ABSTRACT
A good number of museum professionals, old and young, to the right and the left politically, Māori and Pākehā, see biculturalism as a slightly embarrassing ‘politically correct’ campaign of the 1980s. In general, the argument goes that biculturalism is a product of a period in New Zealand history which is now over, that it fails to meet the challenges of social conditions in the twenty-first century, and that new models and frameworks are therefore needed to accommodate the changing shape of Māori relations with the museums of the future. While a healthy scepticism about the orthodoxy of biculturalism is to be encouraged, to abandon it altogether would overlook the fact that museums in New Zealand are all very different and their relations with Māori are at different stages and levels. For some who have moved a long way towards a more equitable relationship with their immediate Māori communities, it is definitely time to progress to more autonomous arrangements. Where basic requirements have not yet been met, biculturalism serves a useful purpose as a way of restructuring monocultural institutions and moving them further along the bicultural continuum towards self-determination.
