Mataariki is for me a great season,
not least because it includes my own birthday.
It also includes the 4th of July which is the anniversary of
the successful escape of 300 souls, led by Te Kooti Arikirangi Turuki, from
Wharekauri
where the government had imprisoned them for the crime of fighting for their
whenua and their mana motuhake.
This year I was invited to spend the 4th
of July up at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori
o Rangianiwaniwa to commemorate its 21st anniversary and to tell
the Board, the faculty and the
student body what Ngati Kahu want for the future, in terms of the education of our
tamariki. Here is what I said.
We want our
children to be self-aware; both as individuals and as a part of our collective Ngati
Kahu whakapapa and history. When they
are self-aware, they will understand themselves, and that
awareness will help them understand the people around them.
Teach them the
power of paradox. For example, your Kura
is built on land stolen from the Popata
whanau of Ngai Tohianga
and from Kataraina
Matenga of Patu
Koraha and her Tarara husband Ante Erstich. The power of this particular paradox is that
from the unrectified thefts of the Government and its allies, Ngati Kahu may
still manage to squeeze some good.
Help our
children to learn that there is no genuine safety in numbers. They are not a sheep running away from a wolf,
they are Ngati Kahu. As such they need
to know that in the long run it’s always safer to stand alone in truth rather
than try to hide in a crowd of liars.
Ngati Kahu
children must understand that there is just as much honour in being on the edge
of the universe as there is in being at its centre. While it is true that without the centre, the
universe might go who knows where, it is also true that without the edges,
there is no centre. Teach them that in
many ways the identity and role of Ngati Kahu is based on that truth.
Ngati Kahu
want our children to be taught to recognise the defining moments of their lives,
because these are what will shape them and the choices they make. Some of those moments will have already
happened, others have yet to arrive, but it is only the self-aware who will
recognise them for what they are.
One thing
more I should have said; if it doesn’t already have them within its library,
the Kura must get copies (written, audio and video) of every piece of evidence
given by Ngati Kahu to the Waitangi Tribunal.
In the end, we
don’t mind what our tamariki choose to do, as long as they learn and grow the
specific strengths that will support, advance and uphold te mana motukahe o
Ngati Kahu.
Hari
huritau ki Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Rangianiwaniwa. Hari Mataariki kia tatou katoa. And happy 4th of July to the
descendants of Te Kooti. He wasn’t Ngati
Kahu, but he could have been.
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