How learning te reo has led me on a journey of discovering my Māori roots

Friday, 10 September 2021

I’ve always known Te Aupōuri and Ngā Puhi are my iwi, says Jane Matthews, but studying te reo has seen me find I also have other iwi connections, and that there’s so much more to learn about my whakapapa.

OPINION: Picture this: it’s 2008, high school is in my sights and so is adulthood. Finally, as a 13-year-old, I have the chance to pick one of my class subjects.

Little did I know this was the start of a personal journey I now wish I'd stuck at – rather than unknowingly delaying discovering my whakapapa for more than a decade.

I was choosing what language I wanted to learn, alongside mandatory subjects like math and English, and there wasn't a lot of choice for the Year 9 students of Kaitaia College.

Te reo Māori or German? I went for te reo, and remember finding it strange that so many of my friends took the latter.

At the end of this power te reo Māori lesson you'll be able to have a crack at pronouncing most words (first published in 2019).

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My view as a teenager was: When would I be going to Germany? Shouldn’t I be learning the native language of Aotearoa first?

Young Jane was smart, and somewhat cultured, but that slipped within a year.

I chose not to take te reo the following year because my skin colour didn't match that of everyone else who hung out in the Māori class block.

And for that silly reason, it’s taken me until this year to jump back on the language-learning journey.

I shouldn’t have let skin colour discourage me, but I guess times, and opinions, have changed since then.

I am Māori and my nan always called me Janey Hēni, which is te reo for Jane, and it's the nickname that's stuck with that side of my whānau.

Before my nan passed away she gave my mum all the information she had on her whakapapa and always told me and my cousins we hailed from Te Aupōuri and Ngā Puhi iwi.

But a recent assignment for my online Te Ara Reo Māori Level 1 course, through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, saw me researching that further.

I had to create my pepeha, which outlines what landmarks you are connected to, but instantly ran into some issues.

My kaiako (teacher) said if you have more than one iwi, you should have a pepeha for each.

I started looking into iwi, sadly coming to terms with the fact I had never done so in my 26 years, and realised I didn't feel connected to – and occasionally hadn’t heard of – the maunga and other landmarks of my iwi.

I searched online for the names of my three tūpuna (ancestors) who I knew were Māori, and discovered I also have links to Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kurī.

I was stuck in my own cultural dilemma – did I just write up what I personally felt most connected to, or did I follow the traditional pepeha of my iwi?

I chose to go with my own connections, as the assignment deadline neared, but knew I’d never settle on that.

In my next break, or 800-kilometre journey home, I’m going to reach out to my iwi, and work to discovery my hapū.

I’ll also get in touch with the man who added his phone number to the online listing of one of my tūpuna – it's amazing what you can find on the internet.

Conversations with my whānau have reminded me of how proud I am to have taken this step.

When I talked to my dad about how the course was going he said: “I always wished I'd done that.”

And my mum reminded me of something I didn’t recall until then: “You’ve always wanted to do that.”

Plus, my cousins have asked I prepare our pepeha, and share it with all of them – one saying she’d happily take it in a frame as a birthday gift.

I don't have any regrets in life, but I do wish I had followed through with starting this journey a decade ago.

But now I’m on it, I won't be stopping anytime soon.