Kia ita, kia mau: to be affirmed, fixed on the mission ahead.
I love to learn. The setting or the institution doesn’t always work for me or get the most out of me or I don’t respond well to certain conditions ha but nevertheless — I love to learn. For example, I went to university to study Psychology— love psych! I get excited picking apart perspectives, beliefs, experiences, behaviours and all the rest to try and understand why. Why this, why that, why not the other thing… gaaahhhh love that haerenga and process so much I made a whole social media platform, wrote books, got a radio show and podcast going to ask those questions haha so yeah, uni and I didn’t work out but my enthusiasm and excitement to learn and seek out opportunities to learn continually expands all the time.
I can attribute that to my parents.
Not just Magz and Pat. Love ‘em but let’s be real, they caught the raw end of the deal because everyone else could give me back when they’d had enough haha they had their duties to fulfil and I’m forever grateful to them for it. But in addition to them, I have many parents around the country who helped raise me. Who shaped my thinking, who instilled values, nurtured behaviours and and set the foundations upon which I would stand on.
One of them passed away last night. Pāpā Toni Waho from Ngāti Rangi.
He was something else. From a different breed, cut from muka (flax fibre) Hineteiwaiwa herself carefully selected and harvested. Seriously under-resourced, under-valued, under-funded and under-supported but firm and fixed to the vision of revitalising te reo Māori me ōnā tikanga and did what was required to make it happen. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for us. No resources? no problem. They designed them, created them, put their own band together to produce music we could listen to…
They created a world that communicated back to us we were special, we were loved, we were worth the effort and that we could do, be, have and give whatever we wanted,
because we were Māori.
There was no limit we couldn’t reach beyond because of our pre-ordained, innate superpower — knowing and living whakapapa. Knowing who we descended from, who we were responsible to, the lands and waters we’re accountable to and we might contribute some muka to the weaving of this eternal korowai to wrap around the generations to come, to reaffirm and fix their vision for their mission ahead.
I asked my mum why she sent us to Kura Kaupapa Māori, to be schooled under Te Aho Matua principles. Ha you bet she loves being interrogated by me, this was the latest round.. there was no ‘track record’, no ‘evidence’, no proof it would work.. her response?
She trusted the people. She just knew it was a good thing.
Mum, like my father, Koro, nan, aunties and brother was and still is a teacher, so perhaps it was an informed decision… anyway… three of my favourite things about being me, are my love of learning, willingness to explore and being Māori. All of those can be attributed to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mana Tamariki, Te Aho Matua and Pāpā Toni. Me i kore koe e te pāpā, ka kore ahau.
The title for today’s post comes from a waiata from our kura. It’s in line with the kōrero we’ve been having over the previous cycle under Urutengangana (eldest of te ira atua, atua of light and dualities) the duality of looking back to inform the present and future, reflecting on sacrifices that have been made for opportunities and access available today. Kia ita, kia mau: to be affirmed, fixed on the mission ahead.
We’re going to continue following his lead for this next cycle as well. Perhaps we’ll focus more on the ngangana aspect this time around haha we were only just scratching the surface with the last few posts.
This was an emotional post for me, we’ll finish with the waiata I mentioned above.
Mēnā, ui mai ki a au, ko wai te rōpū nei?
E akiaki nei, i ngā tamariki, ngā kōhunga…
Ko te whānau o Mana Tamariki, e noho rā i Te Papaioea
Te whānau o Mana Tamariki, e noho rā i Te Papaioea
Mēnā, ui mai ki a au, he aha i pēnei ai?
He whakatairanga, te reo rangatira
Kia ita, kia mau.
Ko te whānau o Mana Tamariki, e noho rā i Te Papaioea
Te whānau o Mana Tamariki, e noho rā I Te Papaioea
Kia ita, kia mau…
E kore a mihi e mimiti, ki a koe Pāpā Toni, ki a koutou ko te whānau e poipoi nei i a au.
Tēnā tātou,
Hana.