Mana: The power of knowing who you are

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Transcriber: Ah Shin Park Reviewer: Amanda Zhu
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This is my mountain,
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Maungapōhatu.
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This is my river, awa Ōhinemataroa.
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This is my marae,
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Te Rewa Rewa.
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This is Ruatoki, where I was raised.
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This is Ruatoki,
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set in the valley at the mouth of Te Urewera,
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our native forest
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in the middle of North Island of New Zealand,
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twice the size of Auckland,
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25 times bigger than New York.
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It is the ancestral home of my people,
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Ngāi Tūhoe.
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It is also known as Ngā Tamariki o te Kohu,
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or 'the Children of the Mist'.
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As a boy, I was raised by my grandparents
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and spoke only Māori, like almost everyone in Ruatoki.
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In our language,
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we have this word that is very important.
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You might have heard it before.
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This word is 'mana'.
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Everyone in this room,
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everyone in this room has some form of mana.
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Your mana,
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your mana comes from knowing who you are,
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where you come from
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and your connection to your land,
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whenua.
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Mana grounds you.
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Mana makes you solid.
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Mana bridges you to your past, present and future.
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We don't always have to agree.
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Mana can be tested, even challenged,
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but with respect and an understanding of one another's mana.
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We are all equal.
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We are all the same, on the same level.
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Kanohi ki te kanohi tāngata ki te tāngata.
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Eye to eye.
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So school was a confusing time for me.
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The rules and the regulations
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didn't make sense at all, you know.
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When I was eight,
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the whole school was called to assembly.
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And the headmaster got up and said,
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'I will not allow you to speak Māori on my school grounds.
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So if you continue to speak Māori,
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you will remain after school and be punished.'
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So I turn to my mates:
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(Māori) 'I'll boil your head!'
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'The hell is he on about?'
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(Chuckles)
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So we thought that was dumb, stupid.
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So we wanted to test his mana,
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so we disobeyed him
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and spoke Māori to see what would happen.
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We were given the choice of picking up horse manure
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or ...
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or ...
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write 'I will not speak Māori'
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a hundred times on the blackboard.
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I must have written it a thousand times,
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a thousand times,
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and started to smell like a horse.
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I did learn English.
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But you know when you learn a new language
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and pick up the swear words first?
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(Laughter)
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(Chuckles) That was us.
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'Dickhead',
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'bugger',
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'shit stirrer'.
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(Laughter)
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At home, I learnt about my tīpuna -
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ancestor, mountain, the river -
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why these things are important to the mana of Tūhoe.
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But at school,
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I learnt 'Hey, Diddle, Diddle! The cat and the fiddle.
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The cow jumped over the moon.'
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(Laughter)
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So Te Reo Māori comes from the sound of the birds.
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I speak the same language as the tui,
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as the kiwi bird.
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Could the headmaster stop the bird from speaking the language too?
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Don't be afraid to challenge someone trying to assert authority over you.
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Just because someone has authority
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does not mean that they have more mana.
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If someone is asserting their authority,
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they have to let go of respect and understanding to get their way,
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and you are no longer equal.
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Sixteen, going to Christchurch,
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it was another kind of learning, education
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to discover what's going on around the world:
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people questioning authority about all kinds of things -
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woman's liberation,
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anti-apartheid,
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the Vietnam War,
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socialism and the rights of the working class.
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I started to hear the story from other culture
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that sound like old Tūhoe stories,
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stories about stolen land, community displaced,
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story about police brutality,
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story about military rule.
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I started to meet new people -
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Māori, Pacific people, Pākehā -
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standing against these things,
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and they inspired me.
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These were not just Māori issues;
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they were global issues with global movements.
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And in this time, I learnt the art of protest and political activism:
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occupy their space so they can't avoid you,
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draw attention to the issue, and then make them uncomfortable,
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make them face you, and make your voice be heard.
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If mana can be tested,
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then you may have to prepare to defend it.
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No one can tell you that you are not important
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and that your experience does not matter.
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And if they do,
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I challenge them to say it to your face,
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where they can see your eyes and feel your breath.
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(Exhales)
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Kanohi ki te kanohi tāngata ki te tāngata.
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Eye to eye.
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You have to keep the pressure on,
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keep reminding people of the things that they would rather forget.
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We had to constantly remind the Crown
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that we were here and we're not going away,
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that we needed to have a proper, you know, kōrero,
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a conversation,
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about the stuff that had gone down with our tīpuna, our ancestors.
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I remember when the Crown went around the country,
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they talk about the fiscal envelope.
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This was the government offering amendment on the settlement on historical grievances
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before they had even heard any claims.
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I decided to make a counter offer for the return of our land -
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my nephew's horse blanket.
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But, when I arrived, this is what I saw:
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The Crown sitting on the stage looking down at us.
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We were not eye to eye;
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we were not on the same level.
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So, what this short-arse Tūhoe do when we're being talked down to?
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(Chuckles)
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(Laughter) (Applause)
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He borrow a ladder.
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Hey bro, can I borrow your ladder?
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(Laughter)
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This is the Honourable Doug Graham listening to my submission.
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(Laughter)
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This is Doug Graham taking my blanket.
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Four years later,
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here is the horse blanket,
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hanging in the office of the Treaty Settlement in Wellington.
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They had taken my blanket, frame it
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and hung it on the wall as a piece of artwork.
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(Laughter)
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They had my blanket, but they still had the land.
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So four years later,
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what does a Tūhoe do when someone steals his horse blanket?
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(Laughter)
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He sent an invoice.
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(Cheers) (Applause)
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An expensive one too.
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So it wasn't really because I wanted the money,
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not at all.
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I wanted to remind the Crown that until this was resolved,
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they still had a debt to Tūhoe
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and we are not going away,
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just like this,
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or this.
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This is the Māori language petition, Hana Jackson, 1972.
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The Māori Land March, Dame Whina Cooper, 1975.
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Bastion Point, Takaparawhā, Ngāti Whātua,
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1978.
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The Springbok Tour, 1981.
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The anti-nuclear campaign, 1985.
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These are some of the political social movements
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that have shaped the identity of this country,
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not just because they had political opposition at that time,
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but because other than eye to eye,
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contrary to the realisation,
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that the mana of the people
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is equal to that of any authority.
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So after 170 years of struggle -
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(Applause)
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So after 170 years of struggle,
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of fighting for the mana of Tūhoe,
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we finally got respect and understanding from the Crown.
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We got this.
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(Video) Mr. Finlayson: The Crown unreservedly apologises
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for not having honoured its obligations to Tūhoe
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under Te Tiriti o Waitangi
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and profoundly regrets its failure
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to appropriately acknowledge and respect te mana Motuhake o Tūhoe
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for many generations.
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(Applause)
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Tame Iti: History has woven us together.
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We are the basket, te kete, that holds the future.
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We must acknowledge each other in this space,
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right here in this space,
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Kanohi ki te kanohi tāngata ki te tāngata.
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Eye to eye.
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(Māori) Rock on the mountain,
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the Mataura River harbor,
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the courtyard of the Rewa Rewa is white,
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people are Tūhoe.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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(Applause) (Cheers)