One thing recent revitalisations of Matariki practice has made clear is the oneness of mātauranga Maori. The spiritual, the scientific, and the practical are all seamlessly bound. The sophisticated yet sensical balancing of worlds, THAT, e hoa mā, is what makes us Māori 🙌🏾✨

Whakapapa and pepeha are anchors of collective identity that infinitely ground us in who we are. Kōrero tuku iho are our tūpuna speaking to us across worlds and generations. So no, David, you can’t say “Ko Rangitoto te maunga” ‘cause you’ve lived in central AKL for 5 years 😂👍🏾

Te reo, and all that is embedded within it, binds us to our tūpuna and mokopuna to come. Our deepest fear should not be the racist acts of others towards it, but that in reawakening the rangatira that lives within us through our reo, we will become powerful beyond measure 🙌🏾

I get hōhā hearing reactions to racism and inequity like “that’s crazy”, or “that’s unbelievable”. It’s not crazy, it makes perfect sense. They’re a natural and intentional result of imperial structures which BY DESIGN devalue our culture and dehumanise us. Remember that 🗣

Te reo revitalisation is as much about ensuring transmission of language through generations as it is about ensuring certain things DO NOT transfer to our tamariki/mokopuna e.g. language trauma/cultural shame. Those things are real, but they also can and must end with us! 🗣

Our tūpuna were master voyagers and set out to discover new worlds of opportunity they could thrive in generationally. Today, this looks like guiding our thinking to new spaces of learning and growth, so we too may thrive and recreate our reality 🌏 #HeWhenuaHou #HeAoTaurikura

Tough on crime narratives not only unfairly target young brown men, they actually agitate and encourage anti-state behaviour. Prisons are essentially crime factories, and boot camps for young offenders won’t be much better. DO NOT buy into the political propaganda e te iwi! 🙅🏾

Today is not a holiday, nor is it a celebration, it is a reminder. Māori mā, let this day mark the reawakening of our rangatiratanga and the fight for our tupuna-derived rights to freedom and prosperity, without fear or compromise✊🏾😤

We refer to “the law” as if there is only one set of rules that can regulate society - but our tikanga/kawa are a law unto themselves, predating the arrival of settler law. Also, reducing our complex tikanga to “lore” needs to go e hoa mā, that’s the stuff Santa is made of 🥴😂✌🏾

Our tūpuna never ceded their mana, so we are the rightful sovereigns of our whenua. This is fact, and should be deemed normal. But we live in a reality where our truth is radicalised. This means attempts to reawaken our truth is met with an implosion of white minds. Meinga.