Allegations of Abuse in Institutions
	Waiouru (NZ Army) - Index (4) Oct 8-9 2004 Index
	The Press October 9 2004 Reveals our culture Letter to the Editor by Gareth Lochhead, Japan News about the physical and sexual abuse at the army's Waiouru Cadet School during the 1960s and '70s reveals a lot about our culture. Clearly, taking advantage of children like this is not restricted to the Catholic Church. Rather, it shows us the shadow side of our Good Keen Man cultural mythology. That mythology helped Pakeha settlers make sense of life in a new colony, and leaves a useful legacy of self-reliance. But we have let it cultivate an emotional repression which breeds this kind of violence. To say that abuse at Waiouru was no worse than at other boarding schools papers over the gaping cracks that many New Zealanders have fallen into. Pakeha New Zealanders need a new cultural mythology. The Good Keen Man has been shown for the violent, abusive shadow that he is. He can't cope with people being different from himself, and, in an ever more international and multicultural New Zealand, that is completely out of place.