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
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