The death of language
“Our urgent challenge is to preserve language as a human activity. It’s not a job for a bot.” — Tainui Stephens
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Author: Tainui Stephens
Whatarangi Winiata: He taniwha hikuroa
“Whata was referred to as ‘he taniwha hikuroa’. He truly was a taniwha of our times, with a long tail reaching into the future through our people.” — Tainui Stephens, farewelling Professor Whatarangi Winiata, a giant of the Māori world, who died early this month.
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A stone for Mary Nu
“Many Māori homes have a ‘dead wall’. A place for photographs of beloveds who have passed on. No one living should be seen up there. On our wall, there’s a small, framed picture of a smiling Māori woman holding up a tāniko panel.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Brown and sorted
“Every ancestor that has ever lived is still a part of your family. Their physical absence doesn’t alter their ongoing impact on your life. One of the beauties of living a brown life is to know you’re never alone.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Our birdsong is back
“It was a thrilling cacophony of joyous birdsong. A jostling, prancing throng of utterly diverse tangata whenua giving vigorous and unified voice to a new māori era.” — Tainui Stephens on the response to Kuini Nga wai hono i te po’s first speech.
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Navigating the tipping point
“The language movement was the tipping point that changed Aotearoa forever and for the better. Along with the reo came all the beliefs that define us as children of the land, stewards of each other, and active participants in the times.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Audacious incompetence
“Of the 150 government departments, state-owned entities and councils in the audit, not one had fulfilled all its obligations.” — Tainui Stephens on the failure to meet Treaty settlement obligations.
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Shrek: Kātahi Te Korokē!
“Shrek has been dubbed into more than 40 languages. There have been four sequels. But this is the first time any of the American studio’s films have been adapted into an Indigenous language.” — Tainui Stephens, director of ‘Shrek – Kātahi Te Korokē!’
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Clues to the story of your life
“Your language contains clues to the story of your life. You don’t sound like anyone else. Your voice is your audio signature in a world of sound. Your voice. Your reo.” — Tainui Stephens
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A war crime at home
“They’d lost the sights, sounds and smells of their Taranaki home, but never the story that took them away.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The weed factor
“It’s easy to laugh at the Cheech and Chong silliness of weed, but it is a drug. Too much of a good thing is always a bad thing. Too much of a bad thing is even worse.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Bravery is just a breath away
“We live in a Māori culture where bravery is often called for. A people embattled by historical and current oppressions has a need to be brave.” — Tainui Stephens.
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We’re a people who need to pray
“Prayers and karakia are not a matter of religion. They’re a matter of faith: of placing your trust and confidence in something you can’t see. To get in touch with the companions of your heart and soul.” — Tainui Stephens.
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‘There’s joy in the struggle’
“For Indigenous people, our rituals are a shortcut to joy. When we connect and when we share, we secure our sense of belonging. I see and feel Indigenous joy in all the occasions our people gather, because we’ve overcome so much.” — Tainui Stephens.
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A most diplomatic intent
The 1972 Aboriginal and Māori tent embassies in Canberra and Wellington “were created by frank and fearless young people sick of the status quo. They declared that the Indigenous tribes of these lands would no longer be aliens in their own country.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Pete and Di
“With the support (or not) of parents and peers, Māori and Pākehā have long fallen in love, and come to an agreement about their own principles of partnership.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Facing a new day
“The flawed campaign and the overwhelming result made it clear that a lot of Aussies are, to varying degrees, racist, ill-informed, or simply ignorant.” — Tainui Stephens on Australia’s Voice referendum.
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This is exactly who we are
“To defeat the rage, or at least tame it, we turn, as Abraham Lincoln once said, to ‘the better angels of our nature’. Those angels are everywhere, in spiritual beliefs, in tikanga, in simple notions of courtesy and civic pride.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Weave the people
“A rangatira is more than just a chief. The word ‘raranga’ means to weave. A ‘tira’ is a group of people who have a purpose. A rangatira is one who weaves together people who are on the move.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The first people we ever live with
“Brothers and sisters, by blood or by connection, are often the first people we ever live with. We discover our individual selves after years of gradual growth alongside each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
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A life in the arts
“Compared with Pākehā, more Māori feel the arts are important for their wellbeing. Interestingly, art has more value for Māori who have less money, than for those who have hefty pūtea.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Do we deserve to feel superior?
“One antidote to Indigenous chauvinism is found within the Māori world itself. The tikanga of the marae where honest discourse is encouraged, show that transparency and accountability still matter.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Moetonga: One step ahead
“When we return, we don’t go home to the tribe. We go home to the hapū. Any hapū is a collection of whānau linked by a common ancestor or history. Way back in the day, the hapū was the main political unit of Māori society.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Matua? Moi?
“Not everyone is fortunate enough to reach old age. Now that I’m closer to the end than the beginning, I’m grateful for the story of my life, so far.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Bring all of yourself to the game
“Just as discovering and asserting your cultural identity sometimes means standing up for your rights, so it is with your sexual identity. To be your authentic self may require courage.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Making Māori decision-making visible
“We know very well that Māori assertion and self-confidence frightens and angers some Pākehā. They’re not used to Māori being in control. Rangatiratanga gives visibility to Māori decision-making.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Mary’s mokopuna are coming home
“It is the way of our people to reach for new horizons and, by doing so, create new worlds and new ways of living. It is also the way of some of us to return home, to the places of our origins.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Is it time for new tikanga around tangi?
“That lack of control over our traditions (and data) at a tangi raises serious questions about the new tikanga we need to protect tapu online. Without the right restrictions in place, we risk the loss of tapu, and perhaps the death of tangi.” — Tainui Stephens
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Don’t think inside the box
“The reo Māori petition and every learner and speaker of the language since September 14, 1972, has overturned one of the most damaging status quos suffered by our people.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The art of slow progress
“There was nothing cool about my small classical repertoire. Beauty, yes. But a good time? No. I stopped my piano lessons.” — Tainui Stephens.
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