ABSTRACT
The adoption of biculturalism as state policy by the New Zealand (NZ) Government was embedded in a global discourse of decolonisation and reclaiming indigeneity has been established in the introduction. NZ academics of multiple disciplines have written extensively about biculturalism. Some interpret biculturalism as a means of ‘becoming bicultural’ and ‘reconciling’ Maori and Pakeha that enhances people’s ways of life, whereas others emphasise that biculturalism has a mandate for power-sharing and acknowledging the autonomy of Maori and Pakeha groups, or criticise its potential to appropriate Maori culture. Biculturalism has been called a ‘double-edged sword’, as it aims to incorporate Maori values into public institutions, yet the sharing of power and resources is often limited to the effect that “power and authority remain firmly under Crown control”. The participants in my sample believed that staff held various definitions and understandings of biculturalism depending on their cultural background and the team they were assigned to work in.
