are we entitled to knowledge, people or access simply because it’s part of our whakapapa?
We’re talking rites of passage this cycle for the #atuablogseries, a little bit of a different take compared to previous themes but we got into it last week with birthdays and other developmental milestones, like īkura and giving birth - please forgive me for not sharing examples for tāne because I haven’t been taught them, for obvious reasons lol anyway…
I thought for this week’s post, I’d try to articulate a thought that takes up residence in my mind from time to time,
Are we entitled to knowledge, people or access simply because it’s part of our whakapapa? Or in other words, should Māori get access to any and every bit of kōrero, mātauranga pertaining to te ao Māori because we’re Māori?
I don’t believe we do.
It’s not a simple ‘no’ and there are two main reasons I want to share (and some other things too), but before we get into that — for clarity’s sake and so we’re all on the same page; this is just my perspective on the topic. Not a ‘Māori worldview’ because I’m Māori, not at all. Just Hana, sharing her take on things, inviting you to engage with it and share your whakaaro too.
As we wrestle with how to go about reclaiming our mātauranga, remembering our whakapapa and reconnecting to ourselves, these wānanga are necessary and worthwhile. So in the spirit of rigorousness and meaningful, thought-provoking wānanga, hoake tātou! Let’s start with,
Safety
— of the mātauranga, the knowledge/knowing/wisdom, what/who it pertains to, the person sharing the kōrero and then the person it receiving as well.
How can the safety of all of these elements be accounted for and protected? Their integrity in tact and mauri fed and nurtured? What is the action plan?
Who will be responsible if that safety is compromised?
Who will be responsible to grow and nurture it well into its next phase? What are the metrics? Why those?
Tupuna example
— Reserved access is no new thing. Although some methods and reasoning behind it nowadays could be survival-based from the effects of colonisation, perhaps some elitism and ego too in some cases… heoi, kia mōhio ai tātou, let it be known that pre-colonial arrival — not everyone in the pā, not all members of the hapū or iwi knew all of the kōrero.
There was a general puna (pool) that everyone could nourish themselves from that was appropriate to fulfil their role within the collective. While a select few, based on whakapapa; demonstrated ability or skill; or other reasons were chosen to attend whare wānanga (houses of learning) to be entrusted with learning mātauranga and intricacies of that particular whare. Whether it be whakapapa, karakia, rongoā, warfare or otherwise.
Whare wānanga had their own rites of passage that tested the students’ will, commitment and capacity (amongst other things), their capability to be responsible kaitiaki of what they were being taught.
Evidently, this was the knowledge, wisdom and skillset to contribute to the advancement and prosperity of their people.
With these in mind, I think it might be worthwhile to refer back to the title and original pātai for this post, re: entitlement to knowledge, people or access simply because it’s part of our whakapapa.
Some parts of it, sure! Te reo Māori, birthright. Mau moko, birthright. Mātauranga people willingly share; like all things Maramataka from Rangi Matamua, the kōrero Che Wilson shares on Te Paepae Waho; Mark and Di Kopua at Mahi a Atua; Ngahuia Murphy with her kōrero around menstrual cycles, ceremonies and other beautiful amazing things - go for it!
But even then, having had the honour to share story and space with some of these people and others who are kaitiaki of the knowledge they keep — what they share publicly or put into a book is nigh 1% of all they know on their respective areas of expertise.
To access more, requires more commitment or devotion to the kaupapa, to the person who has the kōrero and to the lifecycle of it.
This pursuit, is rite of passage.
Attending wānanga and workshops; signing up and going to kura reo or going all in with Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Tohu Paetahi or Takiura; getting involved in some way with someone who knows something about where you’re from; taking the heat from the gatekeepers - who are like that for a reason, and serve a purpose too but wānanga for another time; putting ourselves in uncomfortable, awkward (but not unsafe) situations to expose us to new experiences, knowledge and people so we might learn new things about ourselves, our environment and our people. Seeking out those who hold the knowledge you seek and becoming their driver, or cuppa tea maker or being of service to them. Checking in with ourselves to make sure we’re being a good kaitiaki of what we’re gathering and keeping our actions in alignment.
Humbling ourselves to recognise where we sit in terms of whakapapa compared to the mātauranga we’re so enthusiastic to know intimately and reminding ourselves that there’s a process to learning anything. Even if it is our birthright.
I’ve asked for mātauranga and been denied plenty of times! One of the reasons being, ‘you’re too eager. too much knowledge isn’t always a good thing, not all at once anyway’ and while I respected the call, I still wasn’t a fan of it and I found myself thinking, ‘don’t you want me to learn? isn’t it a good thing I’m seeking it out? being proactive?! It’s for the culture!’ Haha then after letting it marinade for a bit, I came to realise patience is also good skill to refine (or develop lol) with this type of wānanga.
All this said, what I’m trying to emphasise is that our Māoritanga, or being Māori gives us an innate, inherent connection to the mātauranga, to the science, to the depth and substance our tupuna kōrero, ancestral knowledge is imbued with. It’s part of our whakapapa, in our DNA, it’s in us! We live it every day, without even consciously realising it.
But connection needs to be tended to, cared for and cultivated
— whakapapa (genealogy) alone won’t do that. Or in words for leadership but still relevant to this wānanga by Tā Tipene O’Regan,
“Whakapapa will put you into the pool from which leaders emerge,
but whakapapa by itself will never make you a leader.
Leadership requires a dream and the capacity to inspire others.”
Get to know your connections and embrace them. Lean into them and feed them with song, dance, literature, story, performance, knowledge, ceremony, energy and let them nourish you right back, tenfold.
Tēnā tātou,
Hana.
*Please, share your whakaaro, either publicly on the post or privately via email or DM, I’d love to hear your perspective on this.