Sunday, 8 March 2009
08 Poutu-te-rangi (March) 2009
Toi tū te marae o Tangaroa
Toi tū te marae o Tāne
Toi tū te Iwi
If the domain of Tangaroa (water) is nurtured and survives
And if the domain of Tāne (from the mountains to the sea) is nurtured and survives
The people are nurtured and will survive
Explanation by Ana Tapiata no Te Arawa me Ngāti Pōrou
Negotiating the balance between work and home life is always tricky. So what if you are the intermediary between your people and a land developer, as is the case with Te Marino Lenihan, Ngāi Tū-Ahu-Riri. For 100s of years Lenihan's people have lived on and around Kaiapoi in North Canterbury, where a housing development known as Pegasus Town is being built. Lenihan talks with Maraea Rakuraku about the politics involved and how it all played out when an old pa site was discovered.
The lure of better financial opportunity across the ditch in Australia, has seen the creation of a term and emergence of a people - Mozzies, or Māori Australians, and according to the latest census there's close to 125,000 of them. Justine Murray meets up with a Melbourne based lot who make up the membership of the kapa haka rōpū, Poi Piripi. Named after the nearby Port Phillip, the group is doing what generations did before them: re-creating a bit of home on foreign shores. On the eve of their performance at Te Matatini they talk hangi, tangihanga, kai and kapa haka.
What's the difference between the tattoos sported by international musicians like Robbie Williams and Ben Harper and those adorned by Māori? According to Ngai Tūhoe, Tame Iti - a lot. One, is kiri tuhi a form of skin art tattooing that, while it may comprise Māori design and patterning, lacks the cultural connection of the other, tā moko, which incorporates whakapapa, and cultural identity in its design and is of more significance to the Māori wearing it.
As a walking bill board of tā moko himself, Justine swoops upon Iti after he's had some work completed on his ears.
Waiata featured include:
Moko from the album Rua by Moana and the Moahunters
Ta Moko from the album1 Giant Leap