I am a senior firefighter now stationed at the Hastings Fire Station before moving down to the Hawkes Bay I was stationed at the Gisborne Fire Station having joined the Fire Service in 1996. When my youngest daughter Te Kōtuku who is now 24 years began attending Kohanga Reo in Gisborne I noticed then that the Kohanga did not have te reo Māori language resources that could develop her in not only learning te reo Māori but also help develop her self care skills. I was a single parent and knew that I couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to watch over and care for her 100% of the time so I then decided to research and then manufacture te reo Māori language health and safety resources.
I named my language resources after my youngest daughter Te Kōtuku because she was a gift a taonga that came to me at a time when I was having relationship problems and she was a blessing to me and of course her mother Casey. Te Kōtuku or the White Heron is known as a Manu Tapu Manu Ariki a Sacred bird a Chiefly Bird and according to a story my Uncle Bub Wehi told me. It was only through the guidance and protection of the Kōtuku that Tāne-nui-a-Rangi safely ascended to the twelfth heaven and received from Io the supreme Māori God, the three sacred baskets of knowledge and the two sacred stones. It was here that the Kōtuku remained while Tāne returned to the New World safe from harm. Hence the proverb Te Kōtuku Rerenga Tahi - White Heron of Single Flight. From this kōrero of Uncle Bub I acknowledge the Kōtuku as a symbol of safety and protection illustrated by the resources that I now produce.
Since I first began producing health and safety language resources (1999) the community began to change and so the development of language resources had to change to meet the diverse health and safety needs of our communities - it was the resources that I noticed that wasn’t keeping pace with changes occurring in our Māori communities.
Stand out successes has been 4 Māori language awards a NZ on Air Award for the broadcast of the Te Kotuku Bilingual radio stories. I have represented Fire and Emergency NZ at international conferences. Representing ACC at International conference. Ngati Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Providing educational programmes to the Tai Rawhiti and Ngati Kahungunu Iwi. Being able to measure the success of these programmes through data analytics and therefore being able to reduce harm and increase resilience in our Iwi to keep them safe from fires and other dangers in our communities.
I have a website where the resources i produce can be viewed it is
www.healthandsafetypuzzles.co.nz. I am involved in teaching te reo Māori in my limited understanding I teach at Mangaroa mens prison in Hastings and Te Waireka house a rehabilitation home for women in Otane Central Hawkes Bay. The inspiration for my work come from our Whare Puni back in Manutuke Gisborne. The name of this ancestral house sits at Whakatō Marae and is called Te Mana o Turanga. The purpose and design of this house was to provide a solution to a problem that our Rongowhakaata Iwi was going through at that time the problem was colonisation and the solution was all our Tupuna who are represented in this carved meeting house. The name Mana in contact to this house means the information knowledge the power and authority our Tupuna have. It was to ensure that we as Rongowhakaata would never forget who we are and always maintain pride in our race and ancestry. I was inspired by our Tupuna one of which is Tāne-nuia-Rangi and the story of the Te Kōtuku as told to me in 2002 by my Uncle Bub Wehi.
Ngā Mihi
Allan Brown
Te Tai Rāwhiti | Gisborne | Gisborne | 1990-99 | Story is by tangata whenua
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