Dame "Whina" Cooper - the movie...

 During the weekend, I got to watch the movie "Whina" with my youngest in celebration of Matariki and acknowledging the tangata whenua (indigenous peoples) of this land. It was a very interesting and moving story about Dame Whina Cooper and some of her trials and tribulations during her 98 years.

Afterwards, I watched "This is you Life" which was a 1980s NZ TV programme that honoured well known NZers for their contribution to the nation. Dame Whina Cooper was featured and many of her family and friends were able to pay tribute to her for the many things that she had done to inspire them.

One of the things that I learned about her was that she was very staunch in her ways that were not always popular with Pākeha (Europeans) and Maori alike. She was brought up Catholic and was able to keep stay true to her Maori upbringing and beliefs as well.

In NZ history, she was the leader of the first of many Maori land marches in the 1970s that implored the government to not sell anymore Maori land that today stands at only owning some 5% with non-Maori owning around 95%.

Her motto was about loosing "not one more acre" and I remember taking my students, pre-COVID to an exhibition at the Auckland Museum that displayed some of the iconic photos that were taken during that march with many memories on those who had passed away some 50 years ago.

Her legacy stands still to this day of one who stood strong for her people but also for the unity of NZ'ers. She is an inspiration for wanting to have a peaceable march that was about uniting people and sharing the burden of her people and one that all NZ'ers need to learn about or watch through this movie...

Celebrating our 1st national Matariki...

 

Today (24 June 2022), marks the first day in the history of NZ of celebrating an indigenous marker of the Maori new year through a holiday named Matariki.

Over the last few years, I've taught about Matariki in my tikanga (Maori protocols and customs) classes and it's been such a joy in watching the developing interest in Matariki to now be celebrated nationally throughout NZ.

Although many mainstream NZ'ers won't know of it's origin, it's really interesting to note that the Pacific people who first immigrated to Aotearoa, NZ those my centuries ago (circa 1100s?) upon vast voyaging canoes were highly observant sky watchers and were masterful navigators and star watchers. 

The Matariki stars cluster is known throughout the world by the name 'Pleiades' as with Greek mythology and the story of the 7 sisters. It's interesting to note that when Matariki was first discussed in education circles, in NZ, that stories circulated around about Matariki being the 7 sisters but we've since known that that story was not of the Maori creation stories but instead brought about through the Greek version.

In fact, the early Maori were well observant in viewing star clusters and Matariki which is a 7 star or 9 star (depending on where you are viewing them from) is one such star cluster that the early Maori were able to use to assist them with their planting and harvesting annual cycles.

To add to that, each of the whetū (stars) were named and had associated eco-system links i.e.

1. Matariki - is known as the guardian of all the stars or mother star. It is also the name given to the star cluster. For some there is an emphasis on healing.
2. Waiti - bodies of fresh water and the life sources that they sustain i.e. fresh water lakes, drinking waters, eels etc.
3. waitā - bodies of salt water the the life sources that they sustain in the oceans and seas teeming with fish and sealife
4. Tipu-a-nuku - cultivated soils teeming with foods
5. Tupu-a-rangi - lush and bountiful forests and life sources they sustain 
6. Ururangi - great winds and passive winds
7. Waipuna-a-rangi - rains that falls from the sky including drizzles etc.
8. Pohutakawa - a star that is associated with the passing away of dearly beloved ones during the year. A journey into the stars.
9. Hiwa-i-te-rangi - also known as the wishing star for the future.

Last year there was a debate that was started by comments of so-called European academics, at a University, questioning whether the 'science' of matauranga Maori (indigenous Maori knowledge systems) if it could sustain scientific thinking.

I found the debate quite interesting because it told me of the ignorance of the academics of knowing so little of a knowledge system that spans far deeper and wider than they could ever imagine. Suffice to say that they were shut down by many who were indeed aware but the arrogance of their not knowing was not acceptable before making their comments.

It made me realise that indeed as a nation we had come so far in knowing my own predominantly hegemonic educational background of being brought up in the western social science discipline but then discover since that we have got so much more to learn about the indigenous sciences systems that our Pasifika ancestors learned and traversed the expanse of the Pacific oceans way before the Americas or Europeans had crafted their sailing vessels. 

