Interviews
After agreeing on interview questions, we each went away and did a long, relaxed interview with someone and did an audio recording of it.
Interview One (Lizzie, 20, pakeha, hardly left New Zealand)
This interview shone light on some interesting tensions around what it means to be a New Zealander, which is not something that everyone agrees on. Lizzie does not think that things like 'stubbies' or 'fish n chips on the beach' are New Zealand culture and thinks that Maori culture is the real culture of New Zealand. She loves New Zealand, she thinks it is a chill place with a strong community because of our small size. She thinks New Zealand is defined by a pride of nature and is proud to be a New Zealander. Her favourite aspect of New Zealand history is the fact that we were first to give women, and women of all colour the vote, and her favourite part of the culture is the vocal and performance part of Maori culture. Her least favourite part about our history is the racism and the Treaty of Waitangi. She doesn't think she knows as much as she should about New Zealand history because she lacks motivation and spare time in amongst her daily time.
Interview Two (Mathew, 25, pakeha, has done lot's of travel around Asia and America)
This interview with Mathew has given us some insights to the aspects New Zealand history and culture that he feels he can't relate to. Mathew first thinks of New Zealand as cartoon Kiwi's, sheep, All Blacks t-shirts, all the stuff marketed at him and he finds it boring. He thinks that because New Zealand is a young country we don't have enough history or achievements to be able to have a Kiwi identity. He thinks that Media portray New Zealand as Maori because that's the only thing that sets us a apart from the rest of the world, we are just another colonised country that has tried to patch things up. It is the severe history of colonisation that Mathew is least proud of. Mathew finds the way that Kiwi ingenuity is promoted to create an image of Kiwi blokes inventing cool things like no 8 wire frustrating. This is because he feels like more important issues like NZs bad suicide rate, alcoholism, partners are being beat up every time the All Black loose is over looked in media.
Although Mathew finds NZ history hard to connect to or be proud of there is a lot about Wellington culture he likes, such as how genuinely supported creativity is by the Wellington City council, this can be seen through festivals and galleries. He believes these events are really important because people need a reason to get up and go out. It is also at these events that we get access to different things that might inspire you to create something yourself.
Mathew knows a lot about WWI and WWII because his grandad went to war which sparked an interest as a kid. The only thing he was taught about NZ history at school was about the Treaty of Waitangi and he would like to know more about all the different cultures that settled here and how they got by and the relationship between Maori and Pakeha, otherwise it's just another story about how white people came and smashed the indigenous culture.
Interview Three (Tara, 21, Pakeha, Interested in NZ culture, likes to travel a lot)
Tara likes to keep up to date with NZ history. At the moment when she thinks of NZ she doesnt think of it in a good way as there is a lot of conflict with immigration and inequality but in general when thinking of NZ she thinks of our tourism industry, lord of the rings and '100% pure.' Tara mentioned the fact New Zealand feels really laid back and relaxed which is quite unique. Maori culture is also something unique to NZ and she thinks it would be great if NZ embraced and celebrated it's uniqueness a lot more. She also mentioned how we seem to have a massive farming culture and we as kiwis we are quite into nature. She feel that as kiwis we are all faily laid back and relaxed aswell. In general she is proud to Be a kiwi as we have a great community and we are very diverse, but theres still some issues with racism maybe from the older generation. She think we have a massive sporting culture and the main things we seem to proud of is rugby and other sports which is great, whereas she isn't proud of how we were colonised and the issue with the treaty of Waitangi as this caused a huge issue for NZ. She really like culture, our creative vibe and music scene as she is really into her jazz and she is really glad it's so celebrated, especially in Wellington. Tara finds it interesting how everyone has learned different things at different school and cant remember learning many relevant things at school apart from the treaty of Waitangi. When she moved to wellington form Christchurch she noticed there is lot more history here in wellington, which influenced her to become more interested in overall NZ history. She says she enjoys learning random facts about NZ especial natural disasters like Tangiwai, but wishes she knew more about the early history, e.g. when Cook and Tasmin started colonising NZ as she knows a bit, but not much. She wishes she knew more about different cities and how everything came to be.
Interview One (Lizzie, 20, pakeha, hardly left New Zealand)
This interview shone light on some interesting tensions around what it means to be a New Zealander, which is not something that everyone agrees on. Lizzie does not think that things like 'stubbies' or 'fish n chips on the beach' are New Zealand culture and thinks that Maori culture is the real culture of New Zealand. She loves New Zealand, she thinks it is a chill place with a strong community because of our small size. She thinks New Zealand is defined by a pride of nature and is proud to be a New Zealander. Her favourite aspect of New Zealand history is the fact that we were first to give women, and women of all colour the vote, and her favourite part of the culture is the vocal and performance part of Maori culture. Her least favourite part about our history is the racism and the Treaty of Waitangi. She doesn't think she knows as much as she should about New Zealand history because she lacks motivation and spare time in amongst her daily time.
