Corina Tairua
Its has been 3 days since Kuini NgawaiHono I te Pō addressed us for the 1st time...and we were there.
She said many great things but my favorite was about being Māori everyday does not mean having to be in the spotlight doing huge things... Being kind with manāki and working with Pāpātuānuku in taiao is also being Māori. Kei te ako tonu au tōku reo ia ra, ia po... I learned from listening to my Koro Keremeta Hawiira, and I often joke I am Māori illiterate and it doesn't matter that there is only 14 letters, we had no letters at one time, however tino flash now, and all my Tamariki are fluid speakers and writers of Te Reo Māori, except my baby Halo who they say is ASD, i say He Tamàāriki ia. I wont say my tamariki are fluent as I believe how can one say they are fluent in English unless they know every word in the Oxford dictionary? What ever you can speak, then you speak Te Reo Māori! Language, our Reo is ever evolving, ever growing as the world turns.
I turn 50 yrs old in 3 weeks Oct 5th. I may not be alive when this is opened but if I am I would have many more experiences to add to my baskets of knowledge. I was 9 yrs old when I went into my Principals office and asked for a kapahaka group at Everglade Primary School. He frothed at the mouth and hissed out the words " THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN SO LONG AS I'M ALIVE! Thank Goodness he will be long gone by now.
I was one of the 1st students in Tupuranga, the 1st bilingual intermediate at Clover Park int under the wise mind and heart of Anne Milne who knew our education had been white washed through assimilation long before it was fluent, we now watch her gorgeous great grandchildren on TV and in pod casts in Italy, lucky boy that Chey is catching our Te Arawa Puhi, Kahurangi. I remember holding Chey as a boy in class. I think thats when he knew Te Arawa had beautiful women 🤣 Do not forget to have Te Reo Māori did not jump from ' Nothing to Everything! I still remember how the government funded us to prove Te Reo Māori would get children no where and was a waste of time. We were watched with TV cameras even. How wrong they were!
I then went on to Manyrewa high school , only to wag evey class except Maori and Kapahaka under Maehe Nikora- Education failed me miserably. Pāpā Maehe put me in Pounamu under the tutelage of Ngapo Wehi - We called him Uncle Bub and Tapeta and Annette trained me in all aspects of kapahaka while Uncle Irirangi watched on and Monica and Mandy sewed our bodices. After 10 weeks it came time to show our stuff and from that show 2 people were chosen to get a job at the Auckland Museum. When my Ti rakau left my hand and went straight up in the air during the waiata Rona- I wished the stage would gobble me up, but I caught it and carried on. He tohu Uncle Irirangi Tiakiawa and Uncle Bub said, so that day 3 were chosen for jobs. I will forever be grateful to all of them. I worked in Kohanga Reo also and watched the Movement it was, it was never a kindy, or childcare facility.... Kohanga Reo was and will always be a Movement to bring to pass the prophecies of our Kingi of old and also what the Bible speaks of, That the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. I went from Te Ao Māori and studied psychology to infiltrate it. Sick of our mate kite being brushed with western methods but to change it, I had to learn it. What a big shock when I began to pull in A and B grades- no one ever told me I had a brain. I was a "Marry" student who spent most of 4th form on detention. I became a Mum and sent all my tamariki to Kohang, Rumaki, Ruamata, Nga Taiatea- I gave them everything that my grandmother had beaten out of her. They spoke all the words that my Nana would whisper to her brother's even as adults. After graduating with my Btch of Social Sciences Major in Psychology I went to my own to get mahi, however same onld story...to white to be Māori and it was a Pakeha organisation that gave me a job and now its been three years and I know why I am there. We get all the tamariki that Oranga Tamariki have tried to help...but cant.
I work for Parentline and I work with our tamariki that have experienced the deepest hardest trauma. I mahi in a Pakeha realm with a Te Ao Māori lense and at least 60-70% of our families are Māori. I teach He ki roto Ha ki waho-Hi- feminine, Ha - masculine...the balance of Hi, Ha, Hi, Ha! Working in the sector i do I have one thing I want to say today and warn of in the future, STAY AWAY from substances such as Alcohol and Drugs! Keep it out of your whakapapa!
The most evil of all earth bound demons in our culture that has been destroying us so SWIFTLY so steadily and all in stealth trough suicidal Ideation are substances. These are here to wipe out our gifts. We once practiced levitation, shape shifting, healing, exorcism as part of our every day lives through pure karakia, pure korero-
Te Reo Maori is only truly pure when spoken from a mouth , a vessel, a wairua free from these poisons.
Only when it flows from a decolonised whakapapa, with the kupu and the wairua as one, only then will our people know just how transformational it truly is and the power it holds.
Only then will one know what it means to not only speak Te Reo Máori but also think ,feel, live Māori.
Be the curse breakers of your lineage , you are your Mokopuna hope!
Listen to the babies in your care, they were in heaven longer then you, which makes them spiritually older and wiser in many things especially Aroha.
Our Tupuna knew it and if we do no know it yet...then let me remind you, every child is on loan to you and you will meet their eternal maker one day. May you be able to look their maker in the eye blameless. Anei toku korero I roto I te ingoa tapu A-Io Amene
Corina Tairua
