The paper discusses the different cultural attitudes to knowledge and information of the Maori and looks at some of the implications of biculturalism for library practice. The challenges biculturalism offers library education are explored. This paper is about a change in the way we think about and use information that may be as significant in the long run as recent developments in Information Technology. It is about a fundamental change in New Zealand society that has precipitated a change in New Zealand library practice, and which in turn is necessitating a change in education for librarianship in our country. It is a change which recognises that the rights of indigenous peoples extend beyond the political domain to the fundamental ways in which information in society is created, owned, stored and disseminated.
Different cultures treat information in different ways.
Those of us with a Western heritage are only beginning to recognise the extent of these differences, and the extent to which international library practice is based on Western concepts. However, several factors combined to save the Maori culture from extinction. Amongst these may be counted the inherent strength of tribal affiliations, which have survived to the present day even among m ost urbanised Maori, and the Treaty of Waitangi which was signed in 1840 between a number of Maori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown. The Treaty of Waitangi has, in the latter part of the 20th century, become the foundation of New Zealand society as serious attempts are made to redress some of the wrongs of the past. Essentially, the country is experiencing a difficult rebirth as the habits and assumptions of a British colonialist past are challenged.