Human Labour as a Commodity - A Maori Ethical Response

Abstract

The marketplace economics of the 1980s and1990s asks that Maori be more competitive and focused. This is ironic when it is considered that most of the Maori means of production –land, capital and the possession of know how-were stripped from or withheld from Maori. Maori labour, however, remains a significant potential component in economic activity but it is not in Maori control. It has become enslaved in economic structures and production that enhances the value of capital and land gained by the Crown and distributed to Pakeha. Maori are the labourers and servants of a dominant settler culture who control economic activity in Aotearoa. The education and skills training systems have not prepared Maori for ownership or for management of resources. Rather Maori were educated and trained to serve interests other than a Maori socio-economic agenda. Finally, recent studies point to Maori commercial organisations being passive suppliers of products. This context and the fact of the Employment Contracts Act 1991, is the basis for a discussion on Maori understanding of work and labour, and their purpose. Maori philosophy and ethics reject the mechanistic notion that human labour is a commodity valued solely for its economic purpose. Further the economistic approach that puts capital and resources at the centre of economic activity fails to meet Maori criteria for economic and social advancement. Maori philosophy and ethics, and its ideas of tapu, mana, mauri, hau and kotahitanga, are the basis for this critique of today's economics, science and technology.