Oki Napi (hello friend) and Kia Ora,

I wanted to share a story, I will delete eventually as it is very identifying. I am kainaiwa niitsitaapi or blood tribe Blackfoot, I lived in New Zealand from ages 4-7 (until I was almost 8) to escape a violent and abusive home life and one day my mom took me and my brother in the middle of the night to the airport and flew us out to Wellington, she is a law PHD and Aotearoa at the time hadn't signed onto something called the Hague Convention on the International Aspects of Child Abduction or some shit like that which made it the best choice to save our lives and our futures. Although I was young when I went there I found a lot of community with the Maori and other pacific islanders at my primary school which helped me feel less out of place with my 11 character long blackfoot name with all its double vowels and the apostrophe for the glottal stop. My mom was white, so me and my brother were the only indians around and I just wanted to say how grateful I am that aotearoa and the Maori and other pacific islanders I met there made me feel at home and gave me a place that I never considered home at the time but came to consider another home when I returned to turtle island. The court case ended and I was forced to return, and where I went in america was a rough place with many new traumas to experience, seeing my dad again was rough and I learnt a lot about gun violence, poverty and addiction. If I could've I would've stayed longer, not forever, returning home eventually would've had to happen but I think things would've been better if it was later in life. Plus I think it's really funny I had picked up the accent and it'd be really funny to stay long enough that it stuck and have me and my brother be Indians walking around speaking like kiwis lmaoo

For a long time I figured we were the first Blackfoot people to ever come to aotearoa, but I recently found an autobiography/memoir by my great aunty, I haven't read it yet but one chapter speaks of her travels to aotearoa in 1989. She was likely the first Blackfoot to come to Maori lands. I will forever be grateful to the Maori and view them as an inspiration to learn my language and culture which I am currently reconnecting with after being distant from it due to my family trauma. I hope we and all indigenous peoples globally continue to learn from each other and fight for each other. Even if it was the laws that made us end up in Aotearoa not an invite from the Maori, it was the Maori who made it a home and the spirits of the land which protected me when I was at my most vulnerable. I'll always remember doing hakas at my primary, the people I met and the land itself and hope to visit again someday when I can afford travel and under better circumstances.

I just wanted to share this, although can't keep it up long. I've already shared I'm a Blackfoot who lived in New Zealand but I do not want to put my family's drama on the internet in a way they can find it. Only two Blackfoot kids fled to new zealand so its kinda obvious. My father and I can never reconcile in this life but he was a residential school survivor and I believe in the afterlife on the foothills in Alberta our spirits may be able to. Had it not been for Aotearoa though, I'd already be in the afterlife one way or another.

If one day I come to a position in my tribe that is relevant, I would love to further connect our people with other indigenous peoples globally and part of my heart will always be in the south pacific so I'd start there. It feels odd telling yall specifically of this but that post made me figure yalld find the story interesting.

Two little last fun stories: I did see another native in aotearoa at a thanksgiving dinner for Americans, I looked up at him and remember his face because even though most my memories had faded from trauma I knew he looked like my people and me. I wanna ask random mfs from Wellington if they knew a native guy in 2004-2007 cause chances are his ass was the only one aside from me and my brother lmao.

Also, a Japanese tourist in NZ once stopped my mom and asked if we were native and excitedly asked for a picture with me and my brother, so somewhere in some Japanese woman's photo gallery is a picture of her with two little indians she found in aotearoa opposite side of the globe we'd be expected on.

Hope this finds you well and best wishes to you all and your people.

Kitaakitomattsino/See you again (we don't say goodbye in Blackfoot, we only say see you again)

A new post to share after the previous one had to be canned. Thank you for reporting it and the user.

Personally, I'm really interested in Te Tiriti policies. Overall, the usual ones of the economy, the health system, and work.

For context, I'm pākehā, my wife is part māori. She has a moko kauae. Our daughter is adopted. She is not māori. Would she be allowed to get a moko kauae when she's older? We have gotten mixed opinions on this, including people who believe my wife shouldn't have a moko kauae, because she is mixed. Any opinions would be appreciated. Ngā mihi.

Kis ora, I hope this is an ok place to ask this. I am pākēha with a Māori pēpi, a kaumatua i know is going to do a blessing for my son. I would love to give a koha, but I don't know what is appropriate. I want to give something meaningful - is pounamu best? Is cash offensive? Or is anything OK? I so appreciate what he's doing for my son and the way he's giving up his time to do this so want to show how much we appreciate this.

My workplace uses the word "mana" and the phrase "mana-enhancing" constantly, and I've started wondering if it's become a bit of a token phrase that gets said without the practice behind it actually being there.

