The Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival is just one of endless examples up and down Aotearoa where the cultures of tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti function in harmony beside each other.
The festival would not dream of operating without the cooperation and input of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.
The Young Readers Programme will take 22 writers/storytellers to over 1000 students in schools across Wairarapa, and an audio platform will capture local Māori stories. One of the Young Readers events will take place at Pāpāwai Marae.
A very special place in the history of our country, Pāpāwai Marae was the focus of Kotahitanga (the Māori parliament) in the late 19th century and was known as the Māori capital. The 18 pou surrounding the marae feature whakairo of famous male and female ancestors, including Nuku-pewapewa and the local Pākehā settler, William Mein Smith.
For 119 years, the pou of Pāpāwai have stood tall and steadfast. Facing inwards they represent peace between Māori and Pākehā, rather than looking outwards to confront enemies.
The festival embraces authors of all ethnicities and walks of life – Māori and Pākehā work together without any fuss but also without losing identity. Integration and cooperation doesn’t mean assimilation; it means enriching our culture through its diversity. Nobody kicks up a fuss about putting te reo Māori name Karukatea, meaning “the clear and observant eye”, alongside te reo Pākehā Featherston Booktown. Why would they? These are both languages of modern Aotearoa.
Only politicians with too much time on their hands and no vision for the country try to whip up fuss about things having Māori names. I’m focusing on the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival as an example of how every day Aotearoa works because it’s an event I love. I grew up loving to read and it’s a passion I’m happy to see my own kids have embraced. Of the many taonga Pākehā brought to Aotearoa, written language was possibly the greatest. Māori embraced it, not only to learn about te ao Pākehā but also to write down our own literature and establish our own identity. Māori leaders saw very quickly that the written word carried power and knowledge, that it can free our imaginations and shape our future.
By the 1840s, the Māori literacy rate was on par with that of Pākehā. But translations of the Bible and Government newspapers weren’t enough. When Wiremu Toetoe and Te Hemara Rerehau were the first Māori to visit Vienna and were offered a gift from Emperor Franz Josef, they asked for a printing press. They took it back to Waikato to publish the first Māori-run newspaper, Te Hokioi e Rere Atu Na. By the 20th Century, we saw great Māori writers like Witi Ihimaera, Keri Hulme, and Alan Duff gain international acclaim. Writing not only helped to save Māori culture and language, but also to share it with Pākehā.
Today, Māori literature is completely interwoven with “mainstream” New Zealand literature. And that’s the way it should be.
We are going to be sharing these islands together forever more – Māori, Pakeha, and immigrants from all over the world. So, let’s continue to embrace our cultural diversity and richness, and not be scared of what makes Aotearoa such a unique and special place.
· Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour party activist.
