Moeraki kaumātua Joseph Tipa (Uncle Darkie) reflects on his childhood. “I was born here in the early 30s when it was quite tough. There were no shops, there was no money, and no jobs. You know what our supermarket was? The sea.” He never learnt te reo, and was told by “the three wise men” (the kaumātua of his time) that “if you want to get anywhere in this world, you must be educated. If you want to compete with the Pākehā you’ve got to go to school.” The desire to pursue better opportunities, as well as a social stigma towards traditional Māori practices and language, meant that Uncle Darkie’s generation were taught to prioritise adapting to Pākehā ways over their own culture.
While he grew up during this period of loss and disconnect in Moeraki, Uncle Darkie is pleased to see that the tide is beginning to turn with these wānanga, which were initiated by his own son and daughter-in-law. When Patrick and Nola Tipa made the decision to learn te reo six years ago, they wanted to do more than just learn the language. “We wanted to go home,” Nola says. “We saw it as an opportunity for us to come home and to bring others with us.”
Ōtākou | Otago | Waitaki | 1930-39 | Story is by tangata whenua
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