Poem Analysis of Sad Joke on a Marae and House and Land
...e and forget about their own language and traditions. This loss of identity creates a sense of displacement amongst the next generation as they could not fully belong to the culture they had been force to adapt to and have lost too much of their own to really feel a part of it. The depression this situation causes is reflected in Tu’s life when he speaks of his lifestyle “Jail is my home…The Pub is my marae“. This is relevant theme today as Maori’s still have the highest conviction rate per ethnic group in New Zealand. High crime rate is also a reflection of a low socio economic rate and this is universal idea echoed in other countries such as Australia, where the indigenous people; the Aborigines have the lowest socio-economic rate. By contrast the settling English did not lose their culture, they instead refused to give up the traditions and ideals from their original homeland, in spite of how unnecessary and unpractical they were in their new land “taking tea from a silver pot”. This idea is demonstrated to the audience through the character of Mrs Wilson in the poem “House and Land”. This old lady has little respect and almost contempt for the people of the colonies, who “can’t quite understand” the ideals and principles of the British. This thought of regarding oneself as a Brit even though one may not have ever been there was prominent all the British colonies as the settlers did want to lower themselves to the natives by regarding the land they shared with them as home. This refusal to accept and adapt created a loss of identity for the next generations of the settlers. They had too smaller connection with Britain to consider themselves British and had been brought up to believe there was no such thing as a “New Zealander”, so found themselves without an identity to connect to. This is indicated to the audience through one of the other characters in the poem “House and Land” ; the cowman. He does not care enough about his country to learn its history “couldn’t tell you said the cowman”. He does not feel he is a part of the country, he “only lives here”. This imbalance of adaptation in New Zealand created a lack of a sense of home for all those who lived here. “never a soul at home”. There was no unique identity forged to give all the people of the nation something to connect to as well as connecting themselves together to make New Zealanders. T...