Maui | Rotorua, Waikato

“Ko Mātaikōtare tāku marae

Ko Rangitoto te pae maunga

Ko Waiōhewa te awa kaukau o ngā tūpuna

Ko Rotorua-nui-ā-Kahumatamomoe tāku awa

Ko Motutapu-a-Tinirau te tapuwae o Rangiteaorere

Ko Te Arawa te iwi

Ko Mātaikōtare tāku hapū

Ko Rangiwhakaekeau te whare tūpuna

Ko Uenukurauiri tāku kuia nō Tūhoe

Ko Edwin Ereatara Epapara tāku pāpā

Ko Molly Kahukura Mihiata Taiapa tāku whaea

Ko Maui ahau

The understanding of that term Māui came from a whare tupuna that my whanaunga and I carved over in Tokoroa. Belonging to Ngāti Porou at, at Waiapu, Pokai te whare tupuna, and the kai, the te pūtea, the blessings that came with that particular project was a look into whakapapa pertaining to me, connecting myself to Ngāti Porou.

The iwi belonging to my koro John, Hōne Te Kāuru Taiapa a master carver extraordinaire. Him and his brother, Pine Taiapa were responsible for the resurgence of mahi whakairo back in the early 19th Century with Tā Āpirana Ngata as an initiative after the war, to bring back mahi whakairo.

I am a wood carver by trade. This is my 51st year as a tohunga whakairo. I’m privileged to have been instructed in the fine art of craving by my koroua Hōne Te Kāuru Taiapa MBE, Member of the British Empire, given to him by Elizabeth I believe for services in reference to that particular field of Māori-ness.

My mother is a descendant of Kawiti-nui otherwise known as Te Ruki Kawiti, a master strategist, fighter, warrior, clever chappie, paramount chief in the early 1800s I believe when things were not so hot between European and Māori. My koroua Te Ruki, the name I go under,built a fortified village just to mess with the heads of English regiments, the Army, the keepers of the law, enforcers of things that are European, and these dudes thought they were pretty hot. They just came off the battlefields with young Napoleon and whipped them good. They came here to Aotearoa with the intentions that, well we’ve just taken out one of the greatest fighting empires in the European world, what do these natives know? And the losses were quite severe, in terms of European casualties. I believe my koroua Te Ruki was accredited trench warfare that was developed in World War II, just from the structure that he had created at Ruapekapeka in the Far North, Ngāti Hine. Hineamaru being our ancestor, and funnily enough, she’s female.

I was raised in a native school. We spoke English, a flow-on I believe, from when my parents were strapped for speaking te reo. That same whakaaro flowed onto us, and as a result, we were fearful to speak te reo.

From the heart, to share a no regrets situation and to have it spoken in te reo would be fantabulous, if I was a speaker of the reo. As a child, growing up at Rotokawa Native School, we as a rōpū weren’t given the opportunity to learn or instruct it. It wasn’t until we got to high school where it was compulsory to learn the reo. By then, we had become quite negative about the whole aspect of being Māori, speaking Māori. Having traditional, even original kupu transliterated didn’t sit well with me as a youngster and I swore black and blue, I’m not learning that change, and now, here we are, 62 years later, and I find myself enrolled with He Kainga Mo Te Reo a Tūhoe-based tuition in instructing adults to learn how to speak our own tongue. I would love to have given this presentation in the reo, but I’m incapable at this stage, a regret I have. I should have just did it when it was first offered to me, you know, well no regrets eh? Now is the time. I’m alright with it.”