Given the way in which East Asian migrants were “humiliated by their marginalisation”[1] within New Zealand, and the Māori community had little “protection against settler aspirations”[2], it makes sense that historically these were two communities which found solace in one another. Manying Ip asserts that “We believe that knowledge of the interaction between these two [Māori and East Asian] groups hold the key to real insight into this country’s race relations and national identity”[3] and that “studies of New Zealand’s race relations have been largely focused on the Pākehā-Māori relationship. The intergroup dynamic with the Chinese, the country’s oldest non-white migrant group, has been largely ignored”[4]. This is certainly a line of argument which fits with Patricia Grace’s approach whilst writing Chappy – which, interestingly, is her first novel interrogating the way in which the East Asian diaspora is presented within New Zealand. Chappy is a novel which both does exactly what Ip is saying there needs to be more work on – the interrogation and focus on the relationships between two non-white groups within New Zealand – but also explores a nationality (Japanese) within the East Asian diaspora which has even less presence within New Zealand.
An interesting point to be made immediately is the way in which Grace manages to both portray Aki (a Māori character) as having shared ground with Chappy by them both being ethnic minorities; yet by immediately making Chappy reliant on Aki, and then the Māori community that Aki brings Chappy into, Grace is also showing us the relative privileges that the Māori characters have over other ethnic minorities – New Zealand being officially recognised as a bicultural nation, with supposedly equality between the Māori and Pākehā communities emphasises this. Despite the racism the Māori community absolutely faced, they also “acquired a distinct legal and political status by virtue of being ‘in place’ at the point of colonial contact”[5] and thus “Māori persons were formally recognised as British co-subjects and subsequently as New Zealand co-citizens”[6]. Pearson does point out, however, that this position still left Māori individuals as “marginalised”[7] and “did little to prevent widespread land loss, social and economic neglect, and disregard of Treaty rights until well into the twentieth century”[8]. This last piece of historical information adds yet another layer of potentially why Grace chose to set Chappy during and just after the Second World War; not only can she explore the nuances within the East Asian diaspora by having a character who is Japanese (and thus an enemy of New Zealand at the time), she has also written the novel at a time where Māori rights were becoming more prominent. Whilst Māori communities were still marginalised in comparison with their Pākehā counterparts, this recognition within New Zealand “provided them with a foothold denied to immigrant minorities”[9], and it makes for an interesting comparison as the novel unfolds, and we witness Chappy, Aki, and Oriwia struggling with how best to get Chappy back home to New Zealand. It also makes for an interesting comparison right at the start of the novel, where Aki is immediately placed to rescue Chappy, highlighting to him “where he should wait for me”[10], as by having certain privileges that Chappy does not have, Aki is immediately in a position where he can aid him.
When Aki first encounters Chappy in the boat, he immediately acknowledges that this man will be hungry and thirsty having been in hiding for so long, thinking to himself, “The eye’s owner would be hungry by now. You can’t be a man if you let another man go without food and water”[11]. Aki immediately feels responsibility for Chappy, noting once he brings him water that “the little Chap’s hands were shaking so much he couldn’t hold the cup, so I did that for him”[12]. What is particularly interesting about Aki and Chappy’s first interaction, however, is the way in which Aki thinks to himself “Because I could see that this was not a native man like me, I thought I had to try to speak to him in English. Although I’d seen men like him in various ports and cities and heard their singsong language, I still thought that if I spoke to him in English, he would understand me”[13]. When it becomes clear that Chappy cannot, in fact, understand much English, Aki reverts to “whispering to him in my own language [Māori]. Though he couldn’t understand a word of it, what a relief it was to be speaking my own tongue.”[14]
Aki’s immediate instinct is to t
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