Internship Programme welcomes leaders

The speech from Dr Tumu Te Heuheu:

E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā kāranga maha o te motu tēna tātou katoa.

Kei te mihi tonu ki a rātou mā kua tupeke atu ki tua o Paerau Moe mai rā i roto i te ringa o te Āriki. Ki ngā kanohi ora tēna tātou katoa. E te Rangatira Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi ka nui te mihi ki a koe. Ngāti Whātua mana, Ngāti Whātua Whenua, Ngāti Whātua tāngata tēna rawa atu koutou!

Let me first thank the University of Auckland and in particular the Faculty of Arts for inviting me to attend such an auspicious occasion for the opening of the 2008 Maori and Pacific Leadership programme. I have noted that the focus for the programme is on Maori and Pacific students who have demonstrated outstanding academic ability and leadership potential. This visionary initiative flies against the current climate affecting our young people where statistics on poor achievement in schools pose a huge challenge not only for the government but also for us both, Maori and Pacific nations.

To those students who have been selected and are present at tonight’s Welcoming Dinner I would like to acknowledge you all as you will be the leaders of tomorrow for your respective communities.

I also wish to acknowledge an old friend of mine His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi present for these celebrations. His presence encourages me to reflect on the work we have done together with all the Pacific communities under the World Heritage programme of which I was fortunate enough to hold the position of Chair.

In a presentation I delivered to the 2007 Austronesian Forum on ‘Indigenous Cultural Heritage Protection’ in Taiwan last year I referred to the Pacific Island nation’s indigeneity as being inseparable from heritage and that in their own words;
‘Heritage in the Pacific defines our cultural identity and remains inseparable from our social, economic and environmental well-being, now and for future generations.’

This statement I believe has relevance to the pathway our young leaders will follow not only on this Leadership Programme but also when they meet conflict that tests their leadership role.

Therefore tonight in my address I would like to briefly explore a personal perspective on the notion of what that leadership role might be, both in a traditional sense and in a contemporary society that you young people will, no doubt, help shape the future for both Maori and Pacific Island communities. I believe there are some important synergies between the two that will influence your leadership development. Although my specific view point will be from a Maori base there will be parallels I’m sure with all indigenous Pacific communities.

To begin with I firmly agree with the statement that the leadership in a modern Maori community is very different from that of our own traditional society. Those leaders in the traditional era had great mana and in their tribal structure much notice was taken by the people they served on what opinions they held and decisions they made on specific tribal issues. Although there were tensions throughout our early New Zealand history when a new economic and political society emerged traditional tribal leadership was still retained but was being added to by the changing circumstances of the times.

In this Pre-European settlement period tribal leadership originated through whakapapa (specific genealogy) or Mana-Ariki, while other forms of leadership came as a result of expert (tohungatanga) knowledge and experience in the social and cultural context within the tribe or hapu (sub-tribe), or through successful conquest of other tribal groups.

Our lineage or whakapapa is the backbone of our existence. It is our link through time and space within the universe. Our ancestor in the lineage has left an imprint which connects us to our environment from past to present. Whanaungatanga is the relationships between each entity in the lineage. Relationship between our ancestors and between their physical and metaphysical environment are embellished by traditional oral and recorded narrative, dance and chants.

The deeds of our Pacific forebears are a significant part of this narrative. It was they who had the knowledge and fortitude to venture from their Pacific homeland to Aotearoa (New Zealand). How our forebears confidently traversed the waters of the Pacific for thousands of years without apparent conventional technology or compass is a remarkable story but it does illustrate the sharply honed skills of a people living in harmony with their environment and benefiting from a vast and in-depth knowledge and wisdom shaped by centuries of experience and meaningful interaction with their world.

In more recent times Maori leadership came as a response to political upheaval. To stem the alienation of Maori from its whenua (lands) the Maori King Potatau Te Wherowhero was chosen by the gathering of tribes at home in Pukawa around the shores of Taupo nui a Tia to head the King Movement or Kingitanga in the 1800s. This legacy for Tainui and Iwi-Maori as a whole continues to exist serving an important function for all. It is not unusual however that such form of leadership still retains the important principles of the traditional Maori society while advancing the indigenous economic and social development of the tribe in the modern context.

In this contemporary setting people who have demonstrated high achievement in their respective fields of expertise and at different levels of Maori society are often sought to provide leadership advice on tribal issues especially in the context that they are recognized in. But it is at the level of the Marae where some of these traditional leadership principles still holds weight i.e. the eloquent orator, the person who is perceived as the repository of iwi and hapu cultural knowledge or the holder of ancient karakia (prayer) remain as the important criteria that leadership is still being judged on. It is any wonder then that our leaders of today are placed in situations where there is a clash of ideology between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’.

This I believe will be the biggest challenge for our young leaders who are about to embark on a journey that will test even the most committed participant on this Maori and Pacific Leadership Programme.

What I have attempted to describe is that in modern terms Maori leadership, and I’m sure in all of our indigenous societies across the Pacific and indeed the World, have the same goal. What makes each of our Cultures unique is that we are different and yet share similar values and principles. Our kaumatua and kuia or elders have the knowledge of the past but our young rangatahi have the knowledge of the future and know how they might get there. What this means to me is that it is important that we should not leave our past behind in order to pursue the future.

The dilemma for young leaders is thwart with uncertainty. It is managing the fine balance between self-identity encompassing our indigeneity and yet still emulate the key leadership skills our ancestors demonstrated but applied in a modern context. For me there is no compromise on who we are and where we come from. It is part of the package of a Rangatira who serves his people.

I like to end my kōrero with a whakatauki whose words will hold you the leaders in good stead for the future in reminding us of our connection to our culture:

Mā te Rautāwhiri e tohu mai me pēhea rā te whiri
I te taurahere i te tangata
Mai i te whenua ki te rangi
Mai i te rangi ki te whenua
Mai i te Tangata ki tana whānau
Ki tana hapū
Ki tana ao
Ko taku whakapapa tonu te here
The Rautāwhiri tree shows me how to plait the rope
That binds me from the land to the sky
The sky to the land, to my family
My sub-tribe
My tribe
My world
Indeed my lineage is the binding rope.
No reira rangatira mā ngā mihi anō ki a koutou tēna koutou, tēna koutou, tēna tātou katoa.

Internship Programme welcomes leaders

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