Who or what brings light into your life?

Aidan | Tauranga

Aidan shares how pushing through discomfort helped him find confidence, connection and joy in life.

“This year I’ve kind of thrown myself into te ao Māori (the Māori world) and kaupapa Māori (Māori initiatives). When you’re in those spaces, kaua e whakamā (don’t be shy/embarrassed), you just have to do it. And in the beginning, that was real daunting. But now I kind of thrive on that kind of energy.

Doing that has washed away the facade of trying to fit in. And for me, that means just being myself. And if I think of it in a practical sense, I can now hold my own on a marae.

But if I think of it from an āhua or wairua sense (energy or spiritual), it’s made me feel tau (settled) in myself. Tau in my Māoritanga, tau in just being a person that’s living on this earth and enjoying life.

So just before Te Tohu Paetahi started, I went through a tough breakup and instead of letting that melt me, I kind of turned that into fuel to push into uncomfortable kaupapa Māori spaces, and that’s where I am now.

To feel that, when I waiata, when I haka, my tūpuna (ancestors) are there with me enjoying the moment. It’s kind of hard to explain how reclaiming your culture, your reo, can make you feel happy but it just does. There’s purpose to life now.

When I think back to what made me laugh the most was just doing the haka, doing the haka with my mates and just enjoying being in their company. You know, things like that. Just enjoying life.”