Te Tiriti o Waitangi and non-Maori minority cultures in New Zealand: Views of cultural competency and working with Asian population in SLT

Abstract

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a significant document for practitioners of all kinds working in NZ. It informs practices with Maori on the part of dominant culture pakeha systems and people. NZ could be seen as having an advantage over other places in that te Tiriti provides a clear mandate and guidelines for culturally competent practice. Te Tiriti allows for the extension of the practices to all cultures, but the face of it is very focussed on Maori, for obvious reasons. Anecdotal reports question whether this leads to a neglect of other cultural groups. Other places, such as Australia, place the main focus of cultural concerns in practices on migrant groups and their relationships with the dominant culture and this results in a different face to cross-cultural practices to that of NZ. Asian populations are proportionally growing in NZ. The term ‘Asian’ covers a wide variety of cultures, commonly Chinese ethnic ancestry but including those of the Indian sub-continent. This paper reports on a study which investigated how SLTs in NZ see applications of te Tiriti o Waitangi to their work with Asian clients. Results indicate there is room for a positive view of this issue, but also room for a greater focus. The paper will discuss how this might be achieved.