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Intergenerational Vision
In the final episode of He Kākano Ahau, we explore intergenerational visions, whakapapa, and future aspirations with a māmā-daughter duo, and a Māori futurist.In the final episode of He Kākano Ahau, we explore intergenerational visions, whakapapa, and future aspirations with a māmā-daughter duo, and a Māori futurist.By Briar PomanaCan you imagine how wildly our tīpuna dreamed?It's evident when we look back and re-examine all those pūrākau, whether this is through our own whānau whakapapa or stories we've heard growing up peeling spuds at the back with the cousins or around the table with our aunties and nannies.It is in these bursts of laughter, tall tales and often floods of tears we are living, breathing, playful ripples of all those we come from who dared to dream and all those who are yet to come.This is what He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia is all about. A podcast of dreams and radical hope in a future that is inclusive, joyful, intimate and full of those moments in between.When preparing for this season, all the mātauranga and stories felt almost too massive to rope together.Flash forward and the people involved in this podcast, their experiences, mahi and aspirations now interwoven, have deepened the continual wānanga and given ambition to possibilities for our mokopuna. Kua raranga tahi tātou, he whārangi ipurangi mō apōapō.In this final instalment of He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia, Kahu Kutia travels to Te Tairawhiti, to visit two women she has known since her childhood. Mother and daughter duo, Whaea Sharon and Mania Campbell-Seymour are activists from a long line of mana wāhine stretching across Te Tairawhiti, Māhia and Te Whakatōhea.Whaea Sharon, a solo mother who put herself through university and has spent the majority of her career working in education, recalls the discomfort in her university lectures and meeting rooms when conversations turned to social issues that affect Māori communities every day."I do not accept that we have an education system that pays itself billions of dollars to continue failing our tamariki at the same rate, it is absolutely criminal," Whaea Sharon says.Working within broken systems is also a field of mahi Mania is actively trying to remould. Mania is an academic, a deep thinker and a doctor.Similar to kōrero shared by Whaea Sharon, Mania recounts how alienating the medical and university space was and can be for Māori looking to enter professions like medicine.She explains how heartbreaking it is to see whānau Māori struggling to navigate medical care and exist in systems not built for them and their needs…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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43:48
Tōku Reo, Tōku Ohooho
In the second of our reo-based episodes, we talk about the challenges that come with learning te reo as a second language.In the second of our reo-based episodes, we talk about the challenges that come with learning te reo as a second language.Te Reo Māori By Kahu KutiaKia wawatatia e tātou te pae tawhiti. Kia tuituia e tātou he ao e ū ana ki te manaakitanga, ki te aroha, ki te kotahitanga. Ka mua, ka muri, ki te ao whai oranga. Ko He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia te kaupapa e whai ake nei.I te tau 2019 i whakaputaina e te kāwanatanga tā rātou whāinga kia kotahi miriona ngā tāngata reo Māori hei te tau 2040. He wawata nui, ā, he mīharo te whakaaro ki te ao e pērā ana. Te ao e kite ana i te katoa e whakamana i tēnei reo hei reo kōrero, hei waka anō hoki e kawea ana i ngā tikanga tūturu o tātou te Māori.Heoi anō, te uaua te ara ki tō reo inā he Māori koe e ako ana i tēnei reo hei reo tuarua. I tēnei wāhanga o He Kākano Ahau, ka tūtaki tātou ki tētahi tokorua i ako i te reo Māori ahakoa tā rāua whakatipuranga reo Pākehā noa iho. Ka kōrerotia e mātou ngā piki me ngā heke o te ara ako, me ā rāua wawata mō te whakarauoratanga o te reo Māori me te ao Māori.He kaiako a Tākuta Vincent Olsen Reeder kei te whare wānanga o Te Herenga Waka. Ko ia tētahi e whakaako ana i ngā tauira e tae atu ki te whare wānanga ki te ako i te reo Māori, Māori mai, tauiwi mai. Waihoki, ko te marae o Te Herenga Waka te marae tuatahi i whakaekea e ia. I taua wā, i whakapono ana a Vini ki te whakaaro, ko ia anake te Māori kaore e taea te kōrero Māori."I mua i taku haeretanga mai ki te whare wānanga nei, kāre ōku reo, kāre ōku mōhio ki ngā tikanga Māori. Ka