Pūwānanga

‘Pū’ is an old term for an expert. ‘E ngā pū, e ngā weu…’ is an expression addressing experts in various fields.

A pūkōrero is a master orator, someone who is truly skilful and adept as a public speaker. Kēpa Ehau of Te Arawa is an example of recent times. Although I did not see Kēpa myself, I have heard tapes of him and havestudied some of his whaikōrero.

A pūkōrero is not merely a person who knows a lot of stuff, or who even speaks a lot. In my view, a master orator is one who is skilful in capturing the minds and hearts of the people in front of him/her. They are adept at articulating their points skillfully, clearly and also at reading the mood of the people, holding their attention, drawing their support… etc. (An example of a pūkōrero in another culture is Dr Martin Luther King. See ‘Ihave been to the mountain’ speech)

A pūwānanga is a term for an expert in the activity called wānanga. In my view, wānanga is about trying to understand a question, problem, issue before us. To wānanga a matter is to explore it, to try to come to an understanding of it. Hence, in my view, wānanga is the Māori word which one can most closely associate with the creation of new knowledge. Hence, a pūwānanga is someone who is adept at exploring an issue to find an understanding of it and to make suggestions about what we might do inrelation to the issue.

Henare Tūwhāngai of Ngāti Maniapoto is the modern example. I was lucky enough to see Henare on a small number of occasions at Tūrangawaewae and elsewhere. Henare had great patience, was able to sit through several days of discussion, exploring, thinking, debating in his own mind the matters before him. He would then rise toward the end, summarise the key points made (with great clarity and understanding I might add) and offer ideas aboutwhat we should do concerning the issue placed upon the marae.

Concerning the use of pūwānanga instead of kairangahau, I have never liked the use of the term ‘rangahau’ to mean research and dislike ‘kairangahau’ even more and for these reasons. In Pei Te Hurinui’s rendering of the Tainui creation tradition, the rangahau is a heart that was placed into the spirit of man which created the desire to seek, to explore and to find. Hence, the general association of rangahau with the idea of quest, to seek. (See, ‘Kimihia, rangahaua kei hea koutou ka ngaro nei…’)

Later Pei shows how rangahau is the initiating part of the wānanga process not the end point. Rangahau means ‘to seek, quest, will to find’ and so on,and, hence, does not relate to the actual finding.

The difficulty I have with ‘kairangahau’ is that it reminds me of ‘kaitangata’. Traditionally, the spiritual rangahau itself was located in a physical location such as the human heart, and ‘kairangahau’ conjures the unfortunate image in my mind of the heart being taken out of the body and consumed (as in the mataika tradition). Hence, my aversion to the term‘kairangahau’.