Because I am on a journey discovering my Maori ancestry. Because I have been blessed in the journey of discoveries, as one stone after another is turned, and I have met whanau I didn't know I had, who have helped me learn about te ao Maori. Who have honoured my desire to discover my story in the stories of my tupuna. HOKIANGA Te Puna o Te Ao Marama The Wellspring of the World of Light The hills cast green shadows. Where the sun hits rounds and hollows are defined in full clarity. Like the face of love is familiar, cherished in kin we recognise. Yet the hills cast long shadows green crevices, carved valleys of shade, hidden mysteries without language, shape or form to fill our vision. We look into the dark and are swallowed by immensity, the questions hanging bare unanswered. Instead we learn contentment with the gist of all we know. And the things without language or form, are like the mist that hovers, or the soft rain that settles upon shoulders, as the feathers of a cloak. We do not know we carry, nor what beckons. But from the shadows, something remote resembles us, and looks out to where we stand backlit by the light, and we are known then by all we do not know. And the hills stand as pillars reaching up where we in their midst are encompassed in their house. Though the language and the memories, are not voiced aloud we hesitant guests at the door stand welcome. Ana Lisa de Jong