Subculture......

Contrary to the widely held view that Maori social organisations are separatist and a form of apartheid, they promote greater harmony and social integration than would otherwise be the case without them. They give the Maori a sense of personal worth and satisfaction with his identity that would be denied him were he to be judged solely on the Pakeha criteria that were discussed at the beginning of this paper. For the urban Maori, the minor system of social organisation provides him with an alternative value system to that of the dominant Pakeha group, that is so ready to relegate him to an inferior social position. A Maori may be a humble labourer or even an ex-prison inmate but among his own people he has a sense of personal worth that restores his self esteem