The 2nd lecture and some of the course readings, such as Maori Television, Anzac Day, and Constructing “Nationhood” by Abel, pointed out how Maori TV are/has been constructing New Zealand national identity as “New Zealander”. The context which those discussions pointed out as the construction is the nation-building policy by the past labour party government. The perspective was new for me, and it obviously very different from the discussion by Stuart on “Nation-building”, and also from the discussion by Yasunobu Ito, a Japanese anthropologist who has researched on the Maori education systems (especially about Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Maori) and Maori TV.
In his doctor thesis and the book（伊藤 2007）, Yasunobu Ito discussed the emergence of Maori total emersion schools as the partitioning process of Te Ao Maori/ Maori world and Te Ao Pakeha/ non-Maori or ‘main stream’ New Zealand in the education social sub-system. His discussion is, though not necessarily mentioned clearly in his writing, related to the sociological system theory by Luhmann. As the extension of this discussion on the Maori educational system, he also described the establishment of Maori TV as the partitioning of Maori world and Pakeha world in the media subsystem(伊藤 2010) . In addition, he focuses on the launch of Te Reo channel as the reflection of the dispute between fluent Te Reo Maori speaking Maori and non-Te Reo Maori speaking Maori, as well as points out the variety of the demand among Maori people. In this discussion, some of the fluent Te Reo Maori speakers are described as the people who desire a ‘pure’ Maori language condition and non-Te Reo Maori speakers as the majority in urban area. It is obvious that he regards the launch of Te Reo channel as the 2nd partition which is occurred inside Maori. In short, his discussion is about the potential partition process of this New Zealand society, between the main stream Pakeha world, the ‘purist’ Maori and other non- Te Reo Maori speakers.
In short, Ito points out that the establishment of Maori TV and Te Reo Channel is the partition of the world. This discussion reminds me of the discussion by Stuart in the course reading. He equates "nation" as "Maori", and discusses about the development of Maori media as “Maori” nation building in New Zealand. In his article, the “Maori” nation is considered as what is distinct from “Pakeha” nation within the state of New Zealand and also distinct from the former “iwi” based nation. Those two discussions are relevant at the point that both of them points out the partitioning process within New Zealand. There is also a difference about Te Reo channel that Ito regards the establishment of Te Reo channel as the second partition within Maori.
On the other hand, the point made by Abel is very different from those two former discussions. She points out that Maori TV is used to create including force to construct the national identity as New Zealander while it encourages the tikanga maori and te reo maori. The context is at economical/ political sphere, or the nation building policy of the former labour government.
When we think about the establishment of Maori TV, the establishment can be seen as the portioning process within New Zealand, and Ito and Stuart’s discussions seem logically reasonable. However, for me, Abel’s discussion is very fascinating because her perspective is broader and considering broader social/ economical/ political context beyond the binary of Pakeha/ Maori world. Maori TV has developed in the seeking of Maori sovereignty, but it is also real that Maori TV is embedded in the social/ political context of New Zealand.
However, what about the launch of Te Reo channel? Is this another partition within Maori? Or the attainment of Maori nation? It is hard to answer the question here, but Ito arises the interesting arguing point.
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