Maori and Pakeha Images and Their Interrelationships in Jane Campion's the Piano1

An old Maori proverb, Haere Mai Ra, E Te Manuhiri Tuarangi (Welcome to the guest from afar) embodies the Maoris' time honored friendliness, interest in others and anticipation of lively debate, discussion and even fun fighting, which lasts in the culture to this day. My view of this movie is strangely and ambivalently colored by the ebb and flow of my own relationship with the Maori culture. I knew from childhood that my mother was part Maori, but I was raised in a strictly Pakeha3 atmosphere. In her nuclear family, my mother was prohibited from discussing her Maori origins and was discouraged from participating in any Maori rituals or using the language. To this day her attitude is awkward about her heritage. When I have asked about our people, she has said “why would you want to know about that anyway?” as if it were irrelevant to the understanding of my origins as a New Zealander, perhaps even to be hidden. In the past five years, New Zealanders have been engaged in vigorous discourse about the effect of colonialization on the image of the Maori people and with discussion about what a New Zealander really is. There is a move afoot to change the name of New Zealand to its Maori name Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud or clear burning light). Maori can now be a first language, and