent among the Tokelau Islanders I found myself invigorated by contact with the communal Christ.
It is not so much that we should help them – though certainly in mere justice we owe them our voices and hands to convince the Government that it cannot treat minorities as it pleases – it is rather that we need the opportunity to avail ourselves of the strength and support of their brotherly love. We would deny ourselves most of all if we remained indifferent to their situation.
1971 (662)