“If you build it, he will come.” That line from the 1983 movie Field of Dreams has been like an inner drive over the past few months for us ones who organised the first wananga of 2012 of Te Uri o Tai hapū in Pawarenga.
Wananga is an ancient concept and system of gathering to impart the knowledge and wisdom which upholds and sustains the very foundations of our being. It is the university for both the practice and theory of life. As such, in the old days wananga was not open to any and everybody. Today the concept has been broadened and is nowhere near as select or exclusive as it once was. That has its pros and cons.
Anyway, last year one of our men (Tamati Rudolph) dreamed a dream. He called a hui at his home to see who might join him to revive wananga in Pawarenga. Those who turned up to that first hui, we were all of one mind; let’s wananga to further strengthen our sense of belonging to our whenua and to each other, and let’s do it for and by ourselves without outside funding. Nou te rourou noku te rourou, ka ora te iwi.
Things were going along fine, then disaster struck. The originator of the idea, the one who had inspired us all to push it along, our Tommy, died suddenly on New Year’s Eve just gone. At our next planning hui we all looked at each other and wondered, “Can we really do this?”
Well, this weekend just gone by, we did it. Boy oh boy, did we do it! Today I have little voice left (to the delight of some in my household), so my fingers are speaking for me and for all us ones who gathered for our wananga tuatahi 2012.
The sun shone, the marae overflowed, the days were filled with movement and learning, the nights with stillness and more learning. Kuia kaumātua who started the wananga looking tired (Mavis Dick's tangihanga had just finished the day before) got fresher as time went by. Tamariki and taitamariki who arrived full of energy and noise got quieter and deeper. Aroha, matauranga, whakaaronui, mahi, tautohetohe, whakangahau; all things flowed seamlessly and we all learned and grew from it.
Who is making this happen in Pawarenga? We, the whānau and hapū of Pawarenga, that’s who; hand in hand with te Atua, our kuia kaumātua, the young and old, the ahikāroa and the whānau whānui. We are doing it by ourselves, for our descendants, and in remembrance of our tūpuna.
The dream is now reality. We built it, and they did come.
Wananga tuarua 2012 is set for 20th – 22nd April at Ōhaki marae, Pawarenga.
Kia tau ngā manaakitanga a te Atua kia tātou katoa a kia kite ano tātou ia tātou a te wā.
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