We do indeed hail from traditions of scientific thought and experiences of our early Pasifika ancestors with knowledge systems that have long since been forgotten by many but still sheds a light on the symbiotic relationships between those ancestors and the environments that they discovered those many centuries ago and are only just coming to light for many...

Author's hope for writing and reading...

 

One of my favourite things to do with the books that I've been privileged to be able to self-publish, is to share those books with the children that I wrote them for.

The main purpose for writing, especially the ancient Samoan stories series or tala o le vavau (stories of the ancient times) or tala mai anamua (stories from ancient times), was about passing those important stories and knowledge onto the next generations so that they would learn about the culture of their ancestors as I had as a Samoan growing up in Aotearoa, NZ.

When I visited our local Samoan bilingual Early childhood centre, it was neat to see a write up of the event that I was honoured to read to them the story of "Sina and the Tuna" and "The footprint of Moso".

From one of the teachers, I was able to get feedback that the stories excited the students and that they were able to re-tell the stories in their own words back to the class and their teacher.

I've since gifted the whole 7 book series to the centre in order to support their childrens' learnings and to give the teacher resources to support the good works that are happening there. I definitely have more books to come in the series of historical and ancient stories but with my current studies underway, there will be a delay before publishing.

Still, it gives me a great feeling of hope and honour to be able to share these stories that were shared so easily with me back with my studies in the late 1980s in Samoa and then continued as I delved in to indigenously research the stories of my ancestral culture.

To see our next generations learning and being excited about these stories, gives me hope that the important knowledge contained within will continued to be shared and that gives impetus to work on more to come...

Ihumātao - protest resolution...

 

This weekend has been quite busy with a Zoom Wānanga (high learning/teaching space) with my class and cautious with the COVID environment that our nation finds itself in.

As a usual part of my class, I would take them on fieldtrips to local whenua (land/s) to discuss Maori and Indigenous principles regarding land, waters and skies.

However, as we still have high daily case numbers (4,000 - 5,000+) of COVID in our communities, the tertiary institution that I work for has encouraged us as kaiako (tutors/teachers) to take a cautious approach.

Therefore, instead of my class going out on the fieldtrip, I took my phone/camera and Zoomed them in after I drove to a couple of places on the weekend for my class to still experience these important spaces.

One of the places was Ihumātao, where there was a pre-COVID a stand off between local manawhenua (indigenous Maori people with generation pre-colonial territory rights) and their supporters weighing in and occupied land that had been sold by a European landowner to a big property development company. 

The development company wanted to cash in with the looming building crisis of a house shortages in Auckland and they wanted to build 480 houses right next to the Otuataua stonefields which is a NZ protected heritage site that still has archaeological sites of interests of the early occupation of that area in the 1200s. 

People came to support the kaupapa (issue or topic) from all over New Zealand, both locally and nationally and many were non-Maori. Some even came from overseas indigenous nations i.e. Hawaii and First nations peoples from Canada and USA. There was such a ground swell of people support that the government really had no choice but to address the issue of such a delicate and complex nature.

The big problem was that the lands were formerly confiscated by the then NZ government of the 1860s and then redistributed and sold to European landowners who had come from England to find new lands. In fact, Maori now only own 5% of NZ lands than what they had formerly owned back in the early 1800s.

The problem was further complicated by some Maori manawhenua representatives of the area signing a deal that was not accepted by those living on the area thus dividing many with strong opinions on both sides. I am so glad that now there has been a concerted effort to reach a resolution.

Since that time, with the COVID environment intervening in all national states of affairs, it was announced last year, in December, that a settlement had been reached with the government buying the said land for around $30 million and that there was now a consortium (of sorts) of stakeholders, including manawhenua, to discuss the use of the land.

It was also expressed that the Maori King, King Tuheitea and his supporters and the Maori caucus (in parliament) were pivotal in the negotiations that took place and now there is an interesting resolution to the peaceful protest (or rights to protection) that would otherwise have been developed for housing with local manawhenua looking on...

Netflix movie recommended called "Hustle"...

 Lately, I've been so busy with so many things on the go that I often don't get much time to sit down and relax. This week, I decided I needed some well deserved R & R (rest & relaxation) and thought to see what might be interesting to watch on Netflix i.e. something that I could enjoy and relate to.

Adam Sandler's latest Netflix movie called "Hustle" was an interesting pick as it was recently released and as I don't enjoy watching sports on TV but do enjoy watching movies about sports heroes, the rise of the underdog etc. This movie was certainly a surprise for me.

