Opening a Discourse on Race Relations in New Zealand: The Fern and the Tiki Revisited

Abstract

This article discusses the intellectual legacy of David P. Ausubel in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Some forty years after the American academic's provocative work The Fern and the Tiki first appeared in print it still evokes strong and mixed reactions from Pakeha and Maori alike. It certainly had a searing impact among a generation of New Zealanders who were in universities during the tumultuous civil rights dominated era of the 1960s and 1970s. Even those who have never read the book recognize the title, can name its author, and generally accord it some deference as a seminal work that should be read or reread.