Reclaiming the mana of fatherhood
“In that moment with my son, I was standing on the edge of a line that must not be crossed. But so many other Māori men have crossed it.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘One Day a Taniwha’.
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Tag: whakapapa
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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Tōku tuakana hou: My new sister
“The arguments to exercise caution with DNA are valid, if a bit doom-laden. But there is another perspective that we need to consider, and that’s the power of DNA to reconnect those Māori who don’t know their whakapapa.” — Atakohu Middleton, who found her sister through DNA testing.
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You’re not lost if you don’t know your pepeha
“You can still deliver a pepeha — even if, like me, you’re Māori and don’t know your whakapapa.” — Emma West.
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‘Disconnection is part of my whakapapa’
“Every day that I haven’t taken them to their marae adds up. It builds a mountain of guilt and inertia that gets harder to cross.” — Kim Mcbreen on introducing her kids to their marae.
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Stacey Teague: Getting to know my bones
“I have a lot of empathy for me as a kid. For this little Māori kid who didn’t know they were Māori.” — Stacey Teague, poet and publisher, on dedicating her book ‘Plastic’ to herself.
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It’s about whakapapa, not measurements
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked the question: ‘What percentage Māori are you?’ For most of my life, I’ve answered with what I thought was an honest and correct explanation: ‘About a quarter, I think.’” — Tarryn Ryan.
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Cast adrift: My story of adoption
“Around 80,000 babies were adopted. Because of shabby practices, we can’t know how many of these babies were Māori, but I imagine every whānau has been affected, and has lost precious children.” — Kim Mcbreen.
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Resisting the pull to go home
“We are the people that the restrictions and the mandates exist for. We are the reason why those working hospitals, shops, schools, movie theatres and cafes have to make sure their staff are vaccinated.” — Rangimarie Sophie Jolley.
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Mozzies: We don’t cease to be Māori once we’ve left
“As ‘Mozzies’, our Māori identity is fluid and multi-faceted. We are Indigenous, we are Pacific peoples, we are largely urbanised living in a colonial world. There are many nuances to our identity.” — Ngāwaiata Henderson.
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