The need to know stories....

THEY NEED TO KNOW...

“Our kids (Maori, Pakeha and other) must be fed the stories of their heroes,” Haare Williams who believes in the power of storytelling, grew up on the remote Ohiwa Harbour surrounded by the spoken word and legendary heroes that shaped his early childhood. 

The spoken word represents a certain truth in my life.  I grew up with a love of language.  Grandmother, Wairemana told stories incessantly. I called them ‘Nanny Stories’, which left a big impact on my life and career(s).  So, why are they important for our kids? 

Rimaha and Wairemana lived with the natural laws of nature yet totally at home in Te Ao Maori – the Maori world view.  They lived it. 

Rimaha spent lifetime learning about this connectedness through observation, imitation, enrichment and perspective.  To say that they knew nothing of physics or metaphysics is to misjudge them. They lived by the principles of nature in tandem with a Maori world view.  

“A joyous movement,” Pukepoto school children listen to the story of their taonga Tangone (Kaitaia Lintel) back home from The Auckland Museum 2012



"A joyous movement" Pukepoto School children
listen to the story of their taona Tangone (Kaitaia Lintel)
back home from the Auckland Museum 2012

Rimaha learned and taught how to effectively deal with natural symbols as he sought certain powers to activate them in ancient karakia. I was brought up in a remote valley on large chunks of myths, legends and narratives of recent heroes (whakapapa).

In the language of myth, Maui appears as a trickster hero, the prototype who appears in myths around the world.  As the Greeks alluded to and quoted Homer in literature, art, philosophy and religion and thereby founded their education on him.  Maori would seem to have lived for perhaps longer with the stories of Maui always present. As a formative cultural icon. Maui is therefore our Hercules (heel), Heracles (stripped of immortality), or Prometheus (fire). Maui controls fire, is the founder of the useful arts, invented the useful barbed hooks, fished up the land, founded the strongest kinds of ropes and nets that slowed the sun and so we boast that Maori gave us day-light saving, 

Maui defied the conventions of social cohesion and stepped outside the prescribed boundaries of tikanga. He was potitki and was allowed to be haututu (wilfully naughty, inventive) or be on the wild side a bit. But once he heard of Hine-Nui-Te Po (death), he was avowed to challenge her.  By doing so, he challenges nature therefore dies as a consequence.

A myth or a legend as in the case of Maui is a sacred tale about the past in a non-rational way to justify actions of the present.  Creation stories are about the remote past; unfortunately the words 'myths' and 'legends', in English anyway, have accreted the meaning of mere ‘faerie tales’, or stories without substance.

Stories about ancient and recent heroes are held as Taonga (tribal heirlooms) that move seamlessly between the past and the present. They bring the living and the dead together in a holistic way.  Whakapapa is one way of validating ones access to the world of tribal heroes linking to the genesis of atua (gods), to Ranginui (Sky), Papatuanuku (Earth) and Hine-Nui-Te Po (death).  Our kids need to see these as tools to access and express reverence for nature, land, ancestors, other people and for themselves.

Heroes who dwell in the supernatural world were followed by legendary heroes in Maui, Tawhaki, Rata and Kupe down to heroes who navigated uncharted waters to arrive and settle in different parts of Aotearoa New Zealand as early as the 9C. There is no doubt that New Zealand has a literary heritage like no other on the planet.

And heroes don’t live forever.  But those who live in the pages of ancient and recent history do.  All peoples have gods and goddesses, heroes and cowards, aristocrats and psychopaths, and poets and fools. They appear in every cultural tradition. So where do we start?  Kids – start with your names.  Allow your name to be a part of your story, weave your story around it.  Knowing your story is a statement of rebirth of the ancestors in you.  When you hear these stories, you begin to accept “Hmmm - I’m better than I thought I was."

Our kids need to know that each lash of colonisation left grand-parents and great grand-parents more damaged, more derailed, and happiness more illusory. They lost heavily with the Crown’s expropriation policies; a fiat by successive governments which meant that Maori were left with broken dreams.  Our kids need to know, that is not what the treaty promised. Stories are testimonies, if needed to validate tino rangatiratanga (tribal identity, authority) and mana (chiefly charisma).  Stories can also build belief which builds a strong sense to belong, to learn, to succeed, to grow and to change.  Belief, “... there is nothing I cannot do, I can be a ninja- thoracic-cardio vascular surgeon-poet laureate ...or all of these.  I can change my hard-drive anytime. 

They need to know what happened to the causalities of war; that the first casualty of war is truth itself. They need to know that truth speaks loudly, as on Sunday 21 February 1864, while the people were in worship at the Rangiaowhia Catholic Church, in Waikato The Forest Rangers of the 65th Regiment led by Colonel George Nixon mounted a bloody attack where riffle fire pinned down the congregation inside the church and set alight. The military had delivered a crushing victory on women, children and elderly. 

There is evidence to show a growing interest amongst our rangatahi, Maori and Pakeha for spiritual awareness, one that isn't bound to any religious dogma nor from any sectarian perspective.  We owe it to all our kids in New Zealand Aotearoa.  To do less is to betray them. I want them to know that Kupe wasn’t put off by unknown waters, Edmund HIllary wasn't deterred by the mountains beyond Everest, nor did John Walker let go of his impossible dream.’

Was not The Word, the Story weapons in the pages of The Bible?  That is power in stories.