Snap.

The full realisation of some dreams not reaching fruition the way I had imagined is starting to hit.  And for me it means  I have to be the ‘Māori Mum’.  You know, the tūturu, hoki ki te kāinga (as in tūrangawaeawae) kōrero Māori i ngā wā katoa Mum.  I have to be that Mum.  I have skated along on my urban Māori status for most of my life and left all responsibility for Māorifying my kids up to their Pāpā.  We shared the vision, I just hadn’t bothered taking an active part in fulfilling it.  I didn't need to, the ex was happy to, and I let him.

So I have quite frankly been a cabbage when it comes to passing on te reo Māori me ōna tikanga to my kids.  Of course that would assume I have it to pass on!  I mean I did te reo at varsity, started Ranginui’s (wonder who does that now?) “Intro to Māori Society” paper...twice.  Never finished it, I withdrew from the paper both times.  Bored me.  My thing was Māori Ed, still is.  But now that Mr Māori Studies has departed and left the raising of the children to me its well, like a blank canvas!  Not in terms of my kids mind you, in terms of my ownself.   I am going to have to be the passer-onner of the Māori stuff.  Where do you start with that?

I shouldn't be so flippant.  I do have a strong sense of my whakapapa, at least the Northern part of my whakapapa.   My grandmother was very Te Aupōuri and very Te Rārawa.  And my grandfather (whom I never knew) was very Ngāti Kahu.  I'm worried though that it is a superficial sense.  My lived reality was as a Māori urbanite, and, as it so often happened with urban Māori, my Nana’s homestead on Hunua Road,  Papakura became our ‘Marae’.  The whole urban thing I know is a valid form of expression of Māoritanga, and forms a solid part of my identity.  I’ll pass that onto my kids too.  And there is my Waikato side.  That is a journey I have long needed to undertake, and with some urgency now.  He piko he taniwha.

There is so much more.  I want the full picture for them, the 'Māori world view'.  I think the Kura they attend does a fabulous job of growing that.  My 7 year old daughter was at the beach with me the other day and we were getting pipis.  We weren’t having much luck and she suddenly remembers the karakia her kaiako had taught her class for Tangaroa.   Karakia mai, I said and she gave her karakia.  Of course not long after her karakia we hit a really good pipi bed and gathered enough for a kai, reinforcing her understanding of the importance of karakia.  The connections she made between karakia, the domain of Tangaroa,  gathering kai, and the ‘rightness’ of doing it in this way is just special.  That is Kaupapa Māori Education right there.

So some personal plans.  Definitely improve my reo, the kids are way past the Kohanga level of reo that I practise.  My understanding sits higher than that, but I lack the confidence to talk.  I am changing that!  No more Shane Jones kōrero under the influence of alcohol for me.  Gunna own it!  And the history and whakapapa?  Gunna own that too.  You heard it here first.  Or read.  So yep, my life becomes fuller and I grow my ideas all the time and my job description gets yet another layer.  Full-time Mum, full-time Analyst, full-time tradition establisher and now full-time Māori world view developer.  What?  Is that all you got universe? 

*You'll have to email me for translations of any Māori above, or Google it.  Love you Google :-)