kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-4.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
The Fern and the Tiki	5/5	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00	kb-cron

== Legacy == Interviewed in 2000, Geoffrey Palmer clearly recalled from his student days that the book had been very controversial but significant in shaping his consciousness, while Moana Jackson said that as a young Māori at the time, the content had not surprised him, and the challenging of Pākehā myths in the book was a forerunner of later more public critiquing of these by Māori. Writing in 2002, Harry Kersey, who later worked in New Zealand as a Fulbright Scholar examining the Maori issues in the country's politics, noted how consistently the book is cited in other publications about race relations in the country. In 1999, New Zealand, historians Paul Spoonley and Augie Fleras claimed Ausubel was accurate in predicting that race relations would only be put to the test when the two races had more contact with each other, and concluded that the book inferred antagonism was not provoked by "uppity Maori" in the 1970s, rather being "deeply rooted in New Zealand history and chronically embedded in society". James Ritchie reflected on his research into the nature of prejudice in New Zealand during the 1950s and said that Ausubel's work had "filled out the details." Richie noted that Ausubel had controversially compared the country to the southern states of America, and his view that race relations in New Zealand had been shaped more by "fortunate circumstances rather than widespread enlightenment" were shared by later historians.
Eddie Durie is said to have admired the book and wrote in 1991, that although Ausubel's work was not a recent publication it had [drawn] "attention to the wide disparity in Māori and Pākehā perspectives" on the rights of Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. Kersey suggested that the most severe criticism in the book is reserved for the child-rearing and discipline methods used in New Zealand. He noted that Ausubel struggled to understand how a society professing to be so radically egalitarian, still adhered to a Victorian system of discipline, especially corporal punishment in the homes and schools. The Final Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in New Zealand (2024), cited Ausubel in the section on societal attitudes that were relevant during the inquiry period. Specifically the report noted that in The Fern and the Tiki the author had concluded that during the late 1950s, as a result of "overly strict discipline" and a punitive approach toward adolescent misbehavior, "New Zealanders did not seem to value an open, warm relationships with children and young people and that their rights and dignity were not respected". In 1965, Ausubel published Maori youth: a psychoethnological study of cultural deprivation. The work continued the theme of Pākehā New Zealanders practising racial discrimination and the Guardian stated that this book reiterated Ausubel's thesis that "colour prejudice is not only deeply ingrained and increasing in the Pākehā population as a whole but its existence is categorically denied by both the people and the Government of New Zealand". The Christchurch Press identified specifically the research that had been carried out at several New Zealand schools addressing the issues that impacted the "vocational and educational aspirations of Māori youth". The research showed that the typical Māori youth who generally lived in communities with poor housing and a range of social issues related to parenting, urban drift, truancy, delinquency and bad race relations, reported that he "perceived his parents as less demanding of high marks...and reported receiving less help and prodding about his homework than Pākehā pupils did". It was noted in the New Zealand media that Ausubel, in support of raising the standard of Māori education to reduce the "barrier to the integration of the two races", had donated the royalties of this book to the Maori Education Foundation, a government body set up to "lessen the disparity between Maori and European educational standards".

Concluding his article Opening a Discourse on Race Relations in New Zealand: The Fern and the Tiki revisited (2002) Kersey wrote:Despite the furore surround David P. Ausubel's writings nearly half a century ago, his message had resonance for a generation of New Zealanders of both races that looked to a future of justice and bicultural harmony. Thus it is now generally acknowledged that The Fern and the Tiki will be remembered as the provocative little book that played a limited but significant role - alongside Dame Whina Cooper's land march, the occupation of Bastion Point and the Springbok tour protests - in forever changing the social and political landscape of Aotearoa-New Zealand."

== References ==