ABSTRACT
In contrast to the ‘official history’ and ‘top down’ legitimisations for biculturalism, Ken Gorbey argues that it was a “bottom-up triumph” closely connected to personalities: “That’s the other side of biculturalism, that perhaps people need to look at more, it’s the personal element”. Gorbey suggests that the seed for building Te Paerangi (TP) in the “spirit of biculturalism” was planted long before the planning phase began in 1984 under Maori MP and Minister of Arts Peter Tapsell. However, TP was in the unique situation of being rebuilt from scratch and thereby able to integrate biculturalism better than other institutions. A commitment to biculturalism featured early in the making of TP. According to Whiting, “[o]ne of first priorities was biculturalism. The bicultural concept was a challenge for New Zealand (NZ) society, because biculturalism does not necessarily mean anything to many New Zealanders, as Gorbey observed: “there are elements of NZ society that just do not live biculturalism.
