I'm Starting With The Nati In The Mirror...

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….

The first friend, we’ll call her ‘P’, has spent a lot of time around Natis, and hails primarily from Rongomaiwahine.  When asked what three words best described Natis, she came back with ‘confident’, ‘educated’ and ‘proud’ (well, she had another word, but I’ve taken a little creative licence and modified it).  She also commented on the unique ‘lingo’ that Natis have and her difficulties understanding what we talk about (e.g. luv, girlsey, boyso, waat, owfh!).  She was tempted to get t-shirts printed with Nati lingo and non-Nati translations, but realised there wouldn’t be enough space for all of them.

The second friend, we’ll call her ‘J’, hails primarily from Ngati Wai – although I’m sure she is a closet Nati herself.  Her words (she had a lot more, but I’ve cut them down for editing purposes) were ‘in your face’ (that’s the first three), ‘bold’, ‘Paikea’ and ‘bolshy’.  She reckons you can always hear us before you see us, and she’s hung out with Natis long enough to know all the words and actions to Paikea.  I’m sure she’d agree it would be a good pre-game warm-up number for the All Blacks – might help improve their performance and surely they can remember the words to this anthem!

The third friend, we’ll call him ‘T’, hails from Ngati Whakaue, and thinks Natis are ‘charismatic’ (or something to that effect), ‘charming’ and ‘funny’ (in a ha ha way we hope).  He reckons he hates having Natis at guitar parties cos we know most/all the words – and we’re often the ones playing the guitar(s) – he’s just jealous!!

So, what do ya all think?  Any other distinctly Nati lingo?  Any other distinctly Nati characteristics?