Relaxing about cultural difference

Trusting our treaty partners

Abstract

The theme of this paper is 'relaxing about cultural difference, trusting our treaty partners'. It will try to capture an orientation to the exercise of trust in our cross-cultural treaty relations that might dovetail with reflections on the 2005 conference's theme of 'Love, Science and Psychotherapy'. The paper will suggest that we need a 'big leap forward' in our Maori/Pakeha relations. That leap requires a vital ingredient, trust, which can only come into being on the basis of an understanding of the context, past and present, of our cross-cultural relations.