The Halloween (2) edition

Kia ora e te whānau,

Nau mai, hoki mai ki Te Arawhata!

We’re back with a whole lot of Māori arts, media, and event goodness to keep that cultural kete full to the brim.

Read on for:

- This week’s ‘Talk of the Tāone’ including Moana 2, a Māori surfer, and a tease from Teeks

- Our Pō whakamataku/Halloween inspired ‘Top 4’ Māori arts, media, or events list—the connection journey fears edition

- A shameful ‘Kōrero’ on what those picks brought up for us and quite possibly (but hopefully not) you

Kua rite koe?/Are ya ready? Reheko!/Let’s go!

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Talk of the tāone

Your weekly round up of the arts, media, and events everybody’s talking about

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- Release equality! Moana 2, reo Māori will hit cinemas the same day as the English version.

- So cool he only has one post on his insta grid right now, singer Teeks is teasing new beats.

- Awhi Ora Rongoā dropped several knowledge bombs on ikura/periods we wish we learned twenty years ago (sound is dodgy, ideas are not).

- Māori pro surfer Kehu Butler showed the world how to do Indigenous - commercial giant partnerships right.

- ‘M9: Sports, culture, and politics’ tickets are going like frybread.

- Māori reporter, Joel Maxwell, shared some pretty inspiring dreams and whakaaro on what a Māori economic system could look like.

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Top four

A list of Māori arts, media, or events you’ll love—the connection journey fears edition

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Everyone reading Te Arawhata is on some level of reconnection or connection journey with te ao Māori and isn’t it rad?

So fun. So fulfilling. But also, at times, so ruddy scary!

This week we searched for picks that acknowledge the most fear-inducing parts of the haerenga/journey and offer some kind of advice or at least reassurance to help us all get through.

And we found ‘em alright. Eek. Want to hold hands?

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‘Patua te whakamā’, a video exploring the fear of speaking te reo Māori

(to assure you're not the only one)

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Folks familiar with the brain-disabling terror that comes when a more advanced speaker invites you to kōrero with them, this is for you.

_{Find it on Youtube I 2 mins I Free I Te reo Māori with subtitles & Te reo Pākehā I Directed by and edited by Natalie Wi}

The journey of Māui as told in ‘Atua - Māori Gods and Heroes’, a story highlighting the stakes of karakia

(to prove it's sometimes better left to the experts)

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You know how Māui is clamped to death in the end by Hine-nui-te-pō? Turns out it maaaay have been his dad’s fault… Study the details ki konei/here.

_{Find it in all good bookstores I 64 pages I $40 I Te reo Pākehā with some kupu Māori I written and illustrated by Gavin Bishop}

‘Pākehā Paralysis’, a video about the fear of getting it wrong as a treaty partner

(for help to get it right)

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When is it cool to learn te reo Māori and attend that rongoā workshop and when is it taking up space? E hika, it’s hard to get it right as a Pākehā, nē?! This will help.

_{Find it on the RNZ website I 7 mins I Free I Te reo Pākehā I directed by Kathleen Winter
*This is not a Māori production e hoa mā, but it supports our kaupapa so we’ve happily included it.}

‘Te Pou Theatre Waiata Sessions’, casual meetups to learn more waiata Māori

(to calm stage fright jitters)

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There’s no getting around it—when you’re in Māori spaces, you’ve gotta waiata/sing. May as well get used to it fam, and this is about the most supportive place you can do it.

_{Find them at Te Pou Theatre, Henderson, Tāmaki Makaurau I 1.5 hours I Free I run by Te Pou Theatre}

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Kōrero

Scared of a Māori shooting you down on your connection journey? They’re just being a bit of a dick. Here’s the horrifying reason I say that with confidence:

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Warning: I do use the kupu ‘dick’ a lot in this story. There’s just no other word for it.

Throughout our rangahau/research this wiki, one main fear kept coming up - the fear of not being accepted by Māori because you’re not Māori enough, or at all for our treaty partners.

I know it well. About ten years ago, the slightest insinuation that I wasn’t Māori enough would crush my young wee soul.

It happened of course.

I remember being in a workshop with a cultural advisor who kept referring to his tīma/team as ‘Māori’ and my tīma as ‘Pākehā’.

In a (quite carefully thought out) jovial way, I corrected him with something like, ‘Yo, me and Nicky are from the coast too!’

His team smiled in acknowledgement.

He didn’t. And continued to call us ‘Pākehā’ for the rest of the day.

Ooshhh, did it hurt.

For non Māori I imagine a similar (but different, but similar) feeling might occur if you were enjoying a Māori class of some sort and a Māori classmate whispered, ‘Why are you even here?’

Sucker punch, right to the ngākau/heart.

I wish this was the point I realised this guy was just being a bit of a dick and moved on. But it’s not. I spent years struggling with confidence around my Māoritanga.

The breakthrough came later. I’m embarrassed to share the story with you because it’s so horrifying, but I will.

I was on a walk with a very close hoa/friend who is also Māori and holds some different opinions to me. At some point she pronounced ‘Taupō’ wrong, and, thinking she was doing it on purpose, I called her out.

‘Why do you do that?’ I asked.

‘What?’ she replied.

‘Why do you keep pronouncing it like that when you know I care?’

There was quite a long silence before she burst into tears. I only just caught her muffled words, ‘I don’t know how to say it,’ before she stormed off.

I apologised profusely, watching my ill-thought-out words hit. I could see them taking on meaning I never intended and making her feel ‘not Māori enough’ in the same way I’d felt in the past.

Yep, it’s yuck.

And that’s how I know tāngata/people who shoot you down on the connection haerenga are definitely just being a dick, e te whānau.

I’ve not only let myself be hurt by them, I’ve been them myself.

So seriously, don’t be scared, don’t let them get you down, and most of all, don’t be the dick.

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We hope this newsletter helped you to enjoy, learn more about, and deepen your connection with te ao Māori today (and confront some fears)

Mā te wā!/Laters!

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