Koroua and Kuia
Living taonga
More than elders of our tribe they are cherished taonga themselves holding the secrets of the past waiting to be shared or foretold.
Navigating the spirit world with the tone of karakia alone is an artform for Maori.
Male and female balance the old ways with an everchanging new adaptation.
Games were a means of learning
Cards Under the Cherrytree raises memories of unbroken dreams with sacred land. The first lesson whakarongo to listen and not speak.
Timeless feminine knowledge woven through wit of game from old to young as the thread from their baskets of knowledge passover to the next generation.
The gatherings of young women with the old shared births, healing, remedies, oral teachings and stories.
Kai
Nanny Rati's kitchen had the fondest memories of koroua and kuia at peace. Surrounded by laughter and smells of rising rewena bread beside an open wood fire stove.
My greatgrandfather was of Ringatu faith. His practises included cooking kai outside to release the spirit of food before eating. Both food and sleep were tapu to him.
Music is knowledge
Song and speech went hand in hand on the paepae. For the old the movement of their dance adds mana to the action of their korero.
Families would sit and listen if the old people sang a song from their own time increasing the mana of the occasion by confirming the presence of tupuna sharing knowledge to the people present.
Many could be stilled by the sorrowful sounds of a guitar or flute giving weight to the Maori message from an old soul waiata.
Song and instruments both carried oral knowledge and histories of remembrance.
Fan of a good book
Our old people wove Pa perspective through the English bible. Faith before belief was a wall of theory to keep out the past practises of dark Maori magic.
Some old customs had bad mana before the introduction of Christianity to Aotearoa. The good book was used like a taonga to seal passageways through karakia to our spirit world in Hawaiikinui.
When the bible speaks of serpents through Maori eyes we embrace our own bonded history of voyaging serpents and taniwha.
Te Paepae
A formal stage for young men to learn when Koroua speak of spirits and land ancestors.
The weaving of whakapapa down from Ranginui to the people was an art best mastered when your old. Time and age means life is the final teacher.
He Tipuranga was an old saying about the growth and knowledge of understanding for Maori.
Each elder held visual and oral history to share with the tribe and family.
For tamariki and rangatahi it was cherished times with a stick to keep focus on listening while old ways taught visually.
This process of threading whakapapa and land to blood relatives gave the old mana wairua when they passed on.
Tangihana
Many old people who travelled to tangi to farewell their generation would perform and share practises nearly forgotten by the descendants.
When our old peoples pass on we remember their influences on our lives into the future through our memory.
Talisman sacred to our old people are guarded by their descendants as each generation gets stronger from their influence as time passes.
We as descendants of these koroua and kuia continue to maintain the spiritual connections to our past.
To know where you come from is to know where you are going.