Culture of New Zealand
The culture of New Zealand is a synthesis of indigenous Māori, colonial British, and other cultural influences. The country's earliest inhabitants brought with them customs and language from Polynesia, and during the centuries of isolation, developed their own Māori and Moriori cultures. British colonists in the 19th century brought Western culture and had a dramatic effect on the indigenous inhabitants, spreading Western religious traditions and the English language. Over time, a distinct Pākehā or New Zealand European culture emerged.
More recent immigration from the Pacific, East Asia, and South Asia has added to the cultural diversity in New Zealand. The dominant cultural influence in New Zealand remains Western, with a strong focus on democracy and egalitarianism. Māori culture continues to be an essential part of the national identity, with ongoing efforts to recognise and honour the Māori language and Māori traditions.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage showed 'that the arts and creative sector contributed $14.9 billion to New Zealand's GDP for the year ending March 2022', this is 4.2% of the total economy and is the highest since 2000 when recording began. As of March 2022, 115,000 people were primarily employed in the creative sector (32% self-employed).[1]
Attitudes[edit]
Social conservatism and progressiveness[edit]
New Zealand social policy has tended to oscillate between social progressiveness and conservatism. Social reforms pioneered by New Zealand include women's suffrage, the welfare state, and respect for indigenous peoples (through the Treaty of Waitangi and the Waitangi Tribunal). Having led the (non-communist) world in economic regulation from the 1930s, in the 1980s and 1990s the reforms of the Labour Government led the world in economic de-regulation. New Zealand was the first country to have an openly transgender mayor, and later member of parliament, Georgina Beyer. Same-sex marriage has been legal in New Zealand since 19 August 2013.[113]
In contrast to this, New Zealand has a history of some very conservative social policies. Most notably, from World War One until 1967 pubs were required by law to close at 6pm.[114] Until the 1980s most shops were banned from opening on weekends, and until 1999 alcoholic beverages could not be sold on Sundays, known as blue law.
In a rare occurrence, the 1981 Springbok Tour saw the two extremes very publicly clash with each other on a nationwide scale.[115]
Attitudes to authority[edit]
In general, New Zealanders have faith in their democracy. New Zealand is perceived to have very low levels of corruption[116] although some question whether those perceptions are entirely warranted.[117] Turnout for parliamentary general elections is typically above 80%, which is very high by international standards and occurs despite the absence of any law requiring citizens to vote. However local government elections have much lower turnout figures, with an average of 53% in 2007.[118]
New Zealanders, both those of Pākehā and Māori roots, have been described as an individualistic people, who take intrusion very personally, especially when it occurs onto private land (but also sometimes in a wider sense). According to psychologists, this is rooted respectively in the 'frontier' image of the European settler culture, but also mirrored amongst the Māori, for whom land holds a lot of spiritual value in addition to its commercial use.[119]
Attitudes to multiculturalism[edit]
New Zealand has for most of its modern history been an isolated bicultural society. In recent decades an increasing number of immigrants has changed the demographic spectra. In the larger cities this change has occurred suddenly and dramatically. There has been an increasing awareness of multiculturalism in New Zealand in all areas of society and also in politics. New Zealand's race relations has been a controversial topic in recent times. The political party New Zealand First has been associated with an anti-immigration policy. The Office of the Race Relations Conciliator was established by the Race Relations Act in 1971[120] for the purposes of "promoting positive race relations and addressing complaints of discrimination on grounds of race, colour, and ethnic or national origin", and was merged with the Human Rights Commission in January 2002.[121]