Graduates armed with taiaha of knowledge

A mate of mine has just got back from Nepal where he had a few questions he needed to ask about life. And he came back with answers I could easily identify with, having done a similar hikoi for the same reasons back in the day.
What captured him was the emphasis the Nepalese poor placed on education and what they were prepared to sacrifice to get a higher level of learning for their tamariki (children)
He told me how the poor peasant farming family he was hosted by had carved off pieces of their precious whenua (land) to pay for each of his five daughters education.
It was all they had but if that's what it took then that's what they were prepared to pay.
It made me stop and think what price we place on our own education and that of our children and would we sacrifice something similar?
Last week I was honoured to speak at the graduation of students from Te Wananga O Aotearoa here in Tauranga Moana and to see   the total turnaround of so many Maori was worthy of any sacrifice needed to make this happen.
To experience the end result of unwrapping that special gift of being good at something is what Sir Apirana Ngata said was akin to ``picking up the taiaha of knowledge to fight life's battles''.
And hundreds of graduated warriors of learning did exactly that last week in front of whanau and friends who could hardly contain their admiration and respect. Tihei mauri ora.
Some of the graduating classes were like the United Nations, with pupils from Asia, Africa, Europe and a couple of cuzzies for good measure. Some wore flash frocks and sharp shiny shoes while others were adorned with korowai woven from the feathers of their forefathers. And some showed up in their class clothes ready to rage as soon as the ceremony was all over. But it was all good in their Wananga hood.
Imagine the new-found feeling of self worth that up until now had been left lying dormant in a vault of doubt. Doubt from the deep-seated belief that education was a dirty word.  And because of this belief many Maori over the generations became whakama (shy) of any gift they may have had, and left it  hidden away from the henake (net) of criticism _ where being told they were worthless was what they had begun to believe.
That's until someone showed them how to pick up their taiaha of knowledge and helped them unwrap their gift of graduation.
When you put hundreds of gifted graduates  back into a  community then society _ in this case Tauranga Maona _ benefits greatly.
 Once again the unsung hero in this good news graduation story is the kaiako - the teacher.
It is the kaiako who some call an awhi angel, especially students who have graduated in the raranga weaving courses at the Wananga o Aotearoa, who takes a tightly wrapped gift and gently peels back the layers of doubt and shyness. It takes the patience  of a saint and the aroha of an angel to slowly unmask the face of shyness,   but when you do then what you get is what we witnessed at the Wananga O Aotearoa graduation.
It's a  putiputi (blossoming) pupils, unwrapped and ready to take their taiaha of knowledge out into the big wide world that up until then seemed scary.
 Give a man the dole and desperation is the taiaha he will use to fight his way through life. But give a man the taiaha of knowledge and you give him or her the self-belief and the mana to take on all life's challenges.
For my two bob's worth of self belief, the old saying ``give a man a seed and he can grow a garden'' starts to kick in. And not just here in Aotearoa but up on the roof of the world in Nepal.
Pai marire