Sustainable Political Business
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By Marie-Claire Andrews in Business Published: Friday, 12 September 08 - 08:58 AM (GMT +12:00) Last Updated: Friday, 12 September 08 - 09:13 AM (GMT +12:00) |
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In true Sects in the City style (if you don't know what that means you're not reading mine and Frances' column in INBusiness, so suggest you get out and buy the magazine RIGHT NOW!) Frances and I were at the Sustainable Business Awards networking party last night.
Last year it was fantastic, lots of brilliant businesses celebrating being sustainable - truly living and breathing the concept - an enthusiastic committee of people who really care about business' impact on the environment and actually doing something about it.
This year, well the champagne was nice, the venue was lovely, the enthusiastic committee was still there in force but we got politics.
Apparently the SBN has decided to embrace the concept of sustainable business = ethical business = upholding the position of Maori as tangata whenua. And so we had a powhiri to begin, and a keynote from a Maori business lecturer. All good in principle - fascinating topics and appropriate angle for the SBN in NZ to take.
However, the powhiri began with the man stomping his staff on the ground to remind us of the drums that sounded when his land was taken from him. Cue embarrassed shuffling and extremely uncomfortable glances. The keynote went on to discuss the issue that Maori language and symbols belong to the Maori and should only be used with permission so that benefit can be derived back to the Maori. OK now skating on thin ice here, but hey that's what blogs are for. Those kind of statements drive me mad. Especially when delivered by someone who identifies as Maori AND apparently has Indian heritage, however that's possible. To the point I got up and left the Awards after the first one was announced (under cover of the applause). The atmosphere was ruined, looking around I could see many other people feeling completely unwelcome and very uncomfortable.
The language I speak most often, English, is a mish mash of many. It has been borrowed and adapted by countries all around the world. And yes, forced on some too. Isn't is great that countries don't behave like that any more (er....whole other topic there!) I am honoured to hear other people use it, and flavour it and enhance it with additions that will ultimately change it into something new. In my opinion, I don't own the language, it is not rooted in England, or English people, or in me. I don't expect to derive benefit from others using it, even if they use it for commercial purposes to make money.
So - disappointed that the SBN started with admirable goals, of respecting and providing a space to discuss and embrace Maori culture and business within it's network of members, but that the delivery on the night of the awards was aggressive, political and served only to identify differences.
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| Earth wind and fire | Frances Manwaring | 09/12/08 |
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Top | Reply to this Title: Earth wind and fire Author: Frances Manwaring (http://www.shrewonline.com) Date Posted: 12 Sep 2008 10:08 AM (GMT +12:00) With you sister! I thought it was ladled on a bit heavily last night too. I have absolutely no issue with making every effort to level the playing field so that everyone has fair and equal rights, cultures can be protected and, where appropriate, past wrongs addressed. Culture is an important defining characteristic for us humans and different cultures should accord each other mutual respect and tolerance - one culture should not predominate over another. But showing respect and tolerance has to be a two way street. It seems to me that least one of this lovely country's two official cultures gets regularly marginalised on the back of the best intentions - road to Hell springs to mind here - and I don't think it was the one that was being promoted so strongly last night! |
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