Writing in English in New Zealand today is being invigorated by the strength of the Maori oral tradition: its use of metaphor, its expression of Maori values. It is the Maori tradition that is the source of a unique New Zealand identity, which emerges through the language and literature of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the use of strongly rooted Maori myths and legends, and a landscape in which the Maori language is embedded. Most New Zealanders are now beginning to recognize that they live in a bicultural and bilingual society, after a post-World-War-II period in which literature curriculum usually meant English literature. In 1970, with the establishment of the National English Syllabus Committee, the teaching of English was no longer seen as an outpost of the British empire, but as a genuinely home-grown indigenous product. Two main streams of literature in English are now developing in New Zealand: the writing that derives from a European viewpoint and the writing which gains its impetus from the Maori perspective. These two streams also intersect and interconnect, since they share the experience of living in Aotearoa. Now that there is a positive current of interest in New Zealand literature teaching, the young tradition will need strengthening and nurturing. (NKA)