Who has changed your life?
Sharyn | Pōneke
Sharyn’s (Ngāti Kahungunu, Wellington) sons have led their whānau into a deeper understanding of their whakapapa Māori. And this has changed her appreciation of her place in Aotearoa.
I have three children, but our two sons have taken us on a real life-changing experience. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa is where our family is from. We didn’t know that. We knew that we had some whakapapa, but we didn’t know anything about that because my mum was of the era that she used to say, “Oh yes, you’ve got Māori blood, but last time you cut your finger, you lost it, so it’s not significant to you because the way forward for us and our family is to do things the European way.” That was not particular to Mum, everyone believed that.
Matt started this journey of looking, like, where do we belong? Where do we come from? How does it fit with us? And this was quite a challenge for me and so I spent a long time supporting him and finding out, and so he continued looking. Then our youngest son, who’s now 21, Andrew or Anaru started taking te reo at school, Wellington College, and was very good at it and has continued on and has done a BA in te reo Māori at Canterbury and has kept going and has now been selected by Ngāti Kahungunu to do Te Pōkaitara programme and is being really connected in with the iwi.
And for me, it’s a foundation, it just makes you feel strong. It makes you feel so much stronger than before, of like, well, where do I fit in here? But I know where I fit in now and it’s easy and the open arms by which you feel like going to a marae now, I don’t wonder where I stand, I know where I stand and, and the kids know where they stand. And it’s just formed so much more strength, I think.
The life-changing experience was started with the kids and I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I’m pretty optimistic that it’s going to be a great thing. I’m pretty sure our grandchildren will be fluent reo speakers. I’m sure it’s going to form a fantastic foundation for our family moving forward.