I must say that I haven't been a big fan of the main actor, Adam Sandler, especially in some of this comedies that I thought were OTT "over the top" but this movie, I thought, was thoughtfully directed and Adam Sandler was a believable character with Queen Latifah as his onscreen wife.

I won't spoil the movie for you except to say that Basketball fans might recognize a lot of the famous basketball players that are featured on the movie and that it's a good story that encourages hard work and consistent effort to win the day. 

So if you do get a chanced for some R & R and decide to watch this movie. Enjoy...

Pentecost Sunday in Hamilton...

 

This Pentecost Sunday, my family is spending the long weekend (Monday is the Queen's birthday holiday) in Hamilton and thoroughly enjoying it in a home away from home R & R holiday. So woke up this morning to join in with two live morning church services (back to back) that were livestreamed with the 9am service at Life Church and 10am with Mangere PIC (Presbyterian).

During the services it was neat to reflect back in how the COVID environment sped up the need for people to be able to connect remotely via digital media when whole countries and communities were in lockdown. Now we are able to connect to church services digitally without having to attend physically in services particularly if we can't be there in person.

We are now learning to live with the virus but still in NZ with daily averages of approximately 11 people dying per day and a daily average of 6,000 - 7,000+ people reported as catching the COVID virus.

It is scary to think that this is now our norm in having such a pervasive virus living within our communities despite various attempts to stamp out the virus. It seems even more difficult as there are predictions that with the winter flu onset that there will be more people presenting to hospitals with complications from both and this will add to the pressures of our Health systems.

Despite this, we are grateful for the various interventions that are at present trying to combat the spread of the virus through mask wearing, vaccinations, isolations and general keeping as healthy as possible. This Pentecost Sunday, I'm just thankful to have my family together enjoying each others company and counting out blessings...

Celebrating Samoan language...

Yesterday was quite busy with a quick run to the bank in readiness for our afternoon sojourn to Hamilton for the long weekend. It was also the last school day of the week for the celebration of Samoan language week for 2022 and it was neat to have been able to celebrate it with two other schools. The first was a local primary school where I was able to read to a group of students at the school library. The books that I read from were: 'Sina and the Tuna'(Sina ma le Tuna) which is always a favourite with the schools that I read at. The second book was 'The footprint of Moso' (O le Tulaga va o Moso). The second time reading was at the local Samoan bilingual Aoga (Early childhood centre - school) that I am a chairperson at. It's always neat to see the reactions of children and what they think of the story. When leaving the centre gifted to me a plate of Samoan food that we ended up taking with us on our trip out of Auckland and added to our evening meal i.e. taro, green bananas in coconut sauce with fried pisupo (corned beef) and greens. A nice way to end a week of celebrations...

Queen's Birthdays celebrations with long weekend...

This week has been a particularly busy week of birthdays in my family starting with my beloved and my nephew sharing the same birth date on the 31st of May.

We had a special lunch for my beloved with a cake and blowing out candles and then for my nephew's celebration, my family went out to a restaurant and had an enjoyable experience with him. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend as I had to teach my class and then attend a meeting but the pics that were shared on Messenger and the stories shared were neat to see and hear.

On the 1st of June, my mum was blessed with another year added in turning 83 years old. It's the first year that we celebrated her birthday without our father (who passed away before Christmas last year) but we were still able to have an enjoyable time with her as we took her to a Vietnamese Restaurant and had her favourite meal there.

This long Queen's birthday weekend, my beloved suggested that we take the family on a road trip out of Auckland to celebrate the birthdays but also to have some R & R meaning Rest & Relaxation. I have so much work to do but agreed and now the whole family is looking forward to relaxing in the Waikato as we travel, by car, to Hamilton which is only an hour car drive away.

We'll be relaxing at a Holiday home that is more rural and looking forward to getting lots of work done but also taking the time to relax, explore the natural surroundings and to get out of urbania (urban area) and perhaps soak up some sun too. Although it is getting colder as autumn moves over to allow winter to set in with Winter official starting on the 1st of June.

So looking forward to also coming back with some more family stories and making memories of times together as well as celebrating birthdays with the ones that we love the most. May you also have an enjoyable Queen's birthday long weekend...