Simon Draper is the executive director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono.

OPINION: I’ve just completed an intensive te reo Māori course, spending six hours a day back in the classroom alongside a group of colleagues.

This was my fourth language learning experience; working overseas for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as I did for many years, meant the agency invested a lot in my foreign-language training.

I remembered just what a humbling experience it is, as your brain and tongue get tangled around new words and phrases – all of them quite basic.

But learning te reo also reminded me how even the smallest bit of language acquisition can open up insights and windows into new worlds. It was a rewarding time.

Our te reo learning is part of work the Asia New Zealand Foundation has been doing to grow our engagement with te ao Māori.

Our research indicates that Māori have an edge with engaging with Asia – and we wanted to understand that better.

Additionally, we want to ensure more Māori, particularly rangatahi, can access the exciting opportunities that Asia offers, and we want to better represent Aotearoa in our own engagement in the region.

Our course coincided with New Zealand’s first public holiday for Matariki, a grouping of stars significant in many cultures, including Japan, where the Subaru car brand is named after the cluster (the word subaru means “united”, or “come together”).

The values and practices of Matariki have clear similarities to similar seasonal celebrations right throughout Asia – coming together with family, remembering those we have lost, and looking to the year ahead.

I was struck by how warmly the guest speakers on our Māori course responded to the work we do at the Foundation.

They referenced rich connections that had been made between te ao Māori and Asian countries through a range of avenues – cultural, economic and scientific – and they were keen to see those connections grow.

These conversations felt somewhat at odds with some sharper ones taking place in the world outside our classroom.

Last month, we released the latest findings in our “Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples” tracking research – and it was New Zealanders’ declining perceptions of China that grabbed the headlines.

In June 2022, a record low number of New Zealanders saw China as friendly, and a record high saw it as a threat. We surmised that this was probably due to the increased coverage of China’s role in the Pacific, and reduced opportunities to connect in person.

When it comes to long-term trends, there is much to celebrate – New Zealanders’ growing levels of knowledge and sense of being connected to Asia, and an array of Asia-related interests.

A few years back, we released a report looking specifically at Māori perceptions of Asia and Asian peoples.

READ MORE

• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks after Pacific Islands Forum leaders' retreat
• Kiribati 'cooking something with China' - former Kiribati president
• Pacific forum leaders hope US-China competition will bring region together rather than pull it apart
• Solomon Islands backs down on plans to build Chinese military base in the Pacific

It found Māori see themselves as having many shared cultural views and values with Asian cultures, and most of those surveyed had positive views about Asia’s economic growth, tourism, investment and cultures.

Some of our Māori contacts have expressed concern to me lately that growing tensions around China risk some of the constructive relationship gains that have been hard won over many years.

They fear New Zealand may be turning from Asia, and defaulting to Europe to seek new opportunities, through historic “muscle memory”.

Relationships take time to build up, but they also take work to maintain – and can fall apart from neglect.

So, what to do then? One thing’s for sure, New Zealand is hardly the only country talking about its relationship with China.

If you have a spare hour, it’s worth watching an interview between the Asia Society of Switzerland and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, highly regarded for his knowledge of China.

Rudd was asked which country was managing the China relationship best. His response was to outline what it meant to “manage the relationship”, something I haven’t heard articulated well in New Zealand.

He suggested key elements of an effective China strategy. They included: never stepping away from human rights values as defined in international law; working with China in multilateral areas that benefited both countries; maximising economic engagement between both countries; and ensuring that when raising issues with China you did so in a solid partnership of diverse countries.

In terms of his view of which country was best at doing this, he pointed to Japan, which was maintaining a strong economic relationship with China while still upholding its own principles and continuing to build partnerships with other countries.

What does this mean for New Zealand? One thing Japan hasn’t done is give up.

It continues to invest in relationships. My own instincts are that it is precisely when relationships are difficult that you invest more in them. That is the lesson from history.

New Zealand needs to take care not to undervalue the value of synergies that already exist in our relationships in Asia – particularly for Māori.

Cultural synergies have seen Māori grow relationships in Asia, to the benefit of New Zealand as a whole. We know they don’t want to lose these, and nor should wider New Zealand.