4TH OF JULY

Mataariki is for me a great season, not least because it includes my own birthday.  It also includes the 4^th of July which is the anniversary of the successful escape of 300 souls, led by Te Kooti Arikirangi Turuki, from Wharekauri where the government had imprisoned them for the crime of fighting for their whenua and their mana motuhake. 

This year I was invited to spend the 4^th of July up at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Rangianiwaniwa to commemorate its 21^st anniversary and to tell the Board, the faculty and the student body what Ngati Kahu want for the future, in terms of the education of our tamariki.  Here is what I said.

We want our children to be self-aware; both as individuals and as a part of our collective Ngati Kahu whakapapa and history.  When they are self-aware, they will understand themselves, and that awareness will help them understand the people around them. 

Teach them the power of paradox.  For example, your Kura is built on land stolen from the Popata whanau of Ngai Tohianga and from Kataraina Matenga of Patu Koraha and her Tarara husband Ante Erstich.  The power of this particular paradox is that from the unrectified thefts of the Government and its allies, Ngati Kahu may still manage to squeeze some good.

Help our children to learn that there is no genuine safety in numbers.  They are not a sheep running away from a wolf, they are Ngati Kahu.  As such they need to know that in the long run it’s always safer to stand alone in truth rather than try to hide in a crowd of liars.

Ngati Kahu children must understand that there is just as much honour in being on the edge of the universe as there is in being at its centre.  While it is true that without the centre, the universe might go who knows where, it is also true that without the edges, there is no centre.  Teach them that in many ways the identity and role of Ngati Kahu is based on that truth.

Ngati Kahu want our children to be taught to recognise the defining moments of their lives, because these are what will shape them and the choices they make.  Some of those moments will have already happened, others have yet to arrive, but it is only the self-aware who will recognise them for what they are. 

One thing more I should have said; if it doesn’t already have them within its library, the Kura must get copies (written, audio and video) of every piece of evidence given by Ngati Kahu to the Waitangi Tribunal.

In the end, we don’t mind what our tamariki choose to do, as long as they learn and grow the specific strengths that will support, advance and uphold te mana motukahe o Ngati Kahu. 

Hari huritau ki Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Rangianiwaniwa.  Hari Mataariki kia tatou katoa.  And happy 4^th of July to the descendants of Te Kooti.  He wasn’t Ngati Kahu, but he could have been.