mutu, i taua wā, kāre anō au kia ruku ki te ao Māori."E hāngai ana tēnei wāhanga o He Kākano Ahau ki ngā āhuatanga o te whakamā, me ngā uauatanga o te ara kia tangata whenua anō ai tō reo Māori. I ētahi wā, kāore e taea te whai pūtea, kāore e taea te whai wā. Anō hoki, ka whakapuaki ngā āhuatanga o te tāmitanga ki a tātou i a tātou e ako ana.Ko tēnei tētahi o ngā kaupapa kōrero i te taenga mai o He Kākano Ahau ki Tāmaki Makaurau. I kōrero a Kahu Kutia ki a Te Aweawe Ruawai, he kaimahi hāpai rangatahi kei te pokapū o te taone."This is also a big problem for a lot of our tauira, they're very similar to me. They're very dissociated from their haukāinga, they feel whakamā that they don't know their reo, or their tikanga."Ka huri pērā hoki ngā whakaaro o Vini."Kāore au i hiahia hoki atu ki taku marae. Nā runga i te pōhēhē, ko au anake te Māori, kāore i kōrero Māori ana. I whakapono au ki tēnā…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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39:24
Reimagining Justice
In this episode, Kahu engages in wānanga with two kaikōrero advocates who are reimagining justice in Aotearoa - Awatea Mita and Emmy Rakete.Content warning: Includes discussion of prisons, psychological and physical abuse.In this episode, Kahu engages in wānanga with two kaikōrero advocates who are reimagining justice in Aotearoa - Awatea Mita and Emmy Rakete. It's a tough listen, especially for whānau Māori, but understanding where we are and where we've come from is necessary to begin planning for where we will go. Corrections comment in full.Reimagining Justiceby Briar PomanaIn pre-colonial Aotearoa, prisons were essentially non-existent. Traditional Māori society mainly revolved around whakapapa, whānau and kawanatanga.In fact, the first prisons in Aotearoa were filled by Pākehā. Today, due to overpopulation and over-representation of Māori in prisons, most whānau Māori can name at least one whānaunga inside behind bars.Delving deeper into these overwhelming statistics, episode five of He Kākano Ahau traces the history of prisons in Aotearoa and the continual failure of these institutes, especially for whānau Māori.Although Māori only account for around 17% of the general population of New Zealand, there is a disproportionate number of Māori in penal institutions across the country. Māori make up 52.9% of the prison population according to September 2020 statistics from Ara Poutama / Department of Corrections.Knowing what it looks and feels like to operate within a prison and the judicial system, Awatea Mita (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngai Te Rangi) does a lot of mahi in and around prisons, specifically with wāhine Māori. Having been previously incarcerated herself, she recounts arriving and looking around at the other women in prison, only to be met back with eyes similar to her own, those of wāhine Māori."As Māori women, as the most marginalised community in this country, brought up under that cloak of colonisation that has a purpose of ensuring that you for one don't know your rights and if you do, that you're not going to fight for them. That's how that system can continue to be self-constituting and perpetuates itself because there's no one there to challenge it."Fighting for this community and for these people is what Emmy Rakete, an uri from Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa and Ngā Kaimahi o Te Ao, does daily.Whether this is with others from the organisation PAPA (People Against Prisons Aotearoa) or as a PhD student writing about the history of prisons, and their correlation with capitalism…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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43:21
Mahinga Kai
We learn about traditional kai harvest practices as Mere Skerrett prepares for the imminent tītī harvest season in in Murihiku Southland. This episode is in Te Reo Māori.This episode in Te Reo Māori asks how we might uphold Māori traditions for the wellbeing of the people and the environment. We learn about traditional kai harvest practices as Mere Skerrett prepares for the imminent tītī harvest season in Murihiku Southland.Te Reo Māoriby Kahu KutiaKia wawatatia e tātou te pae tawhiti. Kia tuituia e tātou he ao e ū ana ki te manaakitanga, ki te aroha, ki te kotahitanga. Ka mua, ka muri, ki te ao whai oranga. Ko He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia te kaupapa e whai ake nei.Kia hoki tātou ki ngā tikanga ā ngā tīpuna; kia whakatipungia e tātou he kai