when you look at results, what do you interrogate first?

Reverse engineer any result, outcome or consequence and what do you find? What do you look for to attribute to, or explain why things are the way they are?Good or bad, desirable or not, aspirational or disastrous (I don’t think those are opposites but ya get the drift).

Let’s revisit the Ngahue pūrākau (story) to help process this whakaaro; he joined Kupe in the hunt for Ruamuturangi’s pet octopus that lead them to Aotearoa > further explored the islands and coming across pounamu > took it back to Hawaiki > the stone was utilised as toki (adzes) that carved the Te Arawa waka > tupuna (ancestors) travelled here to their new home.

let’s use Te Arawa’s arrival in Aotearoa as our example.

Ngahue merely went on for a nosey, some pounamu found him, he brought it back then provided resources and inspiration to the collective through his tales of the adventure. It was up to the people to utilise the stone, the knowledge and wisdom from Ngahue and co and do something with it, and do something they did…

I’m gonna go out on a limb here (not really) and say it’d be pretty easy to assume there was a culture and legacy of adventure, advancing knowledge and skill, whakapapa continuation and collective contribution when you look at the results that have come from one such expedition, many years ago.

Ngahue isn’t the sole reason descendants of Ohomairangi are alive today. However….. by interrogating the outcome, we see how much of an impact he had on the result. He played his part, so that others could play theirs and add their contribution to the mix. This story is echoed across other iwi (tribal) and indigenous narratives around the world, which makes that assumption I proposed earlier more concrete. Don’t you think?

The results our tupuna achieved can be attributed to their lifestyle, to the protocols, values and beliefs they held and how they embodied them.

If you were to reflect on your life currently and take a quick assessment of how things are going; interrogate the results, inspect the outcomes — what do you reckon?

What explanations come up? Where, what or who do you lay blame? What’s the cause?

If you like how things are going, you’re enjoying your definition of success in your life — what is the reason? If things could be better, if everything’s a challenge and trying — what’s the reason? Reverse engineer any result, outcome or consequence and what do you find?

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.