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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Tag: 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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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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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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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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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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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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The Happy Bankrupt
“It’s been said that bankruptcy happens gradually, and then suddenly. That’s very true. It was my fault for making it gradual because I didn’t face up to my tax bill right away.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The right words to say
“I sometimes find myself on the speakers’ paepae at a formal hui. It’s always a daunting thing. Never to be taken for granted. Always to be reflected on.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Whina — doing justice to an icon
“Love is the final word of the film — a transcendent love of place and time, as much as of the heart and of each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Making friends with Mum
“It took me a long time to become friends with my mother — she was so busy being one.” — Tainui Stephens.
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In thrall to bullshit
“This was the first person I’d ever met who was healthy and sane in every way, but whose view of the world was entirely informed by the media. The sum of the biased tabloid, talkback and television BS she consumed had polluted her view of the country she lived in.” — Tainui Stephens
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Embrace the taniwha
“I vowed that I wouldn’t allow myself to be shamed by my ignorance again. As I think back to that long ago hui, part of me realises that all I had to do was get over myself.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The heroes in our whānau
“The private heroes among our friends and family won’t save the world by their personal courage, but their presence in our lives give us the chance to save our humanity.” — Tainui Stephens.
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The making of a Māori town: Ōtaki
“There is an indigenous spirit in Ōtaki that is unapologetic and proud. By definition that spirit is also loving.” — Tainui Stephens.
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Chronic Kaupapa Fatigue
“I’ve known many individuals who grew old before their time because of the energy they expended, and the risks they took with their health or their domestic happiness, all to be able to serve a vital kaupapa that uplifted the wellbeing of the people.” — Tainui Stephens.
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