Interview Two (Mathew, 25, pakeha, has done lot's of travel around Asia and America)
This interview with Mathew has given us some insights to the aspects New Zealand history and culture that he feels he can't relate to. Mathew first thinks of New Zealand as cartoon Kiwi's, sheep, All Blacks t-shirts, all the stuff marketed at him and he finds it boring. He thinks that because New Zealand is a young country we don't have enough history or achievements to be able to have a Kiwi identity. He thinks that Media portray New Zealand as Maori because that's the only thing that sets us a apart from the rest of the world, we are just another colonised country that has tried to patch things up. It is the severe history of colonisation that Mathew is least proud of. Mathew finds the way that Kiwi ingenuity is promoted to create an image of Kiwi blokes inventing cool things like no 8 wire frustrating. This is because he feels like more important issues like NZs bad suicide rate, alcoholism, partners are being beat up every time the All Black loose is over looked in media.
Although Mathew finds NZ history hard to connect to or be proud of there is a lot about Wellington culture he likes, such as how genuinely supported creativity is by the Wellington City council, this can be seen through festivals and galleries. He believes these events are really important because people need a reason to get up and go out. It is also at these events that we get access to different things that might inspire you to create something yourself.
Mathew knows a lot about WWI and WWII because his grandad went to war which sparked an interest as a kid. The only thing he was taught about NZ history at school was about the Treaty of Waitangi and he would like to know more about all the different cultures that settled here and how they got by and the relationship between Maori and Pakeha, otherwise it's just another story about how white people came and smashed the indigenous culture.
Interview Three (Tara, 21, Pakeha, Interested in NZ culture, likes to travel a lot)
Tara likes to keep up to date with NZ history. At the moment when she thinks of NZ she doesnt think of it in a good way as there is a lot of conflict with immigration and inequality but in general when thinking of NZ she thinks of our tourism industry, lord of the rings and '100% pure.' Tara mentioned the fact New Zealand feels really laid back and relaxed which is quite unique. Maori culture is also something unique to NZ and she thinks it would be great if NZ embraced and celebrated it's uniqueness a lot more. She also mentioned how we seem to have a massive farming culture and we as kiwis we are quite into nature. She feel that as kiwis we are all faily laid back and relaxed aswell. In general she is proud to Be a kiwi as we have a great community and we are very diverse, but theres still some issues with racism maybe from the older generation. She think we have a massive sporting culture and the main things we seem to proud of is rugby and other sports which is great, whereas she isn't proud of how we were colonised and the issue with the treaty of Waitangi as this caused a huge issue for NZ. She really like culture, our creative vibe and music scene as she is really into her jazz and she is really glad it's so celebrated, especially in Wellington. Tara finds it interesting how everyone has learned different things at different school and cant remember learning many relevant things at school apart from the treaty of Waitangi. When she moved to wellington form Christchurch she noticed there is lot more history here in wellington, which influenced her to become more interested in overall NZ history. She says she enjoys learning random facts about NZ especial natural disasters like Tangiwai, but wishes she knew more about the early history, e.g. when Cook and Tasmin started colonising NZ as she knows a bit, but not much. She wishes she knew more about different cities and how everything came to be.
Interview Four (Kate, 19, pakeha, never left NZ - from Wellington)
This interview differed to expectations again through Kate’s responses round what New Zealand means to her and why it is important. Kate thinks of the relationship New Zealand has with the environment and how this becomes a huge part of what it is to live here - historically and today. The first thing that comes to mind when she thinks of New Zealand is an image of a long white cloud with the sea and sky reflecting New Zealand nature. Kate comments on the personal nature of New Zealand culture as a defining difference between others - what makes us different is the relaxed, friendly and humble attitude of the people as well as its strong farming and outdoor industry. Being a kiwi means walking round in bare feet, rugby fanatics, and isolation from the rest of the world. Kate is proud to be a New Zealander due to its comfort, safety and peacefulness in comparison to other parts of the world - e.g. “we don’t have any wars on and we are nuclear free.” Her least favourite part about New Zealand history is the information she knows about colonisation in New Zealand - highlighting this as something she is not proud of. The abuse to the environment still holds strong value with Kate, commenting that this is her least favourite thing about our culture, as we use and abuse without thinking about the repercussions of our actions. Her favourite part about New Zealand history and culture is the countries ability to pull together in times of need - using examples of natural disasters, and wars, she highlights how the communities become stronger in their responses to events that threaten or affect our people. As a born Wellingtonian, Kate loves everything about Wellington - she likes the compactness of all it’s places - everything is easy to get to and within close distance to each other, as well as the ‘chill’ and friendly atmosphere Wellington embraces. Kate enjoys learning about New Zealand history and culture and feels it is important to know about your history and where you come from so you are able to move forward by knowing your history. She feels as though she knows a general basic knowledge of history but doesn’t feel like she knows very in depth details about any specific events or tragedies and would definitely be interested in learning more about New Zealand history/culture . Kate is interested in the accuracy of New Zealand history in relation to the environment - commenting on the rumour that New Zealand water is 100% pure - and wonders if they are true or not.
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