BOOK REVIEW
Becoming Pākehā: A Journey Between Two Cultures
Auckland: Harper Collins, 2022 
By John Bluck

This book is a good thing.

In it, Bluck does the important and courageous work of calling Pākehā to the vital, though uncomfortable, task of learning to belong properly in this land, as people of Te Tiriti; people with their own identity, but an identity inextricably bound to their relationship with Māori.  As ever, this presents ongoing challenges for our Church, though as Bluck’s experience shows, the Church also has gifts to contribute to the national conversation.

In method, 'Becoming Pākehā' is more like an impressionist painting than a grand manifesto. It’s built up in layers, a dabbed reminiscence here, a splash of historical information there.  In the process, Bluck leads cautious Pākehā gently but irresistibly to the conclusion that a Treaty-honouring future can only be good for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The book’s first layer is autobiographical, as Bluck sketches his life story along an arc of increasing racial and Treaty awareness. He begins with his childhood on the East Coast, followed by academic and professional experience here and overseas, before concluding with musings on the once and future Aotearoa from the vantage point of retirement in the North. 

This first layer is the book’s most engaging, as Bluck’s own privilege dawns on him, leading him to develop tools of advocacy and critical awareness, and then applying them in his vocation as clergyman-journalist-activist.

Subsequent layers are built up through dabs of opinion, quotation and historical reference, all illustrating various issues in the complex bicultural history of our country.  Ever the columnist, Bluck approaches these allusively and anecdotally, gesturing us towards a more just future. 

We get quickfire discussions on a wide range of topics:
– the place of the Treaty in national life;
– the difficulties of cross-cultural communication;
– finding a better term than “Pākehā” for the non-Maori citizens of our country;
– the inflammatory nature of social media discourse on race;
– the centrality of the arts to emerging national identity;
– the sad history of assimilationist policies; and
– the need for Pākehā to develop more consciously our own tikanga in this land.  
Among others!

 At times, the lack of detail or referencing are a little frustrating. There are questions that could get more detailed attention (Pākehā learning of Te Reo Māori, for example). But that’s partly the point: this is not a book for academics. It’s a book to get Pākehā dreaming about what can be in Aotearoa if we’re prepared to grow in courage, humility, and a commitment to face the past honestly.

Those virtues should, of course, be core to Christian commitment, and Bluck’s experience in birthing Te Pouhere lends colour to his dreams of what a future Aotearoa might look like. 
Nonetheless, unlike his robust defence of the Three Tikanga Church in Te Awa Rerenga Maha: Braided River,[1] Bluck is cautious here about claiming too much for it, and Te Pouhere receives only a few relatively brief mentions. No doubt, this is partly due to the more general, secular nature of his intended audience. Yet it is also possible to detect a hint of sadness that hopes for a thriving bicultural church as a model for the nation have not been realised.  

One factor contributing to this disappointment is the simple reality that tangata whenua are greatly outnumbered by tangata Tiriti. This greatly stretches tangata whenua resources, and reduces the possible number of meaningful, flaxroots partnerships, even where Pākehā are keen for such relationship.
That surely is one of the barriers to full realisation of the vision of Te Pouhere as well. Bluck is fully aware of all this, though he still invests great hope in the transformative potential of personal relationships, which are more amenable to change than institutions.
He delightfully invokes his own friendship with the late Ven Hone Kaa as powerfully transformational for him, while the most moving chapter of the book recounts the story of four cross-cultural romances. One, that of Sir David & Lady Tureiti Moxon, offers a hint of hope for the church to which Bluck has given so much. Their “post-emancipation marriage” becomes a sign that it is possible to find “common ground” (218, 219) that same prospect which Te Pouhere holds out as the future destiny of our church, and which Bluck sees emerging increasingly in our nation.

At times, I found myself wondering if Bluck was preaching more to his own generation and locale than mine.
Progress has been made, however, slow, in the outlook of many Pākehā where I live. 

And yet, watching the media this month has compelled me to see that he’s right. Progress is patchy and local and partial. Pākehā fear lurks beneath the bilingual road signs of the North and in the council rooms  of Invercargill, with numerous outbreaks at “Stop Co-Governance” meetings along the way. Bluck’s sermon, I realised, is as needed as ever.

Yet it’s a sermon light on theology, even given its secular audience. Bluck encourages Pākehā to rediscover their spirituality, and the spirituality woven into the Treaty covenant (262, see also 191). This is good. But a covenant spirituality must surely refer back to the God of covenant, the God who requires repentance and reorientation when the terms are broken. Bluck does mention repentance at the outset, but only briefly (8), when it’s surely a vital element of any meaningful progress towards justice in both church and nation.

That’s ultimately what the book seeks.

For all its folksy style, Bluck’s goal is lofty and important. He wants a more just Aotearoa, built on truthful communication and genuine relationship between Māori and Pākeha that filter through all aspects of national life. 
In its honesty and bravery, Becoming Pākehā shows us how Pakeha can play a better part in realising that vision.
For that, Bluck deserves our thanks. Will we Pākehā be equal to the task?

Rev Dr Tim McKenzie is Vicar of St Michael's Kelburn in the Diocese of Wellington.

Notes

1. John Bluck, ‘Stunned mullets, untested vehicles, and other things Anglican’, in Don Moffatt (ed.), 'Te Awa Rerenga Maha: Braided River,' Auckland: Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, 2018, 1-20.