Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Te Tai Haruru Journal of Māori and Indigenous Issues

Mutu, Margaret --- "He Poroporoaki mō te Ahorangi Nin Tomas" [2017] TaiHaruruJl 3; (2017) 5 Te Tai Haruru 13

Last Updated: 16 June 2024

HE POROPOROAKI MŌ TE AHORANGI

NIN TOMAS

Professor Margaret Mutu¹

He poroporoakī tēnei ki taku whanaunga, ki a Nin Tomas, nā mātou i tuku atu ki te kōpu o Papatūānuku, nā mātou i tangi, arā nā tātou katoa. Nō reira e te whanaunga, e Nin, takoto mai rā i ngā rua kōiwi o ō koutou mātua, o ō koutou tūpuna i Rangihaukaha i te rohe o Te Rarawa i Pukepoto. Haere mai, haere. Takahia atu rā te ara i takahia e te tini, e te mano, te ara kore ki muri, te ara wairua i Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē tae atu ki Pararaki, ki Haumu, ki te tuawhenua ki Wai-ngunguru, te wai e ngunguru ana i wētahi taima. Piki ake ki Herangi, ka heke atu ki te awa wairere e kīa nei ko Waiata-rau, ka whiti i te awa nei ka piki i te puke nui ko Te Atua-perunui, ka taiheke atu. Ka roa ka tatū atu ki te hekenga e tatū ai ki te moana, i te tūpoutanga atu ki Te Rerenga Wairua. Rukuhia te moana i konei, ka whiti ki ngā motu. Tangihia ki reira, ka hoki atu ki Hawaikinui, ki Hawaikiroa, ki Hawaikipāmamao, Te Hono i Wairua. Nō reira haere mai, haere e te whanaunga e Nin.

Ko tēnei te poroporoaki i tō taha ki a Ngāti Kahu, i ngā whenua tupuna i tupu ake ai koe i te roto e kīa nei ko Ōhia, tata atu ki Tokerau, arā ki Karikari. Ko koe te pōtiki, ā, ahakoa ngā māuiui tamariki i uhia i runga i a koe i aua wā, i takahia e koe ngā whenua tūpuna, i purea rā koe e ngā hau o te kāinga, i kaukau koe i ngā awaawa me ngā moana o kui mā o koro mā. I tupu ake koe i ngā rekereke o ō tuākana, o ō tungāne, o ō mātua, o ō tūpuna nā rātou i hakatō ngā kākano o te mātauranga i a koe, nā rātou koe i poipoi. I uru mai koe ki tēnei Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki, i whaia e koe ngā tikanga a ō tūpuna me te ture tuatahi o tēnei whenua, me te taha hoki o te ture Pākehā, te ture tuarua. I kohia e koe ngā korero tuku iho a kui mā, a koro mā kia hakamārama atu ki a tauiwi te take e hē ana ā rātou ture i te ao Māori. Nāu i whāngai atu ō tauira maha ki ngā māramatanga o taua ao, nāu i hakatō ngā kākano i ngā roia Māori maha i puta mai i ō hakaakoranga, ā, e mahi ana ināianei i ngā kōti a tauiwi. Nāu hoki i ētita, i hakarewa tēnei pukapuka Te Tai Haruru.

Tēnei mātou e noho mokemoke ana. I tīmata mai koe i tēnei Whare Wānanga i te Tari Māori, ā, ahakoa ka whiti atu ki te Tari Ture, ka hokihoki mai koe ki tō Tari Māori i Waipapa marae, ki ō whanaunga, ki ō hoa mahi i āwhina, i tautoko i a koe. E kore koe e warewaretia. E moe, e moe, e moe i te moenga roa.

¹ Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whātua.

Nin was a close relation who grew up at Lake Ōhia in the territories of our Ngāti Kahu ancestors in Te Hiku o Te Ika, the Far North. The scholarly traditions of our nations have been passed down the generations so that those of our generation who survived the deprivation, dislocation and marginalisation that resulted from colonisation could still access that knowledge. Our elders gave their time freely to teach us our kaupapa and tikanga, the values and philosophical underpinnings of our law, the first law of Aotearoa. They taught us how tikanga regulated our behaviour within our whānau, our hapū, our iwi and the wider community. They warned against ever allowing foreign laws to take precedence over ours. They taught us the history of the arrival of the English and the agreements entered into with them. In particular He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (the 1835 declaration of the sovereignty of New Zealand) laid the constitutional foundation upon which the English settled in this country. Sovereignty lay with the rangatira of the hapū and law-making powers would never be given to anyone else. For the English, diplomatic relations could be established by the King of England sending an ambassador to assist the rangatira as they learnt the ways of their English guests. In 1840 He Whakaputanga was confirmed in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and control of hitherto lawless English immigrants was devolved to the Queen of England. Under this devolved authority she could make rules to control her English subjects but had no authority over Māori. The fact that the English immigrants ignored these agreements and established a parliamentary system that violated He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti simply meant that that system had no proper constitutional basis in this country. As such the relationship between Māori and those who arrived here under the auspices of Te Tiriti, ngā tāngata Tiriti as they are sometimes known, has continued to be a work in progress that can only reach resolution when the correct and appropriate constitutional arrangements envisaged by our ancestors in 1835 and then in 1840 are put in place.

The philosophies and teachings of our ancestors of Te Hiku o Te Ika informed Nin’s teaching and research throughout her time at the University of Auckland. Although she was based in the Law School she visited us frequently at Waipapa Marae and the Department of Māori Studies, seeking our help and tautoko for herself and her students and towards the end, shrugging off all the colonial myth-making in preference for reminiscing on what we had learnt at the feet of our elders, and the importance of whānau and mokopuna. Kei kō koe, e te whanaunga, e marewa ana ki runga ki nga whetu o te rangi, ki te rangi Tūhāhā, ki Tikitiki-o-rangi. Kua hoki koe ki te kāinga tūturu mō tātou mō te tangata. Moe mai, e Nin, i runga i te rangimārie me te aroha.