Mōrena e te whānau,
Nau mai ki Te Arawhata!
I tēnei wiki/This week we’re all about ngā kāinga/homes - their function, architecture, impact, and that wonderful but loaded pātai/question they tend to bring up in the Māori world…(with a heap of tautoko/support to help you whakautu/answer it).
Tuatahi/first up, go get a little pihikete/biscuit to dunk in your tea, because kua tae te wā/it’s time for our news catch-up.
P.s our April prize for the monthly draw is for 1 x $150 Huia book voucher and 1 x Kaupapa board game worth $100
Instructions to get in there at the bottom of this newsy!
- Deidre Brown is the first academic and the first Māori woman to receive the NZ Institute of Architects’ 2023 Gold Medal.
- ‘Testify’ is out. It’s a dark new tv drama about an evangelical megachurch in Tāmaki Makaurau, co-written by Paula Whetu Jones.
- Shapeshifter are lining up a cracker concert to celebrate 25 years.
- Te Kau Kōmaru National Waka Hourua Festival kicked off with the largest waka fleet to arrive in Te Waipounamu for centuries.
- A new exhibition at Wairau Māori Art Gallery will feature the mahi of iconic Māori modernist artists.
- Mind blowing Māori newsletter publishes the ultimate resource guide for learners of te reo Māori
This show is both a probably-needed reminder of the true value of a whare in today’s property-obsessed world AND a peek into some EPIC whenua/land we’d never see otherwise. In my fav episode they have to transport their kui in mā runga waka topatopa!/via helicopter! A romantic, grounding, and hopeful watch.
Find it: on Whakaata Māori I Time: 7×30min episodes I Cost: free I Credits: produced by Te Imurangi Media
If someone raised in Aotearoa can listen to this waiata after more than six weeks overseas and not tear up, I’ll eat my pōtae/hat. We loved how this video highlights the Māori artists who brought this waiata to life in te reo, as well as the respect and aroha ol’ Dobbyn clearly feels toward them.
Find it: on facey I Time: 3mins I Cost: free I Credits: Te Haumihiata Mason translated the song and Maimoa helped Dobbyn to perform it.
Do you know the original Māori or Moriori ingoa/name for the place you call home? We’re somewhat ashamed to say we got some surprises looking at this mapi/map, but tell ya what, it feels good to be on the other side. Check it out.
Find it: through the links in this article I Time: 5mins I Cost: free I Credits: the project was led by the NZ Geographic Board who relied on an unpublished atlas by Apirana Ngata and many iwi for information.
We love seeing these homes through the eyes of Māori architect, Nicholas Falton, one of the main honchos at legendary Māori architecture company TOA. Let’s be honest, the best part is planning our own dream brief in the process… Let’s start with the deck, Nicko.
Find it: on Sky Go I Time: 44mins I Cost: free I Credits: produced by Imagination Television
All of us face this pātai in one form or another during our lives and 90% of our readers will relate to the discomfort, the sweats, and the brain farts it produces.
If you’re in that group, you’ll know the preliminary anticipation from a number of settings;
In Māori class as the kaiako asks you to form a porotaka/circle,
As someone introduces you to their Māori mate,
After karakia in a hui with a new project partner,
As the kohanga kid next to you effortlessly recites their three page long pepeha….
It starts with Nō, ends with koe, and its middle sounds like kea with an ‘h’.
NŌ HEA KOE? Where are you from?
The pātai deliverer is asking for your home, but in a Māori sense. They mean your HOME home—the place of your roots, your ancestors, your manawa/heart, and responsibilities.
For Māori who have grown up disconnected, the question can feel very confronting. Some of us might not know where we’re from, some of us have trouble remembering the proper names, some of us feel fraudulent saying a place we’ve only been to a few times, perhaps never.
It’s a mine field for many non-Māori too. How do you talk about a place that feels well and truly like home AND respect its history as Māori land? Do you have to hark back to another country that you may feel no connection to? What was that line about the shade again?
This feature is a big mihi to everyone who is still fine tuning their whakautu/answer to ‘Nō hea koe?’
Tēnā koutou e hoa mā. We see you out there, we hear you, and we feel you (because, quite frankly, we ARE you).
And though we don’t have much advice, we promise to keep bringing you epic arts, media, and events featuring legends who do, like;
this Taringa podcast where Rawiri Waititi encourages people of Te Whānau a Apanui to return home and bring their skills while they still have some fire in their belly—and reminds us that you don’t have to physically move to the coast to reconnect.
and this article reminding tangata Tiriti that—through that treaty—you absolutely do belong here.
And this series—the original motivation for this entire pānui/newsletter—where brave reconnectors return to their turangawaewae, sharing their insecurities, wins, and losses so we might one day follow in their tapuwae/footsteps.
Here’s to the journey e hoa mā, he waka eke noa.
Here’s to the journey e hoa mā, he waka eke noa.
