"One of the first things we commit to memory when we learn Māori is our pepeha. These brief sayings are heavy with meaning and acknowledge a tribe’s essential landmarks — then, by extension, our personal identity as tangata whenua.
A mountain represents the timeless foundation of a people, and its peak something to aspire to. Tribal waters, whether a river, lake, or ocean, evoke the ebb and flow of our humanity. When a marae, or canoe, or ancestor, is a part of the pepeha, it shapes your family connections to everyone in the tribe — and further back to those ancient ancestors of land, sea and sky.
I started on my own language journey the year after I left school and went to varsity. I had no idea who my tribe was. I had no pepeha. But a successful application to the Māori Education Foundation for a study grant prodded me to find it. My first step was to join the Canterbury University Māori Club.
I still remember the shiver that ran up and down my spine when I stood to learn my first action song Haere Mai. I didn’t understand a single word of what we were singing. But it felt so good. I knew then, in the back row of the varsity kapa haka, that my life had changed forever."
Te Tai Tokerau | Northland | Far North | 2020-29 | Story is by tangata whenua
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