Aro-Mind

I found the following fragment in the papers of John White in the Alexander Turnbull Library. It presents a very interesting perspective on the meaning of 'Tāngaroa' (note macron) who is popularly described as 'the god of the sea'. Unfortunately, I did not record the actual location of this item within the John White collection, but it is there. It is written below just as the text appears in the original. I have not marked vowel length. The text explains that the tides ebb and flow because of the actions of an atua called 'Te Parata'. S/he sucks the water of the ocean and hence causes the tides to ebb. S/he opens his/her throat and forces the water to flow, hence, the flowing tides. The name of Tangaroa, or more properly 'Tāngaroa' concerns the length of the breath (te tānga roa o te manawa). Nga tai (Nga Puhi) Te take o nga tai, he mea na Kawiti?, ana na Te-parata, e momi ana i te wai o te moana, Koia te taitimu, a ka puhania? mai ano eia Koia te tai p...

I heard Hēkia Parata speak recently and she uttered this memorable phrase, "Dont preach about tino rangatiratanga as you exhale!" Yea, I like that. Her theme was tino rangatiratanga at a personal level. You can't preach about independence, sovereignty etc as you yourself remain dependent upon something unnecessary. We need not think about tino rangatiratanga in grand ways, on grand scales. We can just as easily and meaningfully think about it at a personal level. Yes, indeed that's a great place to be thinking about tino rangatiratanga, to be thinking about the ways which we become fragmented inside of ourselves rather than unified, and then how we project this fragmentation outwards and onto the world. Rangatiratanga is about binding, uniftying weaving things together. How are we bringing about wholeness inside of ourselves and expressing that binding wholeness in the day to day detail of our lives?

I feel that our thinking about tino rangatiratanga has been too dominated by our history of colonisation. (Understandable tho'.) Meaning, we have been dominated by a need to 'talk back', to react and to respond to kāwanatanga, we have found it necessary, and for understandable reasons, to talk about 'survivability' and 'struggle' and so on. But I am absolutely sure that our ancestors did not have this in mind when they signed the Treaty. Why would you sign something that you knew would commit you and your people to hardship, struggle and impoverishment? Rather I think they had in mind the idea of the whole continuum of their history and its momentum and saw that momentum moving forward dynamically into the future. Furthermore, I believe they had views regarding the organisation of the whole country not just one part. I mean just as kāwanatanga now pertains to and affects all who live in Aotearoa, so tino rangatiratanga ought to too. The trick is that tino ra...

I think we need to revolutionise the way we think about tino rangatiratanga. I've come across a lot of people who when they explain what they mean by tino rangatiratanga,  it sounds to me like a kāwanatanga run by Māori. I think that if tino rangatiratanga just turns out to mean to another westminster style parliament, a western style legal system, generally a western style top-down, power from above type system but run by Māori, that seems to me to be a waste of time. Rather, I think tino rangatiratanga ought to be something very different representing an opportunity for our nation, not a burden. Fundamentally, tino rangatiratanga, in my view, is a vehicle for a tangata whenua way of doing things, an indigenous worldview. This means a regional based system with power 'rising upward' from the earth, upward through a people rather than power from upon high.

I question the interpretation of 'whakamā' to mean 'shame'. 'Whakamā' literally means 'to cleanse' and we can see that the use of shame as a translation of whakamā represents the use of a moral framework that does not belong to this story, to interpret this story. Instead, I think the theme of cleansing is about Hine seeking to establish her own integrity, identity and position in the world as connected but distinct from Tāne. She is fashioned by Tāne from the earth (Papatuanuku) but in time she makes a journey which is about establishing her own place in the world. If one looks at wisdom traditions throughout the world, one finds the feminine associated with two things - setting the boundaries (guardians of the threshold) and transformation. And so it is with Hine in our traditions. (remembering we are talking about qualities first, not gender.) Hine sits at the threshold between night and day, te kaitiaki o te tatau pounamu. She ushers in new life and ...

Prosperity is not just about maintaining income levels. The conventional view is that income at a certain level enables one to live a certain life style. For many New Zealanders life style is not just about the ability to secure a house, a car, clothes but also holidays, experiences with family and our natural environment and more. Prosperity is also about the ability to enjoy enriching experiences and to do so regularly. There is such a thing as the rich man who is poor in life experiences. This is a spiritually and emotionally impoverished person. Prosperity exists also when people enjoy meaningful experiences, share in the warmth of human community, experience wonder at the grandeur and detail of the natural world and the universe. Prosperity exists when people are able to realise their potential, to dream of possibilities for themselves and circumstances exist (including economic circumstances) whereby those possibilities, that potential may be realised. This might be called ...

'Indigenous Development' is a field of endeavour that is growing considerably in our world today. It builds upon efforts of the past century or more designed to achieve social justice and cultural revitalisation for 'indigenous peoples' throughout the world. These are peoples who have been colonised, usually, by European populations and exist often as a minority in their own country and in marginalised positions. Significant issues, needs and problems confront these peoples such as health disparities, educational underachievement, imprisonment rates, poverty, and much more. Hence, in the first instance, 'indigenous development' is concerned with overcoming these negative experiences of marginalised 'indigenous peoples'. A second and equally important theme of 'indigenous development' is the rediscovery and a reawakening of the creative and active heart and being of an indigenous people. As indigenous peoples advance cultural revitalisation - repa...

Okay, here is a draft list of the top 'icons' (using the term loosely) of the Māori world, things, cultural items, practices, objects well known in popular culture and consciousness. Here goes: Haka (for many, haka represents an echo the unleashed, unbridled, uncultured 'primitive energy', its a bit dangerous and those completely unfamiliar with it, love it) Tangi - funerals Objects of various kinds - carvings, tiki, meeting houses, waka Pōwhiri - ritual of encounter, karanga, wero The Māori language , te reo Māori Hongi - act of peace, intimacy, mixture of breath Marae Moko Toa - the warrior, prowess Waka ama - outrigger canoes Taonga Pūoro - musical instruments This list is entirely debatable. The idea is to understand what are those things emanating from the Māori world which are known popularly, in general culture. It doesn't mean that people understand them necessarily, just that they exist and have some kind of presence in popular culture.

Recently, in my theatre work I've begun to notice more clearly those people for whom the 'work' is most important and those for whom the welfare of the group is equally important. When I was younger, at music school, I was fond of the model of the empowered auteur artist, who by some very special ability, the rarefied atmosphere of their spectacular talent, they are able to say what goes. Invariably this meant that the individual became at the least impolite, at worst a bully. And on most occasions their talent didn't warrant this kind of special treatment. Now, I think the welfare of the group (in collaborative artmaking like theatre and music) is as important as the work and that when the group feels unified, cohesive then this tends leads to better work. The unity shines in the work. And a friend of mine said, you can bully people into quality work perhaps only once.

So that we may be moved, so that depth may feel revealed to us. We do not create explanations so as to numb ourselves but rather through the experience of creating the explanations and the explanations themselves, we are somehow inspired, taken, awoken, impacted upon, stirred, shaken. The best research questions are those that we are inspired by, have fallen in love with. We can pursue ngā pae o te māramatanga, yes, but we ought to also live and experience, ngā kitenga o te aroha, what love draws us to see, understand, experience. So what are my research questions, those that I have fallen in love with? They are something to do with love, something like, what is it like to live passionately and creatively, participating in kinship based relationship with the world? How do we overcome a sense of estrangement from life, from the course of life? How do we live passionately, alive, engaged, animated? Gee, much more to be said here.