Mahuta, the son of the Maori King Tawhiao, addressing the New Zealand Legislative Council in 1903.

The term Maoritanga embodies Maori lifestyle and culture - it is the Maori way of doing things, embracing social structure, ethics, customs, legends and art, as well as language . In the Anglo-European dominated society that New Zealand has always been, and to a large extent still is, it has been easy to see Maori culture as harping back to some fond-remembered idyll of the past, but Maoritanga has remained very much alive, and in the last couple of decades has seen a dramatic resurgence. By most measures, Maori make up over ten percent of New Zealand's population, but Maori- pakeha marriage since the early nineteenth century has left a complex inter-racial pool; many third- or fourth-generation pakeha can claim a Maori forebear or two, and some contend that there are no full-blooded Maori left. Maori ancestry remains the foundation of Maoridom, but a sense of Maori belonging has become a question of cultural identity as much as bloodlines.

Until very recently, white New Zealanders liked to promote the image of the two races living in harmony as one people, citing scenes of Maori and pakeha elbow to elbow at the bar and Maori rugby players in the scrum alongside their pakeha brothers. Pakeha prided themselves on successful integration that seemed a world away from the apartheid of South Africa or the virtual genocide exacted on North American and Australian aboriginal peoples; after all, Maori could claim all the benefits of pakeha plus dedicated seats in parliament, extra university grants and various other concessions. Yet this denied the undercurrent of Maori dissatisfaction over their treatment since the arrival of the first Europeans; the policy of assimilation relied entirely on Maori conforming to the pakeha way of doing things and made no concession to Maoritanga . Maori adapted incredibly quickly to pakeha ways but were rewarded with the loss of their land . It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this: Maori spirituality invests every tree, every hill and every bay with a kind of supernatural life of its own, drawn from past events and the actions of the ancestors. It is by no means fanciful to equate the loss of land with the diminution of Maori life-force; little surprise, then, that much of the spirit went out of Maori people.

It is only really in the 1980s and 1990s that the pakeha paternal view has been challenged, with the country reacting by adopting biculturalism . As Maori rediscover their heritage and pakeha open their eyes to what has been around them for generations, knowledge of Maoritanga and some understanding of the language is seen as desirable and even advantageous. The government has increasingly channelled resources towards the "flax roots" of Maoridom, fostering a rapid take-up in the learning of Maori language, a resurgence in interest in Maori arts and crafts and a growing pride in Maoridom. At the same time, Maori have won back customary rights to fisheries and resources, and parcels of land have been returned to Maori ownership. Nonetheless, there is a sense in some quarters that Maori are only getting as much as the pakeha -dominated government feels it is prepared to give back.

For many pakeha , however, there is considerable unease over what is perceived as the government's soft stance on Treaty of Waitangi land claims . Some envisage a future where Maori will own the land (including private land not currently up for redistribution under Treaty claims), will reclaim the rights granted them by the Treaty, and will have more influence than pakeha . Quite frankly, they're afraid. So far, reaction to the strengthening Maori hand in this climate of conciliation has only been voiced quietly, and just how this scenario will pan out remains to be seen. True power-sharing and biculturalism seems a long way off, and Maori aspirations for "sovereignty" - a separate Maori government and judiciary - look far-fetched at present, but the Maori juggernaut is moving fast.