As we move closer to a Treaty Settlement, I’m reminded of this joke I once heard:
Two Natis, Hemi and Kara, go on a camping trip up the Kopuapounamu Valley. After a big kai, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Hemi wakes up and nudges his whanaunga.
Yet another great whānau activity was to toitoi tuna off the banks of the swamp, on a boat or on a specially built raft. Great stuff which began with:
• the gathering of noke – worms from the effluent piles from the cowshed and the neighbours ones or from the pā sites of my ancestors Hine Tapora and Uepohatu. There were springs there and that is what kept the worms readily available. Today I have heaps of noke in my compost heap but I don’t collect them like I used to do;
With all the advancements in technology, improvements in education, the internet and the ability to do things quicker and smarter, why do we live in a world so dumb?
Technology was supposed to make things easier! Now we are available 24 hours a day and seem to have less time to get “more” things done. It is a wonder that eventually, the humble Nati caves in to the relentless grindstone of surviving in this “civilised” existence.
I met a black South African woman last week, and when she asked what I was, I told her I was (along with beautiful, intelligent and well-travelled of course) a Nati. And then proceeded to explain what that was. To say she was amazed is an understatement. She’d been led to believe (by people who shall remain nameless - but they’re definitely not Natis) that Maori were poor, oppressed, uneducated, lacking a political voice, and unable to develop/ compete without government funding. I’m sure those were the words Michael Jackson really meant to sing. A man of such talent must surely have some Nati whakapapa! And what better way to reflect on our unique Nati characteristics, as suggested by my sister Kobey, than to ask (non-Nati) friends how they see us. So, via texts and tweets (just got sorted with Facebook and now everyone’s on Twitter – typical!), I canvassed opinions. The results … well, pretty interesting….