nā te māra, kia whaia e tātou te maramataka. Kia tika ngā mahi i te wao. Kia hono atu ki te whenua, ki te wai hei oranga mā tātou katoa. Ko te motuhaketanga o te kai tētahi kaupapa ka kaha rangona i ngā hapū me ngā iwi puta noa i te motu.E whai ana tēnei wāhanga o He Kākano Ahau i te pātai, ka pēhea te mahinga kai e poipoi i te ahurea Māori? Ka tae atu a Kahu Kutia ki Waihōpai te kōrero atu ki a Mere Skerrett, tōna kaiako i a ia i te kōhanga reo. Kei te whakarite a Mere ki te rapu tītī. Kua ngahuru te whenua i te tonga o Te Waipounamu, ā, ka kōrerohia e Kahu rāua ko Mere ngā kōrero tuku iho e pā ana ki te mahinga kai.Ko tā Mere, ehara ēnei mahi i te mea rapu kai noa iho. E manawa nui ana ia ki ngā āhuatanga o te tītī."He mīharo ngā manu tītī. Ka taea te ruku kaimoana kia rapu kai. Nō reira ko ngā tītī, koira te take o te whakataukī "Kia manawa tītī". Kia pērā i te tītī, kia tino kaha ki te whai atu i tōu e hiahia ana."Ka tū te wāhanga rapu tītī mai i te 1 o Paengawhāwhā, tae atu ki te 31 o Haratua. Ko tēnei te wā e taea ana e ngā whānau o tēnei rohe te haere atu ki ngā moutere ki te rapu, ki te nanao i ēnei manu. I ngā wā o mua, ka tukuna ngā manu ki te pōhā, he pēke ka hangaia ki te rimurapa, ki te harakeke, ki te tōtara anō hoki. Inaianei, ka tukuna ki te pākete kē. Mai i ngā pākete ka tukuna ki ngā whānau puta noa i te motu e hiakai ana ki tēnei kai rangatira.Ko tā Mere, e hāngai ana te reo rapu tītī ki te tirohanga taketaketake o tōna iwi. Ko Mere tētahi e whakapau kaha ana ki ngā mahi whakarauora reo, ā, ka tino ū ōna whakaaro ki te whakarauora reo i roto i ngā mahinga kai…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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47:08
Ahi Kōmau
In an episode that is close to Kahu's heart, we talk about how mātauranga Māori might help us find solution and understanding on the topic of suicide.Content warning: Includes discussion of suicide and mental health.In an episode that is close to Kahu's heart, we talk about how mātauranga Māori might help us find solutions and understanding on suicide prevention, hope and community. Episode three emerges, much as everything does, from within Te Pō.by Briar PomanaAhi Kōmau - the eternal flame, the deep-rooted fires such as those found in volcanoes and with our atua Rūaumoko. Back in the day, our tīpuna would bury the ashes of their fires in the ground and even when the people who had lit them had shifted and moved on across the land, the buried ashes continued to burn. When the time came, upon their return, the ahi kōmau were unearthed and re-distributed upon a new flame and the fire would dance strongly and burn bright once again.The kaikōrero of this episode of He Kākano Ahau are similar to ngā ahi kōmau. They are that spark and breathe of hope onto a buried flame.Beginning in the big smoke, Kahu Kutia travels between Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Urewera to speak to people working in the realm of mental health and whānau Māori, specifically people working closely with the taniwha that is whakamōmori.Rikki Solomon, an embalmer and funeral director based in Tāmaki Makaurau is researching and applying traditional mātauranga to his practice. He draws reference from the maramataka Māori, the study of the moon and stars in relation to how these influence human behaviour, actions and spirit."What we teach is whānau to find their balance in both of these worlds, '' says Solomon. "Then how healing and empowering it can be to reclaim that maramataka Māori. Certainly, for myself in the last three years, it changed my life really. To understand and be empowered when you're feeling certain ways on certain days."New Zealand has among the highest rates of youth suicide in the world. According to the 2020 Unicef Innocenti report card we come in at number two of the countries deemed 'developed' for suicide among youth aged 15-19.New Zealand's high record of youth suicide is well known. According to the 2020 Unicef Innocenti report card New Zealand comes in number two on the table of countries deemed 'developed' for suicide rate among youth aged 5-19. The data shows that over a three year period, per 100,000 adolescents, there were 14.9 deaths linked to suicide.Figures released by the Ministry of Health in 2019-2020 reveal rangatahi Māori are overrepresented within these statistics.Most whānau are all too aware of these staggering statistics…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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35:25