reflection gives context: kei wareware tātou

Whether you attended a Dawn Service, shared a moment with your whānau, looked through old photos of koro and nan, or none of the above and just ticked another Thursday off the cards - there’s always moments of reflection that come during days of commemoration.

When we celebrate Anzac Day and acknowledge the people who sacrificed their lives for us, for “citizenship”, for the Crown, for a future they’d most likely never get to see.. it gives context to today and helps us to understand the present. It’s part of the whakapapa (process) that’s contributed to who, where and what we are today. Not just as individuals, but as a collective, a nation, a people, the world..

“We’re told to let go of the past and move on, but we should know our past to move on”

- Dr. Monty Soutar

We can better prepare ourselves for the future because we saw its seeds being sown in the past.* Keeping it specific to Aotearoa; whether it’s Anzac Day (WW1 & WW2), NZ Land Wars, Parihaka, land confiscations, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the various acts to assimilate Māori into a European way of life, punishment for speaking your native tongue.. all of these events have contributed to our lives today and we must acknowledge this. For we wouldn’t be who, where or what we are if it wasn’t for the events of the past.

“But let’s get this clear, while we’re the product of all we descend from and we’re shaped by our environment;

that only contributes to who we are.

Our whakapapa informs us of what we’re capable of; it doesn’t determine who we are, or where we’re heading.”°

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.

*from Gallup Strength Finders, on context.

°from self awareness doesn’t begin with self.