Within all I do, is woven the thread of these nga kupu.
It is for her, for my children and all moko to come,
that I create,
that I strive to learn what was never given to me,
that I reclaim and expose what has been hidden.
I am of the generation of tokenism, where only a thin thread of our ways remained in my everyday urban setting.
My children are the generation of knowing they are Māori.
Where they seek and find the most ancient of threads and have created strong whāriki (mats) to nestle on.
And what was building for our moko was supposed to be lives where te reo Māori soars on every hau (wind)
Where they grow in the comfort and kaha of being surrounded by mātauranga Māori and Pākeha.
Yet, this new government wishes to take us back to the era of my childhood - back to the insecurities of distance from understanding of what makes us Māori and the beauty and depth of knowing.
This Tuesday there was a resounding message that the new government have got it wrong.
A message that we will not be pushed back to a past that did not serve us.
That we do understand who and how we are
We will keep moving forward to the future we and this world deserves
A world rich with kōrero, kaha and kaupapa Māori.
They may remove te reo from letterheads but you cannot remove it from lips.
They may not serve our people but our people will service each other.
There is a growing number of tangata tiriti who also understand and are enriched from their own learnings of who, what and why Māori are the way we are - they too do not wish to be pushed back from their learnings
We have strengthened our minds and our muscles from the claw to this position - the power is in our knowing, and that knowing cannot be removed.
Tōku mokopuna
To tatau ā mua
My moko, our future, we will not give up - you, my beautiful will have a future where te hau is the carrier of our collective manawa not this madness.
I will always be here for your future and our whakapapa. You descend from gods and they remain within you.
Aroha nui,
tāu Mema
Toitū te tiriti
Toitū te uri