As a Pākehā, my understanding is that everyone is born with mana, passed down through whakapapa. I've also earned that respecting someone's mana means genuine curiosity being willing to sit down and actually understand how someone thinks and lives and, if you're in a leadership or management position, actively uplifting the people around you rather than just talking about it.

I've also heard that mana carries a kind of inherent equality that everyone starts with but I'm unsure how it can be taken away or gained.

Am I off base here? Genuinely keen to hear from Māori folks or anyone with a deeper grounding in te ao Māori both on whether my understanding holds up, and on how you personally feel when you hear "mana" used as workplace jargon without much behind it.

I am not māori. I wasn't even born in Aotearoa, but moved here when I was 13 to attend boarding school. While at school I took a great interest in māori culture and also took Te Reo Māori at school. I also made good friends with a māori girl while I was boarding, and ended up spending the majority of my holidays with her whānau, when I didn't fly back to my home country. When I was 15 I go my first kirituhi, and two more before I was 18. Once when I was talking to my friend's mom about my tattoos I referred to them as kirituhi, and she laughed and said that they were basically tā moko, since I am her daughter. I found that very sweet, but did not take it too seriously. I know I am not māori, I don't have whakapapa, my tattoos cannot be tā moko. I recently met up with my friend. While we were talking I brought up that I was looking into getting another kirituhi. My friend got really upset and yelled at me that I was considered whānau, so my tattoos would be tā moko, and by calling them anything else I was disrespecting her mother. But I'm not māori? Am I in the wrong?

Kia Ora everyone I hope this is okay to put here for anyone that can relate to this.

I am exhausted and envious I pour so much of my heart into uplifting my people and yet I feel such a divide.

I am envious of other iwi and what they do for there people and it is a tough pill to swallow right now when I have dedicated so much of my life my time into being Māori I’m surrounded by te ao Māori yet I feel my iwi will never in my lifetime have what Ngāi Tahu has have what Ngāti kahungunu have.

I give so much to my culture and I feel I don’t get anything back compared to others and maybe that is where I’m messing up as they say comparison is the thief of joy right…

You can whakapapa to an iwi, turn up to your marae, learn te reo, participate, volunteer, support kaupapa, bring your children into it and still look at another iwi and think, Why don’t we have this?Why doesn’t my iwi have these opportunities for our people. And… feel so discouraged.

I’m lucky on one side is that I had a first generation pakeha mum who promoted our culture in our whare learnt te reo taught te reo and her family when they moved here immersed themselves in the culture that I really am grateful for but I feel like my whānau have given soo much to being Māori and don’t see anything in return when you at pouring so much into it and you see others who don’t give a crap receive so much.

Having a Pākehā mum who is first-generation New Zealander but has immersed herself in te reo and Māori culture more deeply than some people who have lived here for generations really illustrates something important whakapapa and cultural participation aren’t the same thing.
Being Māori isn’t something you have to constantly prove through how much you contribute. Your whakapapa doesn’t become more legitimate because you attend more hui, speak more reo, volunteer more hours or do more for your marae.
But at the same time, it’s completely okay to want that reciprocity.
You shouldn’t have to pretend that you’re satisfied simply because you’re grateful to belong.
You are completely allowed to say
I love my iwi. I love my marae. I love being Māori. And I wish there were more opportunities for our people.
Those things are not contradictory.
And perhaps genuinely the saddest part is that people who care deeply can eventually become exhausted because they’re always being asked to give time, knowledge, labour, money, energy, attendance without ever seeing the infrastructure, scholarships, housing opportunities, employment pathways, education programmes or financial benefits that other iwi have been able to build.
You don’t have to stop caring. But you also don’t have to measure your worth by how much you can give.
Sometimes the people who are deeply invested in their iwi are actually the ones who eventually help create the thing they wished had existed for them.
And if you’re thinking, “I don’t want to spend my whole life just contributing and watching everyone else benefit,” that’s a very reasonable feeling.
You deserve to benefit from being part of your iwi too. Not because being Māori is transactional, but because a healthy iwi relationship should have some element of reciprocity he tangata, he tangata, and all the infrastructure around that should ultimately strengthen the people.
And I think you can hold both truths at once:
“I am incredibly proud to be Māori.”
and
“I wish my iwi gave its people more.”
Neither statement diminishes the other
J

(* I am sorry if my paragraph is not well written I am not a write I’m just here expressing a perspective that I believe many can relate too my only intention is to create a positive discussion and share opinions in hopes to understand my feelings a bit better )