contribution isn’t always a ‘big’ event or moment: ahakoa he iti, he pounamu

Ahhhhhh moving day. To be fair, I’ve been moving back for the last couple of weeks. Yes, very slowly lol but I’m heading back home. Did I ever leave? Ha, yesss I’ve been home heaps, possibly more than I’ve been down South…..

Anywayyyy, last year I was fortunate to take up a job with Ariki Creative and moved down to Ōtautahi to launch Waihiko, a book and platform to tautoko (support/encourage) Māori to get into digital industries*. Check it out if that sounds like a bit of you #shamelessplug lol a few other things have happened in that time (I’ll update you sooooon) but long story short, after almost nine months, I’m moving back home.

I came here and collected pounamu of all kinds. Experience, connections, opportunities and knowledge that have since been added to the kete (basket) and are being put to good use. Just to remind ya, we’re vibing off Ngahue’s story, and how he happened upon pounamu, which was ultimately used to create the vessel that transported his people across the moana to their new home some years later.

I hope I contributed back pounamu as I gathered it.

Not equally the same or exactly what I was given, because that’s not what it’s about. Otherwise, what’s the point? If I’m going to give back exactly what I received, why receive in the first place? I think the point is to add it to it in your own way. To put your spin on it, to add your -ness or -tanga to it so that someone could pick up, engage with or observe and know, “that’s so-and-so’s pounamu, that’s the contribution they made.”

And hopefully it’s actual legit pounamu and not some overseas imported jade pretending to be our tāonga lol I hope it’s a positive contribution and not undesirable or negative.

I wonder if Te Arawa’s arrival to Aotearoa years later was Ngahue’s ode, his contribution back for the pounamu he gathered? A love letter, of sorts, to the land that spoke to him and presented him with its tāonga…. in addition to the literal pounamu that had immediate effect.

Contributions can be felt, given or received instantly. There’s action and reaction, cause and effect, stimuli and response in one moment. We’re becoming more conditioned to this by the day, but more on capitalism another blog… sometimes there is an immediate effect

and sometimes, it’s inter-generational, slow building with roots running deep and wide.

The reclamation of indigenous knowledge is a wave that has been building for hundreds of years, one movement woven into the fabric of so many others and the next, with collective energy threading together, becoming stronger and stronger, all around the world. Do you feel it?

This is also happening in each moment. In choosing to reconnect to yourself, to your whakapapa (ancestry, genealogy) through language, arts, moko, song, ritual and place; deciding not to be part of a series that contributes to the detrimental narrative about your people; electing to wear your tāonga instead of a colonial tie; could even be saying ‘kia ora’ instead of ‘hi’ or making an effort to be a better treaty partner.

We each have pounamu of all kinds to contribute and it isn’t always a ‘big’ event or moment: ahakoa he iti, he pounamu. though it may be small, it is valuable, it is a treasure. It might have layers of contribution that range from small to HUGE.

Kei a koe tēnā, that’s for you to figure out and decide.

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.

*The Story of Waihiko is a pūrākau available in te reo Māori (Te Kōrero Mō Waihiko) and English aaaaand the platform is fully bilingual, available to navigate in both Māori and English.