This morning I was teaching a creative writing class at Bethlehem College with a group of gifted students and our storyline required a name for one of the characters, in this case a dog.
It was only recently that I learned the rationale behind the American use of the word dog
when addressing one to another. I had always found it slightly profane, or at best, calling someone dog as a term of endearment was a bark below the belt.
Turns out the whakapapa (history) behind the use of the word dog in American street culture is that a dog is a man's best friend, so when I asked for a good dog name this morning and got Loyal I thought your bewdy, Dave Dobbin would be howling at the moon.
Loyalty is a rare commodity in today's dog-eat-dog world and I think we need to take off the media muzzle of bad news and start celebrating stories of good news such as loyalty.
We all experience a little bit of loyalty in our lives as we do a little bit, or a lot of bit, of good news and I think we need to start treating good news like a man's best friend.
I found a legend of loyalty this week in a back street of Bayfair where it is needed more than most places in the Play of Plenty.
Arataki does not exactly feature on the front pages of good news and to find out Arataki means to pave the way, then what better place to find a loyal leader like Stu McDonald.
If you were to ask any Aratakian about Stu McDonald, you would more than likely hear the same word spoken time and time again and that word is mana.
The Reed Dictionary Of Modern Maori describes a person of mana as having integrity, charisma, jurisdiction among others and that is true with Stu. He has kept the fires burning for the mana of Arataki Rugby Club when it would have been so easy to accept the prestige of more prominent clubs in the Bay. But more importantly, he has gone about his mahi (work) with a mantle or a mana of dignity in all areas of his leadership.
If there is one thing Maori, if not the world, is lacking today is good male leaders for tomorrow's tamariki (children) to follow.
Leaders like Stu McDonald are more important in communities such as Arataki than any CEO or sergeant, doctor or city councillor, iwi liaison officer or lawyer, because they carry the respect and trust of the tamariki (children) and they need to be recognised and supported in every way possible.
The social stigma created by street kids who have no concept of loyalty or leadership is invoiced directly back to the community and its governing bodies and you see it in the daily headlines of bad news bulletins.
You can throw every resource in the town planning bible at the dart board of down-trodden, forgotten whanau and it will be about as useful as a cold river rock trying to cook a hot hangi.
Arataki is more than capable of looking after Arataki and if they are to ``pave the way'' as their name suggests, then leaders like Stu McDonald need to be talked to kanohi te kanohi (face-to-face) and then listened to.
For our part as writers and readers of bad and good news we need to focus for a while on the good news stories like Stu.
Why not have a dedicated page to just good news stories sent in by the community? We all have them, we all see and hear them and we all need some one to look up to and follow in their good news footsteps just like the street kids of Arataki.
The challenge is are we willing to take the time to talk about the good news and tell it like it is?
Good news comes in all shapes and sizes and it is the simple-sweet stories of good news that matter most.
Send them in by email, letter, smoke signals or homing pigeons, deliver them by hand or walk them in by jandals but don't let them fall like a silent kauri on a deaf forest floor.
Good news is out there in sackfuls if we keep our eyes and ears open for it, instead of accepting the daily diet of dead loss stories that the world's media feeds us.
Better still if you are hungry for a feed of good news, get up off the couch, get out into you local community and make some good news for your self.
Pai marire tommy@indigenius.org
This morning I was teaching a creative writing class at Bethlehem College with a group of gifted students and our storyline required a name for one of the characters, in this case a dog.
It was only recently that I learned the rationale behind the American use of the word dog
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