ABSTRACT
Unity without diversity results in cultural repression and hegemony, [while] diversity without unity leads to Balkanization and the fracturing of the nation-state.
(James Banks1)
I first became aware that the world was inhabited by people of different races at around the
age of five years when I attended a dance with my parents. I recall a dark-skinned man with
a cheerful mien singing the Fijian farewell song, ‘Isa Lei’. His name was Charlie Baker, I think,
and he was a Māori – a member of the race that was the first to settle in New Zealand. During my primary school years some of my fellow students were Māori – mostly of mixed Māori and European heritage – but their racial backgrounds meant little, if anything, to me. We played
and learned together, seemingly without any of us being aware of our different ethnicities.
