ABSTRACT
In 1968, Eric Schwimmer introduced the term ‘biculturalism’ into New Zealand academic discourse in the introduction to his book The Maori People in the Nineteen Sixties. It was not until the early 1980s, however, that the term gained wider public acceptance. Writing in 1976, Metge noted that although Schwimmer’s work had ‘greatly stimulated discussion at the academic level’, the term ‘biculturalism’ had ‘hardly passed into general currency’ (Metge, 1976:309). A major difficulty, as Metge reported it, was that the concept encouraged a restrictive emphasis upon two main groups. Metge suggested that a relationship of understanding and equality between Maori and Pakeha (European) might provide a ‘model’ for other ethnic-group relationships in New Zealand. By 1982 the term ‘biculturalism’ had gained a measure of official recognition. In his ‘Opening Statement’ in Race Against Time, the Race Relations Conciliator proposed that ‘A New Zealand national identity must be based on a firm foundation of bi-culturalism through which multi-culturalism can emerge’ (1982).
